Hello history friends!! We're just going to jump right in to the Sugar Act, since we mentioned it last time. I keep saying we. It's just me. I'm one person. But I like to think of anyone listening as part of this, so now we're we. I will probably jump back and forth between the me and we, so there's that. Let's get back to 1764.
Ok, remember how I mentioned that there was some smuggling going on? Well, part of this was because after the French and Indian war, it was pretty frowned upon for colonists to buy lots of French products because the English pretty much ruled over us, ya know? Well, the Sugar act actually lowered the price of the duties the Americans were supposed to pay, but also started cracking down hardcore on smuggling AND increased the AMOUNT of things we were supposed to pay taxes on. Instead of sugar and molasses like before, now there were taxes on indigo, coffee, wine, silks, bengals (no- these are not tiger hides- these are thin fabricy things), silks, calico, (the cloth, not the cat), a few other fabrics, and some other stuff, too. Needless to say, the people were not so happy.
I also told you that fighting this war on two continents kind of broke England's piggy bank. When they passed the Sugar Act, England made it sound like we were paying them for some giant favor since they protected us and took care of us. What it came down to is that parliament didn't want to tax the English from England because then..... their people wouldn't vote for them. So instead, let's tax the people who can't say no!
Enter the Stamp Act. Y'all know about the Stamp Act from Schoolhouse Rock, I'm sure (If you just said that you have not heard the Schoolhouse Rock American History songs, please pause this and go watch them on YouTube. Start with No More Kings.) Anywho- in case it's been a second since your studies, the Stamp Act, introduced the next year- 1765- put a tax on a ton of different paper goods. Pretty much any legal document, newspaper, magazine, pamphlet, even playing cards and dice- were given a stamp that you had to pay extra to use and to buy things that had them on. It suddenly became much more expensive to do things like practice law or go to college. Not only that, but Americans were supposed to pay "in sterling." That pretty much means that only gold, silver, etc would work as payment. This was a problem because we already didn't have enough. As a matter of fact, most colonies made their own paper monies that were like big IOU's because there just wasn't enough sterling to go around. On top of that, if you were caught disobeying the act, you were tried without a jury. Not cool, England.
That same year (1765, in case you already forgot the minute I finished saying it), the Quartering Act was instituted. You might be saying, "Duh, Robyn! The Quartering Act was part of the Intolerable Acts that were introduced LATER!" and you'd be kind of right. This version of the Quartering Act was not too big of a deal like the later version. In this one, it pretty much just said the colonial government was responsible for building barracks for the British officers. If they couldn't build, the governments here could pay for them to stay in inns or public houses or whatever. But what it really meant was that the British officers were here and not turning around and going home after the war. That's really what unsettled people.
So what're a bunch of colonies to do when they are being taxed out the wazoo without being able to do anything about it? Well, they are gentlemen here, not neanderthals! So they're going to be diplomatic- for now. Several colonies individually got together and had some chats about out, but the one we talk about the most was the Virginia House of Burgess. I'm not sure these houses had any power in England at all, but they governed here and kept the peace and encouraged prosperity. So in Virginia, good ol Patrick Henry (on his 29th birthday) presented "The Virginia Resolves". It was a beautifully written letter that said, "No Way, Jorge! If you're going to call us Englishmen, we get the same rights and privileges and representation as the English English." Ironically enough, part of the reason people were upset about not being represented and the king saying "do this or else" was because they didn't want to be turned into slaves. We'll talk about slavery in a separate episode, btw.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch. Well, a lot of the ranches, a guy named James Otis, recommended that we get some delegates from each colony together to tell Mother England what's what. Only nine of the colonies responded, but those who did got together in New York and drafted their grievances as well. Though to be fair, they were more upset about "no taxation without representation" than about being treated the way Englishmen were promised to be treated.
So, as expected, KJ3 received all these resolves, apologized, and said, "Ok, we'll take it all back. Welcome to being English." Hahaa! Just kidding. They did repeal the Stamp Act in 1766 (so the very next year- keep in mind that it takes like 6-10 weeks for news and info to get from one side of the Atlantic to the other). However, they also sent the Declaratory Act. That pretty much just says, "Too bad, suckers! We're still in charge. You still have to do what we say. *blows raspberries*"
Next we'll have a tiny break, so while it's quiet in history for 1767, we'll end this episode here!
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