How Did Taxes Lead To The American Revolution

The British were starting to lose control of the American colonies. Taxes and acts enacted changed the relationship between Britain and the American colonists. The Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts both showed that Britain was trying to enforce its power after being lenient with the colonists since the beginning of British rule. The Boston Massacre of 1770 was the point of no return for the colonists in their British relations and led to the American Revolution. The incident inflamed the colonists based on rumors that the affected colonists were shot without provocation, and because the colonists were already fed up with all the acts imposed by the British Parliament. Taxes had forced some colonists to avoid or reduce consumption of taxed

As the colonists defiantly stopped buying British goods and paying the accompanying taxes on them, the colonists felt more powerful and this sense of power spread revolutionary excitement. Regular, everyday colonists could be part of these colonial protests. The nonimportation agreements were enforced by the Sons of Liberty and the Daughters of Liberty. “The Sons of Liberty [wanted] to force all of the British stamp agents to resign and also stop many American merchants from ordering British trade goods.” Interestingly enough, the Sons of Liberty still proclaimed loyalty to the King as they only had a problem with Parliament. This fact shows how the colonists were on a revolutionary path, but still denied the revolution and were not yet at the point of no return. Both the Sons and Daughters of Liberty, along with other patriots, took money from and ransacked the homes of unpopular officials. As a result, the officials who were supposed to sell the stamps resigned. America had bought 25% of British exports and 50% of British shipping was bringing goods to America, and Britain suffered severely. Merchants and laborers in Britain were out of work and demanded the Stamp Act be repealed. Parliament reluctantly repealed the Stamp Act the next year. The American colonists had won the fight over the Stamp Act, but were still under British rule and the jurisdiction of

The Townshend Acts were “to pay the salaries of the royal governors and judges in America.” They taxed glass, white lead, paper, paint, and even tea. The Townshend Acts affected and annoyed over one million colonists who drank tea twice each day. “Many Americans viewed the taxation as an abuse of power.” The colonists did not want to pay any taxes that Parliament put into place, whether or not the taxes were direct or indirect. They wanted to use self-government to set up taxes themselves. The Townshend Acts were not taken seriously, as some colonists decided to create nonimportation agreements and more could get cheap smuggled tea to avoid the tax