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Intolerable Acts
INTOLERABLE ACTSINTOLERABLE ACTS. The four Intolerable Acts, also known as the Coercive Acts, formed Britain's punishment of both the town of Boston and the province of Massachusetts for the destruction of the East India Company's tea on 16 December 1773. They were rushed through Parliament in the spring of 1774. Their purpose was to show rebellious colonials that, unlike 1766, when the Stamp Act was repealed, and 1770, when four of the five Townshend taxes were withdrawn, Britain would not retreat this time. The Boston Port Act closed Boston to seaborne commerce until the town paid for the tea. Since trade was the town's life, the act and its enforcement by the Royal Navy amounted to a blockade, which was an act of war. The Massachusetts Government Act abolished the province's royal charter of 1692. The new structure would replace a provincial council elected by the assembly with one appointed by the governor in the name of the king. Towns would meet once per year, solely to elect local officers. County courts would enforce the act's provisions. The Administration of Justice Act let the Crown remove the trials of public officials under accusation to another province or to Britain on the ground that they could not get fair trials in local courts. The Quartering Act allowed British commanders to billet soldiers in colonials' homes if no barracks or public buildings could be found. The commander in chief in America, General Thomas Gage, became governor of Massachusetts. The Quebec Act, passed at the same time, granted legal privileges to the Catholic Church in the former French province, established nonrepresentative government there, and gave Quebec control of much of the interior north of the Ohio River. It was not part of the package of punishments. But the Intolerable Acts, the Quebec Act, and the naming of Gage all figured among the "abuses and usurpations" listed in the Declaration of Independence. BIBLIOGRAPHYAmmerman, David. In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of 1774. New York: Norton, 1975. Bushman, Richard L. King and People in Provincial Massachusetts. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985. EdwardCountryman See alsoBoston Tea Party ; Revolution, American . |
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"Intolerable Acts." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Intolerable Acts." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401802130.html "Intolerable Acts." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401802130.html |
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Intolerable Acts
Intolerable Acts name given by American patriots to five laws (including the Quebec Act ) adopted by Parliament in 1774, which limited the political and geographical freedom of the colonists. Four of these laws were passed to punish the people of Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party . The Boston Port Bill closed the port until such time as the East India Company should be paid for the tea destroyed. Other acts changed the royal charter of Massachusetts; provided for the quartering of troops—the New York assembly had earlier (1767–69) been suspended for refusing to make provisions for British troops—in the colony without provincial consent; and gave royal officials in conflict with colonial authorities the right to trial in England. American opposition to these laws and to the Quebec Act was felt in all the colonies, since the actions taken against Massachusetts might be extended to any colony and the Quebec Act was considered a violation of the sea-to-sea grants of many colonial charters. The outcome was the First Continental Congress . |
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"Intolerable Acts." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Intolerable Acts." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Intolera.html "Intolerable Acts." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Intolera.html |
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Intolerable Acts
Intolerable Acts measures passed by the British Parliament in 1774 as a reprisal for American colonial resistance to the Tea Act of 1773. The Protestant Colonists named the acts, which consisted of the Coercive Acts and the Quebec Act, and convened in the First Continental Congress in 1774 to oppose them.
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"Intolerable Acts." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Intolerable Acts." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O63-IntolerableActs.html "Intolerable Acts." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O63-IntolerableActs.html |
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Intolerable Acts
Intolerable Acts See COERCIVE ACTS.
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"Intolerable Acts." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Intolerable Acts." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O48-IntolerableActs.html "Intolerable Acts." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O48-IntolerableActs.html |
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