Difference between Colonial and British Governments

Difference between Colonial and British Governments 

Even though the colonies were part of England the Britsh and the colonial goverments had a lot of differences. The colonies had a written constitution such as the " Mayflower Compact ". Also the charters used to establish Virginia and The Carolinas. The British didn't had a written constitution for their laws in England. 

In the colonies 2/3 of the people there had the right to vote. Since many men had a piece of land their chances to vote were increasing. While in England only 1/4 of the population had the right to vote. Only people of the higher class and the rich had the right to vote and most of the people in England were poor.

The British government only accepted one religion that was imposed by the Kings and Queens that was imposed to all society. In the other side the colonist were more free in matters of religions. Each person could choose the religion they wanted to be except in certain places like Massachusetts were the puritans lived. Many people from England went to the colonies so the could be their own religion freely.

The Boston Tea Party

  The Boston Tea Party

     In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, it granted the financial troubled company British East India Company which gave an exclusive to export the tea to the Americas. American colonists could buy no tea unless it came from that company which angered the Colonists. The parliament exported and sell the tea at a very very low price compared to other tea suppliers but colonists wouldn't buy it Colonists thought this was also "taxation without representation". Colonists thought they were trying to induce them into accepting this tax. This was the situation in Boston that led to the Boston Tea Party.

      In response to the unpopular act, tea agents in many American cities resigned from accepting the tea and the merchants stopped buying it . In Boston, however, Governor Thomas Hutchinson gave the order that three ships arriving in Boston Harbor would be allowed to despoit their cargoes and that they would be well payed for the goods. This lead about sixty men, including some members of the Sons of Liberty, to board the ships disguised as Native Americans, on the night of December 16, 1773  and dump the tea chests into the water. The event became known as the Boston Tea Party.

     This event shows how just how crazy patriots were, but the good kind of crazy. Interestingly, Abraham Lincoln was against it. He resented the action and thought it went overboard. (Checkmate). In the end the Boston Tea Party brought a lot of problems for the colonists, like the Boston Port Act and the Quartering Act of 1774, but it's the message that mattered. A few other tea partied happened among the colonies, but non as big or controversial as the original. The Boston Tea Party has been, without doubt, one of the most important acts of revolution in history.

John Adams

John Adams

         John Adams was a very interesting character, born in 1735 on Braintree, Massachussets, he eventually became the second president of the United States.  He graduated from Harvard,  taught school for a year but didn't like it. Later he studied law and became a lawyer. He was a man of straight morals, and thought that every man should have a fair trial. He bravely defended the British soldiers who were accused of murdering Crispus Attucks at the Boston Massacre.  3 of the 5 soldiers were acquitted, and the other 2 were charged the the lower charge of manslaughter.

      John adams wrote speeches for independence from England on the Second continental Congress. The Congress voted for independence, which meant they were going to war. John thought they would need help from the South and George Washington was chosen to be the general of the continental army. John Adams was one of the five people asked to write the Declaration of Independence, even though most of it was written by Thomas Jefferson. John was one of the 56 men who signed it.  He participated in the framing of a constitution for Massachusetts. In 1781 he worked along Benjamin Franklin in the development of the Treaty of Peace, and signed the treaty that ended the revolutionary War of 1783.

     John had an interesting ongoing dispute with another important character of the revolution, Thomas Jefferson. Adams was a federalist, automatically making him Jefferson's rival. This rivalry surfaced many times, interestingly enough, when they were both presidents. On his later life he was elected President of a convention to reform the constitution of Massachusetts, but declined, because his health we declining. His death was something curious. Both Jefferson and Adams dies on the same day (July 4, 1826) His final toast to the 4th of July : "Independence forever!'. Some of his last words? "Thomas Jefferson survives" unaware the his rival had died just hours earlier.

The Stamp Act

The Stamp Act

     The Stamp Act was the name of a law imposed on March 22, 1765. This was a way to increase the money for England because of the debts they owed by the Seven Year War/ French & Indian War. The nation had a great debt which reached £130,000,000 great by 1764. another contribution was that the government made the decision of retaining a standing army of 10,000 men in north America for defense. While Baute who was the the governor had made this decision George Grenville, who was his successor, was left with the debt.


     He began analyzing taxation options for raising the necessary funds. He first enforced the Sugar Act but it wasn't enough so he created The Stamp Act. In Britain it gave great success and they thought in the Colonies it will have the same effect. Stamp Acts were levied on documents, books, deeds, newspaper and also the playing cards. Every printed paper was taxed. Its date to be effective was on November 1 of that same year.

     A very key issue that quickly emerged against this tax was that colonists argued they had 'taxation without representation'. A law in the parliament stated that it forbade the imposition of taxes without the consent of Parliament. Colonists said that the only people who could raise their taxes where their own leaders. Many violent protests emerged in the colonies. There were many mobs attacks in the colonies mostly to the stamp distributors. These actions were made by a group named ''The Sons of Liberty''.

     In October 1765, Lord Rockingham, knew about the furious mobs and the attacks in the colonies. He had a lot of presure  because the business were going bad. They decided to repeal the act. But this act had an imperfection that if it was repealed, The Declaratory Act must be passed. The Stamp Act was officially repealed on March 18, 1766.