Great Britain’s response to the Boston Tea Party was met with great resistance by the colonists. Parliament put into place five new acts that became known as the Intolerable Acts, Coercive Acts, and Punitive Acts. The Boston Port Act was the first of such acts passed as a response to the Boston Tea Party. This act closed the port of Boston until the East India Company had been repaid the cost if the destroyed tea. Benjamin Franklin had also suggested the destroyed tea be repaid to the East India Company. However, when several men made the offer to repay them, their offer was declined. Samuel Adams and the colonists’ stance was that all colonists were being punished without the opportunity to testify in their own defense. Some colonists also though it unjust, because all colonists were being punished, when only some of them had taken part in the Boston Tea Party.
The Acts
The Massachusetts Government Act caused more of an uproar from the colonists than the Port Act. This act changed the Massachusetts government so that Great Britain had control of the colony. Nearly all of the authoritative positions in Massachusetts were to be appointed by governor or the King. This act also limited the activities of the town meetings which Samuel Adams was so involved in. This also created fear in other colonies that they too might have their government’s altered by Great Britain.
The Administration of Justice Act allowed the governor to change the place for trial if he believed that the official could not get a fair trial in Massachusetts. The governor was able to move the trial to another colony or even to Great Britain, and most colonists could leave work to travel as witnesses to a case. Colonists claimed that this act allowed British officials to harass colonists and escape the justice that they deserved.
The Quartering Act affected all of the colonies. This act allowed the governor to house soldiers in buildings, including inhabited and uninhabited houses if need be. The colonists that might have been living in these houses were required to provide the soldiers with food, alcohol and a number of other supplies if they asked for them.
The Quebec Act was passed not in direct relation with the Boston Tea Party, but was passed during the same time period of the other four Intolerable Acts and therefore was labeled also as an Intolerable Act. This act extended the boundaries of the Quebec Province and was favorable to the French Catholic inhabitants. Many feared that their Catholicism would lead to the eventual oppression of colonists.
Samuel Adam's Role
Samuel Adams believed that all of these Acts were direct violations of the natural liberties of the colonists, laid out by Great Britain herself. They changed the Massachusetts Government, altered the activities allowed in town meetings which he was so active in, allowed British soldiers to invade the privacy of colonists in their own homes, and gave British officers an escape from true justice, among many other violations of rights. That is why these acts were considered the Intolerable Acts. The acts themselves weren’t just. That is why Samuel Adams again gained support for the cause for independence.
Samuel Adams was the main proponent for drafting the Suffolk Resolves which was their response to the Intolerable Acts. These resolves stated that colonists should boycott British imports, and curtail exports, ignore Great Britain’s measures against Boston since the Boston Tea Party, support colonial government in Massachusetts without royal authority, and it urged the colonies to for militias. Adams strongly opposed Great Britain’s responses to the Boston Tea Party. September of 1774 he was elected to the First Continental Congress. He was the loudest voice crying for American independence from British rule.
Samuel Adams gained the support of many through his role in the Boston Tea Party, his opposition to the Intolerable Acts, his opposition to the Stamp Act, and his influential writings.
Sources
- Puls, Mark. Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
- Hosmer, James K. Samuel Adams. Temecula: Reprint Services Corp, 1885.
- Miller, John C. Sam Adams: Pioneer in Propaganda. Chicago: Stanford University Press, 1936.
- Wells, William Vincent. Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams. Manchester: Ayer Co Pub, 1988.Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
- Ammerman, David. In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of 1774 New York: Norton, 1974
- Adams, John, and George W. Carey: The Political Writings of John Adams. Washington D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 2000
- Morgan, Edmund S, and Helen M. Morgan. Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1963
- Adams, Samuel and Harry Alonzo Cushing. The Writings of Samuel Adams. New York: Octagon Books, Inc. /G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1968.
- Winston, Alexander. “FIREBAND of the REVOLUTION” American Heritage April 1967: Volume 18, Issue 3
- Ketchum, Richard M. “XIV Men of the Revolution” American Heritage February 1975: Volume 26, Issue 2
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