British Troops Stationed in Boston to Enforce the Townsend Acts
After the French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years' War) ended in 1763, the British Parliament passed several tax acts in an effort to pay off the debt from that war. The Sugar Act in 1764, the Stamp and Quartering Acts in 1765, and then the Townsend Acts in 1767 and 1768. The Townsend Acts, named after British Chancellor Charles Townsend, were meant to establish a revenue flow from the colonies to Great Britain and to tighten Britain's control over colonial governments. The Townsend Acts consisted of:
• The Revenue Act of June 29, 1767, which introduced new indirect taxes on tea, paint, glass, and other goods, and gave customs officers increased powers to search and seize goods from colonial traders suspected of illegal smuggling.
• The Commissioners of Customs Act of June 29, 1767, created a Customs Board, again giving customs officials more power, in an attempt to prevent smuggling and tax avoidance.
• The Indemnity Act of July 2, 1767, reduced the tax payable on British East India Company tea, making it cheaper to buy compared to tea smuggled into America from other countries, such as Holland.
• The New York Restraining Act of July 2, 1767, forbade the colony of New York from implementing any new laws until it began to comply with the Quartering Act.
• The Vice-Admiralty Court Act of March 8, 1768, effectively increased punishments for those accused of smuggling by creating a new series of courts. Trials would be conducted by a judge, rather than a colonial jury, massively increasing the chances of a successful conviction.As Parliament passes these acts, tensions rise in Boston, with colonists boycotting British goods and defying new rules. To enforce the Townsend Acts and to protect those Royal officials tasked with the collection of revenue, British troops were stationed in Boston. The ships arrived on Friday evening, September 30. At noon on Saturday, October 1st, 1768, 2,000 British regular troops disembarked. Their presence caused massive disruption to the everyday lives of the Bostonians' economic livelihoods, physical safety, social order, and political rights.
The economic impact was one of the most prominent factors in the rising tension. The Boston economy had been stagnating since the 1750s. and work was scarce. Now the British soldiers were moonlighting during their off hours, competing for the few jobs that were available.
With tight profit margins, many business owners saw hiring soldiers for short-term jobs as desirable, even if they had wanted to stand in solidarity with the laborers of Boston. This practice, while good economic sense when it came to running a business, was certainly seen by many Bostonians, especially those out of work, as a betrayal. An opinion piece, first written in New York but also published in the Boston Gazette on February 19, 1770, took these business owners to task, arguing,
"Is it not enough that you pay taxes for billeting money to support the soldiers, and a poor tax, to maintain many of their whores and bastards in the workhouse...I hope my fellow citizens will take this matter into consideration, and not countenance a set of men who are enemies to Liberty, and at the beck of tyrants to enslave."Predictably, fights between unemployed laborers and the Regulars who had taken their jobs were common. Numerous accounts of violence directed at both the elites and common citizenry of Boston occurred from 1768 to 1770: doctors being stabbed by the bayonets of patrolling Regulars, workmen beaten and robbed as they returned home, and widespread sexual harassment (even veiled reports of sexual assaults). This violence was not completely one-sided, however. There are numerous instances of Bostonians giving as good as they got. These escalating rounds of violence led up to the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770, as only a week before, some of the Regulars who opened fire had been involved in a fight at Gray's Ropewalk with a mob of Boston workers, several of whom ended up as victims of the Massacre.
The occupation of 1768-1770 was not as simple as the presence of a few of the King's finest flying the flag in order to repress grumblings at new trade duties and ensure the security of royal agents. It entailed economic deprivation, violence directed at civilians, violation of constitutional rights, and social chaos. Bostonians saw themselves as being quite literally under attack, and much of the rest of the colonial population eventually came to agree, further enflaming attitudes towards Parliament across the American colonies.
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Image Source: Political cartoon protesting against the Tea Act of 1773, Boston Gazette. Public Domain