Editing American Revolution (section)

===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}}
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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.