Editing American Revolution (section)

==Origins==
{{For timeline|Timeline of the American Revolution}}
[[File:Map_of_territorial_growth_1775.svg|thumb|A 1775 map of Eastern North America, including the [[Province of Quebec (1763–1791)|Province of Quebec]], the [[Thirteen Colonies]] on the Atlantic Coast, and the Indian Reserve as defined by the Royal Proclamation of 1763. The border between the red and pink areas represents the 1763 [[Proclamation line]], and the orange area represents [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish colonial claims]].]]
Under the British policy of [[salutary neglect]], Britain traded with the colonies but otherwise mostly left them alone over the first 150 years of the colonies’ existence. The colonists became accustomed to running their own affairs, and they liked it. This British policy changed significantly after the [[French and Indian War]], prompting the Thirteen Colonies to seek greater autonomy from Britain. After the Revolution, one colonist, Capt. Levi Preston, of [[Danvers, Massachusetts]], was asked why the Americans rebelled against England, responded, "…we always had governed ourselves, and we always meant to. They didn’t mean we should."<ref>Fischer, David Hackett.  ''Paul Revere’s Ride,'' 163-4, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1994.{{ISBN|0-19-508847-6}}.</ref>

===1651–1763: Early seeds===
{{Further|Colonial history of the United States}}

The [[Thirteen Colonies]] were established in the 17th century as part of the [[English Empire]], and they formed part of the [[British Empire]] after the [[union of England and Scotland]] in 1707.{{Sfn|Taylor|2016|p=17}} The development of a unique American identity can be traced to the [[English overseas possessions in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms|English Civil War]] (1642–1651) and its aftermath. The [[History of the Puritans in North America|Puritan colonies]] of [[New England Colonies|New England]] supported the [[Commonwealth of England|Commonwealth]] government responsible for the [[execution of King Charles I]]. After the [[Stuart Restoration]] of 1660, [[Massachusetts Bay Colony|Massachusetts]] did not recognize [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] as the legitimate king for more than a year after his [[Coronation of the British monarch|coronation]]. In [[King Philip's War]] (1675–1678), the New England colonies fought a handful of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes without military assistance from England, thereby contributing to the development of a uniquely American identity separate from that of the [[British people]].{{Sfn|Lepore|1999|pp=5–7}}

In the 1680s, Charles and his brother, [[James II of England|James II]], attempted to bring New England under direct English control.{{Sfn|Nettels|1938|p=297}} The colonists fiercely opposed this, and [[the Crown]] nullified their [[Colonial charters in the Thirteen Colonies|colonial charters]] in response.{{Sfn|Lovejoy|1987|pp=148–156, 155–157, 169–170}} In 1686, James finalized these efforts by consolidating the separate New England colonies along with [[Province of New York|New York]] and [[Province of New Jersey|New Jersey]] into the [[Dominion of New England]]. [[Edmund Andros]] was appointed royal governor and tasked with governing the new Dominion under his [[direct rule]]. Colonial assemblies and [[town meeting]]s were restricted, new taxes were levied, and rights were abridged. Dominion rule triggered bitter resentment throughout New England.{{Sfn|Barnes|1960|pp=169–170}} When James tried to rule without [[Parliament of England|Parliament]], the English aristocracy removed him from power in the [[Glorious Revolution]] of 1688.{{Sfn|Taylor|2016|p=12}} This was followed by the [[1689 Boston revolt]], which overthrew Dominion rule.{{Sfn|Webb|1998|pp=190–191}}{{Sfn|Lustig|2002|p=201}} Colonial governments reasserted their control after the revolt. The new monarchs, [[William III of England|William]] and [[Mary II of England|Mary]], granted new charters to the individual New England colonies, and local democratic self-government was restored.{{Sfn|Palfrey|1864|p=596}}{{Sfn|Evans|1922|p=430}}

After the [[Glorious Revolution]] in 1688, the [[British Empire]] was a [[constitutional monarchy]] with sovereignty in the [[King-in-Parliament]]. Aristocrats inherited seats in the [[House of Lords]], while the [[Landed gentry|gentry]] and merchants controlled the elected [[House of Commons]]. The king ruled through [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|cabinet ministers]] who depended on majority support in the Commons to govern effectively.{{Sfn|Taylor|2016|pp=12–13}} British subjects on both sides of the Atlantic proudly claimed the unwritten [[British constitution]], with its guarantees of the [[rights of Englishmen]], protected personal liberty better than any other government.{{Sfn|Taylor|2016|pp=12–13 & 32}} It served as the model for [[Colonial government in the Thirteen Colonies|colonial governments]]. The Crown appointed a [[Colonial government in the Thirteen Colonies#Governor|royal governor]] to exercise [[Executive (government)|executive]] power.{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|p=46}} [[Property qualification|Property owners]] elected a [[Colonial government in the Thirteen Colonies#Assembly|colonial assembly]] with powers to legislate and levy taxes, but the British government reserved the right to [[veto]] colonial legislation.{{Sfn|Taylor|2016|pp=12–13}} [[Radical Whig]] ideology profoundly influenced American political philosophy with its love of liberty and opposition to tyrannical government.{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|p=51}}

With little industry except shipbuilding, the colonies exported agricultural products to Britain in return for manufactured goods. They also imported molasses, rum, and sugar from the [[British West Indies]].{{Sfn|Taylor|2016|pp=19 & 23}} The British government pursued a policy of [[mercantilism]] in order to grow its economic and political power. According to mercantilism, the colonies existed for the mother country's economic benefit, and the colonists' economic needs took second place.{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|p=28}} In 1651, Parliament passed the first in a series of [[Navigation Acts]], which restricted colonial trade with foreign countries. The Thirteen Colonies could trade with the rest of the empire but only ship certain commodities like tobacco to Britain. Any European imports bound for British America had to first pass through an English port and pay customs duties.{{Sfn|Taylor|2016|p=23}} Other laws regulated colonial industries, such as the [[Wool Act 1698]], the [[Hat Act 1731]], and the [[Iron Act 1750]].<ref>{{cite book |author=John A. Garraty |url=http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/uhs/WebSite/Courses/APUSH/1st%20Sem/Garraty%20Short%20History%20Chapters%201-18/chapter_threei.htm |title=A Short History of the American Nation |author2=Mark C. Carnes |publisher=Longman |year=2000 |isbn=0321070984 |edition=8th |chapter=Chapter Three: America in the British Empire |chapter-url=http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/uhs/WebSite/Courses/APUSH/1st%20Sem/Garraty%20Short%20History%20Chapters%201-18/chapter_threei.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517130635/http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/uhs/WebSite/Courses/APUSH/1st%20Sem/Garraty%20Short%20History%20Chapters%201-18/chapter_threei.htm |archive-date=May 17, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Max Savelle, [[iarchive:empirestonations00maxs/page/93|Empires to Nations: Expansion in America, 1713–1824]], p. 93 (1974)</ref>

Colonial reactions to these policies were mixed. The [[Molasses Act 1733]] placed a duty of six [[History of the British penny (1714–1901)|pence]] per gallon upon foreign molasses imported into the colonies. This act was particularly egregious to the New England colonists, who protested it as taxation without representation. The act increased the smuggling of foreign molasses, and the British government ceased enforcement efforts after the 1740s.{{Sfn|Miller|1943|pp=98–99}} On the other hand, certain merchants and local industries benefitted from the restrictions on foreign competition. The limits on foreign-built ships greatly benefitted the colonial shipbuilding industry, particularly in New England.{{Sfn|Thomas|1964|p=632}} Some argue that the economic impact was minimal on the colonists,{{Sfn|Whaples|1995|p=140}}{{Sfn|Thomas|1964}} but the political friction that the acts triggered was more serious, as the merchants most directly affected were also the most politically active.{{Sfn|Walton|1971}}

The British government lacked the resources and information needed to control the colonies. Instead, British officials negotiated and compromised with colonial leaders to gain compliance with imperial policies. The colonies defended themselves with [[Militia (United States)#Early-mid Colonial era (1607–1754)|colonial militias]], and the British government rarely sent military forces to America before 1755.{{Sfn|Taylor|2016|pp=31–32}} According to historian [[Robert Middlekauff]], "Americans had become almost completely self-governing" before the American Revolution, a practice that was consistent with the British monarchy's practice of [[salutary neglect]].{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|p=30}}

During the [[French and Indian War]] (1754–1763), the British government fielded 45,000 soldiers, half [[British Regulars]] and half colonial volunteers. The colonies also contributed money to the war effort; however, two-fifths of this spending was reimbursed by the British government. Great Britain defeated France and acquired [[New France|that nation's territory]] east of the Mississippi River.{{Sfn|Taylor|2016|pp=45 & 47}}

In early 1763, the [[Bute ministry]] decided to permanently garrison 10,000 soldiers in North America.{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|p=55}}{{Sfn|Taylor|2016|p=51}} This would allow approximately 1,500 politically well-connected [[History of the British Army|British Army]] officers to remain on active duty with full pay (stationing a standing army in [[Great Britain]] during peacetime was politically unacceptable).<ref>Shy, ''Toward Lexington'' pp. 73–78</ref> A standing army would provide defense against Native Americans in the west and foreign populations in newly acquired territories (the French in [[History of Canada (1763–1867)|Canada]] and the Spanish in [[British Florida|Florida]]). In addition, British soldiers could prevent white colonists from instigating conflict with Native Americans and help collect customs duties.{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|pp=55–56}}

Migration beyond the [[Appalachian Mountains]] increased after the French threat was removed, and Native Americans launched [[Pontiac's War]] (1763–1766) in response. The [[Grenville ministry]] issued the [[Royal Proclamation of 1763]], designating the territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River as an [[Indian Reserve (1763)|Indian Reserve]] closed to white settlement. The Proclamation failed to stop westward migration while angering settlers, fur traders, and land speculators in the Thirteen Colonies.{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|p=60}}

===1764–1766: Taxes imposed and withdrawn===
{{Main|Sugar Act|Currency Act|Quartering Acts|Stamp Act 1765|Declaratory Act}}
{{Further|No taxation without representation|Virtual representation}}
[[File:Parliament_Stamp_Act1765.jpg|thumb|Notice of the [[Stamp Act 1765]] in a [[Early American publishers and printers|colonial newspaper]]]]

[[George Grenville]] became [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|prime minister]] in 1763, and "the need for money played a part in every important decision made by Grenville regarding the colonies—and for that matter by the ministries that followed up to 1776."{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|pp=60–61}} The national debt had grown to £133 million with annual debt payments of £5 million (out of an £8 million annual budget). Stationing troops in North America on a permanent basis would cost another £360,000 a year. On a [[per capita]] basis, Americans only paid 1 [[Shilling (British coin)|shilling]] in taxes to the empire compared to 26 shillings paid by the English.{{Sfn|Taylor|2016|p=51}} Grenville believed that the colonies should help pay the troop costs.{{Sfn|Middlekauff|2005|p=62}}

In 1764 Parliament passed the [[Sugar Act]], decreasing the existing customs duties on sugar and molasses but providing stricter measures of enforcement and collection. That same year, Grenville proposed direct taxes on the colonies to raise revenue, but he delayed action to see whether the colonies would propose some way to raise the revenue themselves.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/stamp-act.html|title=The Stamp Act – March 22, 1765|website=Revolutionary War and Beyond|access-date=May 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529212511/http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/stamp-act.html|archive-date=May 29, 2019|url-status=dead}}{{unreliable source?|date=March 2023}}</ref>

Parliament passed the [[Stamp Act 1765|Stamp Act]] in March 1765, which imposed [[direct taxes]] on the colonies for the first time. All official documents, newspapers, almanacs, and pamphlets were required to have the stamps—even decks of playing cards. The colonists did not object that the taxes were high; they were actually low.{{efn|[[Lord North]] claimed that Englishmen paid an average 25 shillings annually in taxes, whereas Americans paid only sixpence.<ref name="Miller89" >Miller, ''Origins of the American Revolution'' (1943) p. 89</ref>}}<ref name="Miller89" /> They objected to their lack of representation in the Parliament, which gave them no voice concerning legislation that affected them, such as the tax, violating [[Constitution of the United Kingdom|the unwritten English constitution]]. This grievance was summarized in the slogan "No taxation without representation". Shortly following adoption of the Stamp Act, the [[Sons of Liberty]] formed, and began using public demonstrations, boycotts, and threats of violence to ensure that the British tax laws became unenforceable. In [[Boston]], the Sons of Liberty burned the records of the vice admiralty court and looted the home of chief justice [[Thomas Hutchinson (governor)|Thomas Hutchinson]]. Several legislatures called for united action, and nine colonies sent delegates to the [[Stamp Act Congress]] in New York City in October. Moderates led by [[John Dickinson (delegate)|John Dickinson]] drew up a [[Declaration of Rights and Grievances]] stating that the colonists were equal to all other British citizens and that taxes passed without representation violated their [[Rights of Englishmen|rights as Englishmen]], and Congress emphasized their determination by organizing [[Continental Association|a boycott on imports of all British merchandise]].<ref>T.H. Breen, ''American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People'' (2010) pp. 81–82</ref> American spokesmen such as Samuel Adams, James Otis, John Hancock, John Dickinson, Thomas Paine, and many others, rejected aristocracy and propounded "[[Republicanism in the United States|republicanism]]" as the political philosophy that was best suited to American conditions.<ref>Robert E. Shalhope, "Republicanism and early American historiography." ''William and Mary Quarterly'' (1982) 39#2 334–356. [https://www.littlejohnexplorers.com/republicanism/shalhope_2.pdf online]</ref><ref>Homer L. Calkin, "Pamphlets and public opinion during the American Revolution". ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 64.1 (1940): 22–42. [https://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/download/29581/29336 online]</ref>

The Parliament at Westminster saw itself as the supreme lawmaking authority throughout [[First British Empire|the Empire]] and thus entitled to levy any tax without colonial approval or even consultation.<ref>Middlekauff p. 62</ref> They argued that the colonies were legally [[Chartered company|British corporations]] subordinate to the British Parliament.<ref name="Lecky, William Edward Hartpole 1882 pp. 297–98">Lecky, William Edward Hartpole, [https://archive.org/stream/historyofengland03leck#page/297/mode/1up A History of England in the Eighteenth Century] (1882) pp. 297–298</ref> Parliament insisted that the colonists effectively enjoyed a "[[virtual representation]]", as most British people did, since only a small minority of the British population were eligible to elect representatives to Parliament.<ref>Lecky, William Edward Hartpole, [https://archive.org/stream/historyofengland03leck#page/173/mode/1up A History of England in the Eighteenth Century] (1882) p. 173</ref> However, Americans such as [[James Otis, Jr.|James Otis]] maintained that there was no one in Parliament responsible specifically to any colonial constituency, so they were not "virtually represented" by anyone in Parliament.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bryan-Paul Frost and Jeffrey Sikkenga|title=History of American Political Thought|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w81L1qAhNjoC&pg=PA55|year=2003|publisher=Lexington Books|pages=55–56|isbn=978-0739106242}}</ref>

The [[First Rockingham ministry|Rockingham government]] came to power in July 1765, and Parliament debated whether to repeal the stamp tax or to send an army to enforce it. Benjamin Franklin appeared before them to make the case for repeal, explaining that the colonies had spent heavily in manpower, money, and blood defending the empire, and that further taxes to pay for those wars were unjust and might bring about a rebellion. Parliament agreed and repealed the tax on February 21, 1766, but they insisted in the [[Declaratory Act]] of March 1766 that they retained full power to make laws for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever".<ref>{{cite book|author=Miller|title=Origins of the American Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DlmrAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA181|year=1959|pages=181–|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0804705936}}</ref><ref>Thomas P. Slaughter, "The Tax Man Cometh: Ideological Opposition to Internal Taxes, 1760–1790". ''William and Mary Quarterly'' (1984). 41 (4): 566–591. {{doi|10.2307/1919154}}</ref> The repeal nonetheless caused widespread celebrations in the colonies.

===1767–1773: Townshend Acts and the Tea Act===
{{Main|Townshend Acts|Tea Act}}
{{Further|Crisis of 1772|Massachusetts Circular Letter|Boston Massacre|Boston Tea Party}}
[[File:Dickinson's_Letter_III_in_The_Pennsylvania_Chronicle.jpg|thumb|Letter III of [[John Dickinson]]'s ''[[Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania]]'', published in the ''[[Pennsylvania Chronicle]]'', December 1767]]
[[File:Destruction_of_the_schooner_Gaspé_in_the_waters_of_Rhode_Island_1772_(NYPL_b12349146-422875)_(cropped).jpg|thumb|On June 9, 1772, the [[Sons of Liberty]] [[Gaspee Affair|burned HMS ''Gaspee'']], a British customs schooner in [[Narragansett Bay]].]]
[[File:Boston_Tea_Party_w.jpg|thumb|The December 16, 1773 [[Boston Tea Party]], led by [[Samuel Adams]] and [[Sons of Liberty]], has become a mainstay of American patriotic lore.]]
In 1767, the [[Parliament of Great Britain|British Parliament]] passed the [[Townshend Acts]], which placed duties on several staple goods, including paper, glass, and tea, and established a Board of Customs in [[Boston]] to more rigorously execute trade regulations. Parliament's goal was not so much to collect revenue but to assert its authority over the colonies. The new taxes were enacted on the belief that Americans only objected to internal taxes and not to external taxes such as custom duties. However, in his widely read pamphlet, ''[[Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania]]'', [[John Dickinson]] argued against the constitutionality of the acts because their purpose was to raise revenue and not to regulate trade.<ref>Melvin I. Urofsky and Paul Finkelman, ''A March of Liberty: A Constitutional History of the United States'' (Oxford UP, 2002) v. 1 p. 52.</ref> Colonists responded to the taxes by organizing new boycotts of British goods. These boycotts were less effective, however, as the goods taxed by the Townshend Acts were widely used.

In February 1768, the Assembly of [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] [[Massachusetts Circular Letter|issued a circular letter]] to the other colonies urging them to coordinate resistance. The governor dissolved the assembly when it refused to rescind the letter. Meanwhile, a riot broke out in Boston in June 1768 over the seizure of the sloop ''Liberty'', owned by [[John Hancock]], for alleged smuggling. Customs officials were forced to flee, prompting the British to deploy troops to Boston. A Boston town meeting declared that no obedience was due to parliamentary laws and called for the convening of a convention. A convention assembled but only issued a mild protest before dissolving itself. In January 1769, Parliament responded to the unrest by reactivating the [[Treason Act 1543]] which called for subjects outside the realm to face trials for treason in England. The governor of Massachusetts was instructed to collect evidence of said treason, and the threat caused widespread outrage, though it was not carried out.

On March 5, 1770, a large crowd gathered around a group of British soldiers on a Boston street. The crowd grew threatening, throwing snowballs, rocks, and debris at them. One soldier was clubbed and fell.<ref name="Hiller B. Zobel 1996">Hiller B. Zobel, ''The Boston Massacre'' (1996)</ref> There was no order to fire, but the soldiers panicked and fired into the crowd. They hit 11 people; three civilians died of wounds at the scene of the shooting, and two died shortly after. The event quickly came to be called the [[Boston Massacre]]. The soldiers were tried and acquitted (defended by [[John Adams]]), but the widespread descriptions soon began to turn colonial sentiment against the British. This accelerated the downward spiral in the relationship between Britain and the province of Massachusetts.<ref name="Hiller B. Zobel 1996"/>

A new ministry under [[Lord North]] came to power in 1770, and Parliament repealed most of the Townshend duties, except the tax on tea. This temporarily resolved the crisis, and the boycott of British goods largely ceased, with only the more radical patriots such as [[Samuel Adams]] continuing to agitate.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

In June 1772, American patriots, including [[John Brown (Rhode Island politician)|John Brown]], burned a British warship that had been vigorously enforcing unpopular trade regulations, in what became known as the [[Gaspee Affair|''Gaspee'' Affair]]. The affair was investigated for possible treason, but no action was taken.

In 1773, [[Hutchinson letters affair|private letters were published]] in which Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson claimed that the colonists could not enjoy all English liberties, and in which Lieutenant Governor [[Andrew Oliver]] called for the direct payment of colonial officials, which had been paid by local authorities. This would have reduced the influence of colonial representatives over their government. The letters' contents were used as evidence of a systematic plot against American rights, and discredited Hutchinson in the eyes of the people; the colonial Assembly petitioned for his recall. Benjamin Franklin, [[postmaster general]] for the colonies, acknowledged that he leaked the letters, which led to him being removed from his position.

In Boston, Samuel Adams set about creating new [[Committees of Correspondence]], which linked Patriots in all 13 colonies and eventually provided the framework for a rebel government. Virginia, the largest colony, set up its Committee of Correspondence in early 1773, on which Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson served.<ref>Greene and Pole (1994) chapters 22–24</ref> A total of about 7,000 to 8,000 Patriots served on these Committees; Loyalists were excluded. The committees became the leaders of the American resistance to British actions, and later largely determined the war effort at the state and local level. When the First Continental Congress decided to boycott British products, the colonial and local Committees took charge, examining merchant records and publishing the names of merchants who attempted to defy the boycott by importing British goods.<ref name="Mary Beth Norton 2001 pp 144">Mary Beth Norton et al., ''A People and a Nation'' (6th ed. 2001) vol 1 pp. 144–145
</ref>

Meanwhile, Parliament passed the [[Tea Act]] lowering the price of taxed tea exported to the colonies, to help the British [[East India Company]] undersell smuggled untaxed Dutch tea. Special consignees were appointed to sell the tea to bypass colonial merchants. The act was opposed by those who resisted the taxes and also by smugglers who stood to lose business.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} In every colony demonstrators warned merchants not to bring in tea that included the hated new tax. In most instances, the consignees were forced by the Americans to resign and the tea was turned back, but Massachusetts governor Hutchinson refused to allow Boston merchants to give in to pressure.

A town meeting in Boston determined that the tea would not be landed, and ignored a demand from the governor to disperse. On December 16, 1773, a group of men, led by Samuel Adams and dressed to evoke the appearance of Indigenous people, boarded the ships of the East India Company and dumped £10,000 worth of tea from their holds (approximately £636,000 in 2008) into [[Boston Harbor]]. Decades later, this event became known as the [[Boston Tea Party]] and remains a significant part of American patriotic lore.<ref name="Carp 2010 p.">{{cite book|last=Carp|first=B.L.|title=Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0300168457|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=upd6d3UDfTgC|access-date=May 29, 2023}}</ref>{{page needed|date=May 2023}}

===1774–1775: Intolerable Acts===
{{Main|Intolerable Acts}}
{{further|Quebec Act|Continental Association}}
[[File:The_able_doctor,_or_America_swallowing_the_bitter_draught_(NYPL_Hades-248165-425086)_(cropped).jpg|thumb|A 1774 illustration from ''[[The London Magazine]]'' depicts [[Frederick North, Lord North|Prime Minister Lord North]], author of the [[Boston Port Act]], forcing the [[Intolerable Acts]] down the throat of [[Personification of the Americas|America]], whose arms are restrained by [[William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield|Lord Chief Justice Mansfield]] with a tattered "Boston Petition" trampled on the ground beside her. [[John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich|Lord Sandwich]] pins down her feet and peers up her robes; behind them, [[Britannia|Mother Britannia]] weeps while France and Spain look on.]]
The British government responded by passing four laws that came to be known as the [[Intolerable Acts]], further darkening colonial opinion towards England.<ref>Miller (1943) pp. 353–376
</ref> The first was the [[Massachusetts Government Act]] which altered the Massachusetts charter and restricted town meetings. The second was the [[Administration of Justice Act 1774|Administration of Justice Act]] which ordered that all British soldiers to be tried were to be arraigned in Britain, not in the colonies. The third was the [[Boston Port Act]], which closed the port of Boston until the British had been compensated for the tea lost in the Boston Tea Party. The fourth was the [[Quartering Acts|Quartering Act of 1774]], which allowed royal governors to house British troops in the homes of citizens without permission of the owner.<ref>Carp, ''Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America'' (2010) ch 9</ref>

In response, Massachusetts patriots issued the [[Suffolk Resolves]] and formed an alternative shadow government known as the Provincial Congress, which began training militia outside British-occupied Boston.<ref>{{cite book|author=John K. Alexander|title=Samuel Adams: The Life of an American Revolutionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BKxy6CQT3zUC&pg=PA187|year=2011|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|pages=187–194|isbn=978-0742570351}}
</ref> In September 1774, the [[First Continental Congress]] convened, consisting of representatives from each colony, to serve as a vehicle for deliberation and collective action. During secret debates, conservative [[Joseph Galloway]] proposed the creation of a colonial Parliament that would be able to approve or disapprove acts of the British Parliament, but his idea was tabled in a vote of 6 to 5 and was subsequently removed from the record.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}} [[Continental Association|Congress called for a boycott]] beginning on December 1, 1774, of all British goods; it was enforced by new local committees authorized by the Congress.<ref>{{cite book|author=Mary Beth Norton|title=A People and a Nation: A History of the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eT-HM6ruYTwC&pg=PA143|year=2010|publisher=Cengage Learning|page=143|display-authors=etal|isbn=978-0495915256}}
</ref>
It also began coordinating [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] resistance by militias which existed in every colony and which had gained military experience in the French and Indian War. For the first time, the Patriots were armed and unified against Parliament.