a violent liberal group. In 1767 the Townshend Acts were passed. There were duties placed on colonial imports of lead, glass, paint, paper, and tea. It resulted in a Boycott of British goods. It also legalized the Writs of Assistance, which were search warrants (Encarta 99). In 1770 Crispus Attuckus and followers gathered at a Boston customs house. Several colonists threw snowballs at soldiers, which ended in the deaths of five patriots. This was called the Boston Massacre. Innocent people were being killed which turned over a new leaf in the rise to revolution. In 1770 all of the Townshend acts were repealed except for the tax on tea. This lead to the Tea Act of 1773, which stated that only the East India Company could import and sell tea. When the very first shiploads of tea arrived in the thirteen colonies, the Sons of Liberty were ready to act. In South Carolina they locked the tea in warehouses, in New York and Philadelphia they forced ships to turn around without unloading their tea, and in Maryland they lit ships on fire that carried tea. The worst was in Boston where the Sons of Liberty boarded all of the ships and dumped the tea into the harbor. This event was named the Boston Tea Party (King, McRae, Zola 95)In March of 1774 the Intolerable acts were passed as a punishment to the colony of Massachusetts. The Boston Port Act closed the port to all trade until all of the destroyed tea was paid for. Another of the Intolerable Acts that was passed was the Massachusetts Government Act, which forbids any town meeting from taking place. This took away peoples individual rights to freedom and free speech. Another Intolerable Act was the new Quartering Act. It forced people to house troops in their own homes and did not give them the option of building separate barracks. The last Act was the Quebec Act, which extended Canadas boundaries south to the Ohio River. This act had nothing to do with the rest so colonists ...
