Sugar Act example essay topic

469 words
There were many events that led up to the idea of independence. If I had to choose three I would first choose the Proclamation Line of 1763, then the Sugar Act of 1764 and finally the Stamp Act of 1765. The Proclamation Line of 1763 was set to the Americas where colons its could not cross over the Appalachain mountains. At frist the colonists were fine with this and thought of it as a way to ease the minds of the indians. When Britian decided to expand it's army into the west with 7,500 men the colonists began to get angry because they felt that the British didn't trust them. They also were complaining because the cost of feeding and bedding that many soldiers was enormous and they were already complaining about the taxes set on them.

They felt that they could defend themselves since the men between the ages of 16 and 60 out numbered the indians by twenty to one. The colonists Felt they did not need not did they want the British troops there. The Sugar Act of 1764 was a law set so that the British could take control of the trading going on in the Americas. It controlled indians whose mallas ess (which was used by the colonists to make Rum) and sugar was significantly less than those brands made in Britian.

Customs agents were allowed to search anywhere they thought there might be smuggling going on. Violates of the Sugar Act were tried by Britian government instead of by the colonists. The colonists thought this to be an obstruction of piracy and an overrule of the authority by the British government. The Stamp act of 1765 was the first inside tax that said all documents of any kind had to have the purchased Royal Stamp. This tax doubled the price of paper in an economy where "hard money" was already rare. It also offended the powerful and the articulate such as lawyers.

Even thought his was a tax to pay back the 133 million pounds in debt from the French and Indian War the colonists felt that the government was once again trying to take to much control. They quickly formed an intercolonial movement that boycotted all of the British goods. Because of their persistence the Stamp Act was repealed in 1766. There are the first three things that set the colonies on the road to independence. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and it was accepted in 1776 we knew, as a country, that we were on the road to independence. When the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 we grew as America from the debts of Britian.