The Intolerable Acts
Background
Upset by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property by American colonists, the British Parliament(government) enacted the Intolerable Acts in 1774. The goal of the laws were to restore order in Massachusetts and punish the people of Boston for their Tea Party.
THE ACTS
- The Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston until damages from the Boston Tea Party were paid.
- The Massachusetts Government Act, which restricted Massachusetts; democratic town meetings and turned the governor's council into an appointed body.
- The Administration of Justice Act, which made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in Massachusetts.
- The Quartering Act, which required colonists to house and quarter British troops on demand, including in their private homes as a last resort.
- A fifth act, the Quebec Act, which extended freedom of worship to Catholics in Canada, as well as granting Canadians the continuation of their judicial system, was joined with the Coercive Acts in colonial parlance as one of the Intolerable Acts, as the mainly Protestant colonists did not look kindly on the ability of Catholics to worship freely on their borders.
Reactions
The Patriots were not a tolerant group, and Loyalists suffered regular harassment, had their property taken, or were personally attacked.The process of "TAR AND FEATHERING," for example, was brutally violent.
Stripped of clothes, covered with hot tar, and splattered with feathers, the victim was then forced to parade about in public. Unless the British Army was close at hand to protect Loyalists, they often suffered bad treatment from Patriots and often had to flee their own homes.
The British expected the rest of the colonies to abandon the people of Boston to British law. Instead, other colonies rushed to the city's defense, sending supplies and forming their own Provincial Congresses to discuss British misrule and mobilize resistance to the crown. In September 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and began planning a united resistance to British rule in America.