Have you ever wondered why Great Britain’s colonies decided to separate from their mother country? Why did the colonists feel like Great Britain was no longer interested in what’s best for them? When the colonies were first settled in 1607 King James I assured the settlers that they would have all the rights and privileges of a natural British citizen; so what changed? Was it only because they raised taxes, or was there more to it than that? The American colonies felt that the British government was just taking advantage of them, and that they could better govern themselves than any king or parliament thousands of miles away.
Everything started to go downhill for the colonists relationship with the British when Lord Bute and his supporters did away with the age old practice of avoiding the enforcement of trade laws that supported commerce with Great Britain. Lord Bute felt that the laws needed to be enforced aggressively and began to use the …show more content…
The first of these taxes was the Sugar act which actually cut the tax in half on molasses but was intended to encourage trade with the British West Indies. Any violators of the act were to be tried in Vice Admiralty court, which had no jury, rather than general courts. Next was the Stamp Act which required all legal documents to to carry a tax stamp. The Colonists held protests and forced the men who collected the stamp taxes to resign for fear of their personal safety. Many other tax collectors resigned without ever giving out any stamps. The colonists were intent on opposing any new taxes imposed by the parliament. They felt that the British could not tax them without representation in the parliament. For every new tax that the British tried to enforce violence and protests broke out in the
Everything started to go downhill for the colonists relationship with the British when Lord Bute and his supporters did away with the age old practice of avoiding the enforcement of trade laws that supported commerce with Great Britain. Lord Bute felt that the laws needed to be enforced aggressively and began to use the …show more content…
The first of these taxes was the Sugar act which actually cut the tax in half on molasses but was intended to encourage trade with the British West Indies. Any violators of the act were to be tried in Vice Admiralty court, which had no jury, rather than general courts. Next was the Stamp Act which required all legal documents to to carry a tax stamp. The Colonists held protests and forced the men who collected the stamp taxes to resign for fear of their personal safety. Many other tax collectors resigned without ever giving out any stamps. The colonists were intent on opposing any new taxes imposed by the parliament. They felt that the British could not tax them without representation in the parliament. For every new tax that the British tried to enforce violence and protests broke out in the