[Writing Sample] Taxation as Trigger in the American Revolution

 In 1768, British troops were sent to Boston, Massachusetts to aid in the enforcement of the Townsend Acts, which imposed trade regulations on the colonies and established that Parliament had the right to levy taxes on the colonies. Merchants in Boston organized boycotts, and in turn were branded smugglers. They felt the tax was unfair and illegal. Additionally, many in the colonies were upset that the Townsend Acts and other pieces of legislation had been passed without representation of the colonies in Parliament. On August 5, 1770, British soldiers shot and killed five civilian men. This was known as the Boston Massacre, and fueled popular resentment against the British throughout the colonies. It was determined in a court of law that the soldiers were being harassed by an angry mob and fired only in self-defense. Still, strong emotions against the British continued to grow (Zobel, H.B. 1970)

Most of the Townsend Acts were repealed, with the notable exception of the tea tax. In 1773, partially in response to the colonies’ response to the Townsend Acts, Parliament instituted the Tea Act. This established a monopoly for the British East India Company for the importation of all tea to the colonies. Colonial merchants were importing tea at lower prices, and that tea was not subject to the tea tax. By forcing the colonies to purchase East India Company tea, they were interfering with the trade and livelihood of colonial business, forcing increased prices on colonial consumers, and forcing a tax upon them. Again, the subject of taxation without representation, as the colonies still had no representative in Parliament, played a major role. This led to the Boston Port Act of March 30, 1774, where British troops shut down Boston Harbor to all ships and commerce, cutting off supplies to much of Massachusetts (McCullough, D. 2001).

While it is easy to look upon this as one continuous issue, there are a few things at play here. First is the issue of representation. The colonials considered themselves Englishmen, and as such felt they had the same rights to representation in Parliament as any other Englishmen. This echoed a sentiment that had been heard for a generation in Ireland, who also had no Parliamentary representation at the time. Second, with the Port Act Britain was effectively embargoing their own people and leaving them to starve. This brought sympathy from other colonies as far away as South Carolina, who sent supplies to aid the people of Massachusetts. It was not simply unfair; it was polarizing.

The Revolutionary War could have been avoided had Parliament and the monarchy changed its attitudes as far back as the English Civil War. King Charles I tried to levy a tax in 1634 to build ships in order to protect the coast and wage war on the Dutch. English politician John Hampden would not pay, saying “what an English King has no right to demand, an English subject has a right to refuse” (Keir, D.L. 1936). In that instance, even nobles were not being given due process and civil war erupted. Had the point been ceded and the American colonies given proper representation, rather than having laws and taxes imposed upon them, the empire might not have been subjected to yet another war between its own subjects.

References

• Zobel, H.B. (1970) The Boston Massacre, W.W. Norton, 199–200.
• McCullough, D. (2001). John Adams. Simon and Schuster. 61.
• Keir, D.L. (1936) The Case of the Ship-Money Law Quarterly Review 52, 546.

A classmate disputed my findings, claiming that revolution was inevitable based on no more than the assertion that “we wanted to be free”. My response to that follows.

Canada, as it existed at the time, did not rebel. Although England had a lot of colonies in the area, much of the territory had been claimed by France. It wasn’t until the Treaty of Paris in 1763, when France ceded all of its interests in North America, that all of Canada came under English rule (Marston, D.2002). Even the French Canadians didn’t rebel. It wasn’t until 1931 that the Statute of Westminster was passed by Parliament granting Canada complete self-rule, and only in 1982 was the Canada Act signed granting Canada total independence from British rule. In all that time, Canada never rebelled. So while the colonies did enjoy a number of rights and freedoms, as did Canada, the tipping point can be argued to be oppressive taxes and mistreatment by Parliament via troops. These things didn’t happen in Canada, so they remained loyal to the crown all the way into the 20th century. A case can therefore be made that without the tax issues, the colonies may not have gone into revolt.