At the end of the French and Indian War, the British government had a bit of a problem. The rapid growth of the British army during the conflict had resulted in a large number of politically well connected nobles serving in the army, who rather enjoyed getting paid to wear fancy coats and hats and yell at people all day. Not wishing to piss them off, it was decided to retain the now larger army, but stationing said officers and their troops in Britain during peacetime was a no go. Luckily, the outbreak of Pontiac’s War gave them the perfect excuse to station some 10,000 troops in the American colonies, officially to protect the colonies from future native attacks, but in reality to assert greater control over the colonies, which for many British officials were getting a bit too big for their britches. To finance these troops, the British government passed the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act by 1765. The Sugar Act put greater restrictions on the trade of molasses and other goods, and also made it so smugglers would be tried in Britain rather than the colonies. The Stamp Act required all sorts of documents to be notarized by an official government notary, everything from legal documents, to newspapers, to almanacs, to pamphlets, to even playing cards.
As can probably be imagined, all of this didn’t go down too well in the Thirteen Colonies. Aside from the appointment of a Royal Governor, who in turn appointed various judges and tax collectors, the colonies had largely been left to run themselves, which meant that the wealthy folks who controlled the colonial assemblies basically did whatever the fuck they wanted. However, the tightening grip of the British put at risk many of their more lucrative money-making schemes, such as buying and selling native lands and smuggling to name a few. Ultimately, what the colonial elite wanted was to either be left alone, or barring that, seats in the British Parliament, which wasn’t a completely ridiculous idea given the population of the Thirteen Colonies was one third that of Britain at the time. The notion that the British troops were there to protect the colonies was viewed as rather ridiculous given the French were no longer a threat and the fact that the colonies had always seen to their own defense until the French and Indian War. To apply pressure these wealthy colonials had the colonial assemblies send letters of protest to Britain, formed committees to coordinate responses amongst neighboring colonies, and began printing numerous pamphlets and newspaper articles deriding the notion of taxation without representation. Thanks to the colonies having the highest literacy rate in the world at the time and the wealthy colonists owning all the printing presses, this strategy was pretty damn effective in gaining support from the general population, especially in New England, which had been pushed deeper into an economic depression by the new British policies, and amongst the colonists living along the frontier who wanted to push further westward.
While the war of words was playing out, groups of colonists in every colony increasingly decided to take more direct action. Though many groups formed independently in every colony, they eventually collectively became known as the Sons of Liberty, which would probably be called anarchists or terrorists if they existed today. While they did lead some more peaceful actions, such as protests and the boycott of the import of British goods, they also relied heavily on violence to get what they wanted. Tax collectors, judges, loyalist newspaper printers, and random folks who refused to go along with the boycotts were threatened, beaten, tarred and feathered, and/or had their property smashed or burned. Government buildings and documents were also destroyed. Though the leaders of these groups were often of the middle or upper class, the rank and file were often of the lower class, who being given an opportunity to strike out against those higher on the socio-economic scale, gladly took it. As a result, demonstrations often turned into riots which quickly grew out of control.
Rather alarmed by outbreak of mob violence, and facing increasing pressure from British merchants who were losing a shit ton of money due to the boycotts, the British government repealed the Sugar Act and Stamp Act in 1766. This quelled the violence, but it did not remove the need to finance the British troops in the colonies, nor did it reverse the level of organization which had grown amongst the various Sons of Liberty groups. By the time of the repeal, most groups were in regular contact with groups throughout each colony and neighboring colonies. As well, representatives from nine colonies had met in the so-called Stamp Act Congress in 1765 to help coordinate resistance. Though it’s estimated that only a third of the colonial population supported the actions of the Sons of Liberty, with another third loyalists and the remaining third neutral, resistance to the taxes had formed a sense of commonality amongst the colonies which had not existed before. It was the beginning of something new.
