The Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies
It is the early 1700s. The United States is not even a nation yet. In its place are just thirteen English colonies.
You live in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay colony. You sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from England to get there. You came to build a better life for yourself and your loved ones. You worked hard and did well. You have come to think of Boston as your true home.
But now trouble is brewing in Boston. There is unrest in the colony. The reason is simple. England has been heavily taxing the colonists. There are taxes on tea, paper, glass, paint, and other things. These taxes are known as the Townsend Acts of 1767.
You, and others, feel the taxes are unfair. The tax dollars go to England. That does not help the colonists.
The English government required the colonists to put these stamps on newspapers and legal documents.
There is another reason many people were upset. The colonists have no say in how these tax dollars are used. Colonists do not have a voice in Parliament (England’s government). There is no one to fight for their rights and needs.
In the past, England largely left the colonies alone. The people mostly governed themselves. They made their own laws. They picked their own leaders too. They felt that England had no right to tax them.
But now things were changing. England needed money badly. It had just been in a long war with France. England won, but the war had been costly. Taxing the colonists was a way to bring in money. And England was not about to give that up.