Class Notes

From time to time I will post some class notes here.

The Coercive Acts

Since the redcoats could not find out who destroyed the tea Parliament passed The Coercive Acts.  Remember, many of the owners of the BEIC were members of Parliament.  So, they could use their authority to punish.  The purpose of the C. A. was to try to force (coerce) the people to pay for the destroyed tea.  The colonists called these acts the Intolerable Acts because they thought they went too far and could not be tolerated.

 All of these are parts of the Coercive Acts:

 1) Boston Port Act – No ship could enter or leave Boston harbor until the tea had been paid for.

 2) Administration of Justice Act – Gave the governor power to transfer the trials of soldiers and royal officials accused of serious crimes to courts outside of Mass.

 3) Massachusetts Government Act – Further increased the governor’s power by giving him control over town meetings.  No one could have a meeting of any kind without his permission. This law also replaced the elected colonial council with one appointed by the king.

 Many colonists felt that the Tea Party had been an unnecessary act of violence.  But almost everyone thought The Coercive Acts went too far because it punished the entire community for the actions of the few that had destroyed the tea.  Ben Franklin said it would have been better for the Mass. Govt. to pay for the tea and then collect taxes to pay the govt. back.

 The names show the two sides of the issue.  Coerce means to force and Parliament intended to force the colonists into obedience.  To the colonists the use of such force was intolerable (more than they could be expected to put up with).

 The First Continental Congress-

 Parliament hoped to accomplish two things by punishing Mass. so severely.

(1) To frighten the other colonies into accepting more British control over their affairs.

(2) To tempt the other colonists to take advantage of Mass. suffering.  Since ships could not unload at Boston they could unload at New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore and take goods to Boston by wagon.  This would benefit those towns.

Parliament was assuming that the colonies were still acting individually, but when Mass. had started sending out Circular Letters from its Committee of Correspondence something happened.  Besides finding out what was happening in Boston, colonists were joining together and becoming more unified.  Colonial leaders did not even consider taking advantage of Mass. misfortune.  When Mass. calls for a meeting of all colonial leaders, every colony except Georgia sent delegates.  (Georgia was just too far away to get someone there in time.)

 They met in Philadelphia and we call this group The First Continental Congress. This congress did the following:

(1) Condemned the Intolerable Acts & urged everyone to help the citizens of Boston.

(2) Demanded the repeal of all British tax laws in America. They said only the colonial assemblies had the right to tax in America, since colonists had elected these representatives.

(3) Spoke against the practice of maintaining an army in the colonies during peacetime.

(4) Set up a group to help organize & enforce a ban on importing British made products.

(5) Agreed to meet again if their demands were not met.

No one was speaking about independence from the mother country, but it was on the mind of some.  Many today feel that if Britain had done the things asked by the 1^st C.C. and given the colonies representation in Parl. then there might not have been an Amer. Rev. at that time.