Essay on Tax Laws that British Colonists Should Pay to Great Britain

Following the French and Indian War, problems between the colonists and the British eventually led to the American Revolution. Great Britain was in financial debt after the French and Indian War and turned to the colonists for help. The colonists on the other hand, did not appreciate the British relying on them to pay off their debt, and they rebelled. Other than the battles between the opposing sides, incidents like the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre made more of the colonists join the fight for independence. The beginning of the American Revolution can be traced back to the French and Indian War due to the financial debt the British were left with after the war, the taxes that the British put on the colonists everyday products to help pay off the debt, and the incidents that were the outcome of the taxes and laws imposed by the British.

The British may have won the French and Indian War, but as a result of this victory, Great Britain was deep in debt and automatically turned to the colonies for assistance. The British passed various taxes on the colonists. In March 1765, Parliament persuaded their prime minister George Grenville to pass the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act required the colonists to purchase special stamped paper for all legal documents and anything that had to be sent in the mail. If the colonists disobeyed the law, they would be tried in vice-admiralty courts. In 1767, the Townshend Acts were passed by a government minister named Charles Townshend.

This revenue law put taxes on imported materials such as glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. These two tax laws are just a few of the many laws passed by Great Britain, after the war. Since the British were in need of money to pay off the French and Indian War, they decided to make the colonists pay it off for them. They passed many tax laws on the colonists. The tax money would go towards the payment of the war that Britain had to pay off. The Townshend Acts and the Stamp Act put taxes on everyday items that the colonists used which would cause problems later on between the British and the colonies. Great Britain passed tax laws on the colonists everyday items to pay off their debt from the war.

The colonists were very unhappy with the taxes passed, which was Great Britain's attempt to pay off their financial debt, and the colonists rebelled. After the Stamp Act was passed, some of the colonists formed a secret resistance group called the Sons of Liberty. The colonists harassed British customs workers, stamp agents, and royal governors. Eventually many British stamp agents resigned and the protests prevented stamps from being sold. After the Townshend Acts were passed, the colonists protested “no taxation without representation.” Samuel Adams, one of the leaders of the Sons of Liberty declared a boycott of British goods. Wealthy women stopped buying British luxuries and went with other women to work at spinning bees, making homemade cloth.

Colonists also boycotted British tea. As the colonists rebelled, the British struggled with having control over the colonies. Since the colonists were not obeying the laws and started boycotting British goods, Britain and the colonies' relationship started to worsen. The British were not expecting the laws to cause such a problem and therefore they were surprised with the colonists reaction to the taxes. Now that the colonists were fighting back against the British, problems began to arise. The relationship between Great Britain and the colonies started to struggle after the British tried to resolve their debt problems.