US History

U.S. History Study Guide

said he walked into the meeting a British citizen and walked out a revolutionary. He left England and joined the colonists and his impact in the war would greatly impact colonial victory. 5.15 The Intolerable Acts The British responded quickly to the Tea Party with a string of legislation that came to be known as the Intolerable Acts in the colonies. The Intolerable Acts included the four Coercive Acts of 1773 and the Quebec Act. Closed Boston Harbor to trade until the city paid for the lost tea. • Removed certain democratic elements of the Massachusetts government, most notably by making formerly elected positions appointed by the crown. • Restricted town meetings, requiring that their agenda be approved by the royal governor. • Declared that any royal agent charged with murder in the colonies would be tried in Britain. • Instated the Quartering Act, forcing civilians to house and support British soldiers The Quebec Act The Quebec Act established Roman Catholicism as Quebec’s official religion, which incited the predominantly Protestant population in the thirteen-colonies. The act extended Quebec’s borders south into the area the British won in the French and Indian War, stopping westward expansion for the thirteen-colonies. The colonists saw the Intolerable Acts as a British plan to cruelly punish the New England colonists while reducing their ability to organize and protest. The acts not only imposed a heavy military presence in the colonies, but also, in the colonists’ minds, effectively authorized the military tomurder colonists with impunity. Although these acts affected the New England colonies the most severely, other colonies felt that it could just as easily happen to them. In reaction, they would meet to discuss what their response would be. 5.17 The First Continental Congress The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in 1774, to discuss how to respond to the Intolerable Acts. Representatives attended from all the colonies except Georgia. The leaders included John Jay of New York, Samuel Adams and John Adams of Massachusetts and George Washington and Patrick Henry of Virginia. The Congress endorsed Massachusetts’ Suffolk Resolves, which declared that the colonies did not need to obey the Coercive Acts since they infringed upon 5.16 The Four Coercive Acts: •

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