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In the readings by Edmund S. Morgan the problems of the colonists are summed up and able to be understood by everyone who picks up the book. It lists in detail what went on to provoke and then what went on to fix issues in question. Sugar and stamps is about taxing the colonies because England just finished the Seven Years’ War and needed to do something to generate some funds. The thought of doing this was talked about for a few years and a man by the name of Sir Robert Walpole, who was liked and hated at the same, said he was not near brave enough to try to accomplish this feat.
So a man named George Greenville took the first steps necessary to get this accomplished. In 1764 a bill was drawn up and Parliament made it an act to tax items bought by the colonists. Within the next year a bill was brought to tax all paper materials used. The colonists did not like the fact that this was going on and boycotted. Since the colonists defied this they were threatened by troops coming over and roughing them up. The colonists were ready to fight to the death. End the end they ended not having to fight because the stamp act was lifted in February of 1766.
When the act was repealed it was because two groups that were in Parliament at the time liked the idea of appeal. Pit argued for the colonists on the bases that there is a difference is legislation and taxation. Every act had been repealed but a Declaratory act was made and it the colonists wondered what it was about because it confused them. The colonists were now in another argument with their mother country. They had once celebrated the appeals but now are in even deeper with another problem on their hands.
The colonists started to defy and when the word of defiance got jack to the mother country the Americans lost friends that helped them out in the stamp crisis. The Americans then had to pay taxes on all sorts of things including: glass, lead, paper, paints, and tea. Now customs officials who were used to getting bribes weren’t getting there cut because the prices were low. If ships carrying illegal loads were seized the money was divided three ways. The English treasury, the governor of the colony and to the customs officer who caught the ship got the money. England had to act hard and fast or they would lose the colonies for good.
The Americans have dealt with England for years now and they now know the difference between legislation and taxation. England was still not happy with the colonists so they sent over troops. Now the red coats occupied the streets and they were everywhere. The Americans got sick and tired of the troops always around that they started provoking the soldiers by throwing snowballs and other such things to make the soldiers mad. Then shots are fired and three people from Boston are killed and others wounded. No one knows how it started. When a monopoly started with the East India Tea
Company the colonists were angry and they took the tea and threw it into the harbor. When this happened Parliament passed several laws with the first being the closing of the port. The colonists did not want to surrender their property so got together and in 1774 the first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. Morgan tells the stories of the past in the book and gets you interested in how things started in the colonies. All these points lead up to when the Americans are finally going to get together and figure out a way to get rid of England for good so they can have a country of their own.