Parliament’s unpopular passage of the Sugar Act and Quartering Act came with little backlash from the colonists when in comparison to the Stamp Act (Schultz, 2011, p. 69). The colonist’s profound response was (1) because the Stamp Act placed a tax on goods used by those of higher education like merchants and lawyers rather than just layman; (2) because the tax was also passed in March and did not go into effect until November of 1765, which gave colonists an ample amount of time to organize against it; and (3) because the imposed tax was to pay the salaries of colonial officials rather than to regulate trade, which was a clear undermining of the colonial self-rule and an indication that Parliament was attempting to limit colonists’ liberties (Schultz, 2011, p. 69). Themed as “no taxation without representation,” colonists convened the Stamp Act Congress in October 1765 in which they vocalized their opposition to the tax. Most colonists called for a boycott of British goods, and some organized attacks on customhouses and homes of tax collectors (History.com Staff, 2009). …show more content…
This bill was designed to lower the tea tax in effort to save a faltering British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the American tea trade. This lowered tax allowed the company to undercut all other tea traders including Dutch smugglers, and was considered another example of taxation tyranny (History.com Staff, 2009). Consequently, Massachusetts colonists organized the “Boston Tea Party” in which they dumped British tea into the Boston Harbor along with other acts of