Intolerable Acts

Five Intolerable Acts Key Dates

Context of the Five Intolerable Acts of 1774

After the British government passed the Townshend Acts, colonists were upset because they felt they were being unfairly taxed. This brought up the issue of being taxed without representation. Colonists resisted by boycotting tea. The Sons of Liberty took this protest one step further by throwing over 340 chests of British tea into the Boston Harbour on 23 December 1773. This would be known as the Boston Tea Party.

The flag of the Sons of Liberty, Wikimedia Commons.

Starting in early 1774, Parliament passed new acts in response to the Boston Tea Party. In the Thirteen Colonies, these acts came to be called the Intolerable Acts but in Great Britain, they were originally called the Coercive Acts.

Intolerable Acts List

There were five intolerable acts:

• The Boston Port Act.

• The Massachusetts Government Act.

• The Administration of Justice Act.

• The Quartering Act.

• The Quebec Act.

The Boston Port Act

A painting of Boston harbour, Wikimedia Commons.

This was one of the first laws passed, in March 1774. It essentially closed the port of Boston until the colonists had paid back the cost of the destroyed tea and when the King was satisfied that order had been restored in the Colonies.

The Port Act further angered the citizens of Boston because they felt that they were collectively being punished, rather than only the colonists who had destroyed the tea. This once again raised the issue of representation, or rather lack of it: the people had nobody they could complain to and who could represent them before the British.

The Massachusetts Government Act

This act upset even more people than the Boston Port Act. It abolished the Massachusetts government and placed the colony under the direct control of the British. Now, leaders in every colonial government position would be appointed either by the King or by Parliament. The Act also limited town meetings in Massachusetts to one per year.

This led other colonies to fear that Parliament would do the same to them.

The Administration of Justice Act

This act allowed accused royal officials to have trials in Great Britain (or elsewhere in the Empire) if the Royal Governor felt that the defendant would not receive a fair trial in Massachusetts. Witnesses would be reimbursed for their travel expenses, but not for the time they were not working. Thus, witnesses rarely testified because it was too costly to travel across the Atlantic and miss out on work.

Washington called this the 'Murder Act' because Americans felt that British officials would be able to harass them with virtually no consequences.

The Quartering Act

This act applied to all of the Colonies and essentially stated that all Colonies had to house British troops in their region. Previously, under an act passed in 1765, Colonies were forced to provide housing for soldiers, but the colonial governments were very uncooperative in enforcing this requirement. However, this updated act allowed the Governor to house soldiers in other buildings if suitable housing was not provided.

The Quebec Act

The Quebec Act was not actually one of the Coercive Acts but, since it was passed in the same Parliamentary session, colonists considered it one of the Intolerable Acts. It expanded the Quebec territory into what is now the American Midwest. On the surface, this voided the Ohio Company’s claims to the land in this region.

Importantly, these reforms were favourable to the French Catholic inhabitants in the region. Parliament guaranteed that the people would be free to practice their Catholic faith, which was the most widespread religion among French Canadiens. Colonists viewed this act as an affront to their faith since the colonists were mostly practising protestants.

Intolerable Acts Cause and Effect

Boston was seen as the ringleader of colonial resistance to British rule. In passing the Intolerable Acts, Great Britain hoped that the radicals in Boston would be isolated from the other Colonies. This hope only achieved the opposite effect: instead of separating Massachusetts from the other Colonies, the Acts caused other Colonies to sympathise with Massachusetts.

This then resulted in Colonies forming the Committees of Correspondence, which later sent delegates to the First Continental Congress. This Congress was especially important because it promised that if Massachusetts was attacked, all the Colonies would become involved.

Many Colonists viewed these Acts as a further violation of their constitutional and natural rights. Colonies began viewing these violations as a threat to their liberties, not as separate British colonies, but as a collected American front. For example, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia labelled the acts as

Lee was a former president of the Continental Congress and a Portrait of Richard Henry Lee, Wikimedia Commons.signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Many Boston citizens viewed these Acts as an unnecessarily cruel punishment. It resulted in even more colonists turning away from British rule. In 1774, colonists organised the First Continental Congress to inform Great Britain of the dissatisfaction they felt.

When tensions escalated, this resulted in the American Revolutionary War breaking out in 1775 and the Declaration of Independence being issued a year later.