Boston Port Act

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Boston Port Act

BOSTON PORT ACT. 1 June 1774. Parliament passed the Boston Port Act, one of the so-called Intolerable Acts, to shut down the port of Boston until restitution had been made to the British East India Company for the cost of the tea destroyed in the Boston Tea Party on 16 December 1773. With effect from 1 June 1774, the customs office in Massachusetts was moved to Salem, allowing commerce to continue but bypassing Boston. The act had the effect of rallying other colonies, notably Virginia, to the support of Massachusetts, and resulted indirectly in the call for the first Continental Congress to consider united measures of resistance.

SEE ALSO Boston Tea Party; Intolerable (or Coercive) Acts.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jensen, Merrill, ed. English Historical Documents, Volume IX: American Colonial Documents to 1776. David C. Douglas, general editor. New York: Oxford University Press, 1955.

Thomas, Peter D. G. Tea Party to Independence: The Third Phase of the American Revolution, 1773–1776. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1991.

                            revised by Harold E. Selesky

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Boston Port Act

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