The Townshend Acts were a series of measures, passed by the British Parliament in 1767, that taxed goods imported to the American colonies. The British Parliament enacted a series of taxes on the colonies for the purpose of raising revenue.

Tea Act

The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed by the British government on the American colonies in 1767. They placed new taxes and took away some freedoms from the colonists including the following: New taxes on imports of paper, paint, lead, glass, and tea.

In an effort to save the troubled enterprise, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773. The act granted the company the right to ship its tea directly to the colonies without first landing it in England, and to commission agents who would have the sole right to sell tea in the colonies.

The British didn’t think the colonists would be upset about the Act since by letting the East India Company not pay taxes, the price of tea would go down. But the colonists were angry because the Act would give the East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies.

For weeks after the Boston Tea Party, the 92,000 pounds of tea dumped into the harbor caused it to smell. As a result of the Boston Tea Party, the British shut down Boston Harbor until all of the 340 chests of British East India Company tea were paid for.

Conflict increased after 1763 because Britain began to enforce long-neglected laws regulation colonial trade and new laws to increase the taxes paid by the colonies. The Boston Massacre also intensified the tension between the colonists and Britain.

The Loyalists opposed the Revolution for a number of reasons. Some believed that the British government had the right to ask the colonies to pay half the cost of their own defence. Other Loyalists opposed parliamentary taxation, but did not consider violent opposition justified.