ficials in Paris had, partly because of theBritish Navy, abruptly limited importation on items such as rum and molasses in theFrench West Indies. These planters were desperate to feed themselves and also theirslaves, and found salvation through the colonists. Commerce centers, in particularNewport, Rhode Island, Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia enjoyed surplus wealththrough this traitorous trade. The English, of course, were shocked at their subjects’disloyalty. The British navy was determined and working ardently to starve the French byblockading their ports, and at the same time the colony’s shippers were using fraudulentpapers to trade foodstuffs with the adversary. The blockading of the St. Lawrence River,the only entrance to New France, was especially dangerous and difficult. This treacheryled directly to the end of a period of salutary neglect, where the Navigation and TradeLaws were loosely enforced. This itself led later on to the loathed writs of assistance,which were unrestrained search warrants that entirely violated the colonists’ privacy.What the British perceived as reprehensible treason, the colonists saw as a golden tradewhich they had an absolute right to do.Upon issuance of the Proclamation Act of 1763, a misinterpretation in thecolonies and failure to communicate thoroughly provoked outrage in America. TheBritish government, fearing that settlers migrating into the new lands would provoke aseries of Indian wars, like that of Pontiac’s Rebellion, believed that the lands should beopened to colonists on a more gradual basis (Reeder). The King’s Cabinet Counciltherefore prohibited settlement in the area east of the Appalachian Mountains. TheEnglish saw little other alternative. Both the Treaty of Easton in 1758 with the OhioValley Indians (which was ratified by the king), and in the avowals of such militaryvanguards as Colonel Bouquet, the Indians were assured security in the lands wes...
