Colonial Taxes8th Grade Social Studies

November 1, 2011

Date: 1764Explanation: The sugar act was a tax placed

on sugar and molasses imported from the West Indies.

Colonists’ Reaction: The colonists in Georgia were angry about the tax because they did a lot of trading with sugar-producing countries.

Sugar Act

Date: 1765Explanation: This was a tax placed on

newspapers, legal documents and licenses to help raise money to pay for the French & Indian War.

Colonists’ Reaction: Colonists reacted violently to the act. Protesters burned effigies of stamp masters in the streets.

*Stamp Act was repealed a year later.

Stamp Act

Date: 1767Explanation: Placed import taxes on tea,

paper, glass, and coloring for paints.Colonists’ Reaction: Colonists were upset

with the new laws. Georgia colonists elected Noble Wimberly Jones to the assembly because he was a Patriot who actively spoke out against the taxes.

Townshend Acts

Date: 1773Explanation: The East India Company had tea

that it could not sell, so Great Britain allowed them to ship directly to the colonies to sell for less than colonial merchants could.

Colonists’ Reaction: The merchants felt they had been tricked into buying the tea and paying a lower tax. A group of Patriots protested by boarding 3 British ships and dumping 342 chests of tea into the Boston harbor. This became known as the Boston Tea Party.

Tea Act

Date: 1774Explanation: Four laws enacted to punish the

Patriots of Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party.

1) Closed the port of Boston until citizens paid for the tea.

2) No town meeting in Massachusetts unless approved by governor.

3) British officials who committed crimes would be tried in Great Britain.

4) Quartering Act—citizens had to house and feed British soldiers at their own expense.

Intolerable Acts

Colonists’ Reaction: September 5, 1774 colonists organized a “Continental Congress” (except for Georgia). Two groups formed:

1. pull away from Great Britain and seek independence and

2. make changes but stay under British rule. They agreed to stop trade with Great Britain.

Intolerable Acts

Boston Tea Party