The 13 Colonies: A Self-Governing Community

Self-governing | Let’s look more at how the colonies were run.

Although the 13 Colonies were part of the British Empire, they were mainly self-governing communities. This means that they made their own rules and laws. However, this form of community would soon come under threat due to the acts and taxes imposed by the British government.

Starting in 1765, the British Parliament started to tax the 13 Colonies under the Stamp Act, which taxed the colonists on every paper product they bought! For example, anytime someone from the 13 Colonies needed an official document, a newspaper, or even playing cards, they had to pay a little more than before. The British Parliament took this extra money and kept it for themselves. This was called the “Stamp Act.”

The Stamp Act made the American colonists mad, and they quickly acted to oppose it. Because the colonies were a whole ocean away from London, where the British Parliament gathered, a direct meeting with Parliament was almost impossible. Instead, the colonists made clear their opposition to the Stamp Act by simply refusing to pay the tax or extra cost for their newspapers and documents. One of the main reasons this upset the colonists was because they didn’t have a say in what they were taxed on. They were not represented in Parliament, where the British decided these matters. This prompted the protesting cry of the colonists “No Taxation without Representation!”

The Sons of Liberty.

Prominent individuals such as Benjamin Franklin and members of the independence-minded community group known as the ‘Sons of Liberty’ argued that the British Parliament did not have the authority to impose an internal tax. People in the colonies organized community protests, which quickly attracted the British’s attention and eventual anger.

Many tax collectors were threatened and quit their jobs out of fear, while others simply did not succeed in collecting any money. As Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1766: “The Stamp Act would have to be imposed by force.” Unable to do so, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act just one year later, on March 18, 1766.

Organized Colonial Protests. American colonists responded to Parliament’s acts with organized protest. Throughout the colonies, a network of secret organizations known as the Sons of Liberty was created, aimed at intimidating the stamp agents who collected Parliament’s taxes. Before the Stamp Act could even take effect, all the appointed stamp agents in the colonies had resigned. The Massachusetts Assembly suggested a meeting of all the colonies to work for the repeal of the Stamp Act. All but four colonies were represented. The Stamp Act Congress passed a “Declaration of Rights and Grievances,” which claimed that American colonists were equal to all other British citizens, protested taxation without representation, and stated that, without colonial representation in Parliament, Parliament could not tax colonists. In addition, the colonists increased their nonimportation efforts.

Since the King and British Government still technically owned the colonies, their communities were not exactly free.

Other notable acts and taxes during this period in colonial American history:

The British Parliament, wanting more money from its North American colonies, passed a law that increased costs on non-British goods shipped to the colonies that the colonists needed, like sugar!

This law prohibited American colonies from issuing their own money, or currency, angering many American colonists.

American colonists responded to the Sugar Act and the Currency Act with protest. In Massachusetts, participants in a community meeting cried out against taxation without proper representation in the British Parliament and suggested some form of united protest throughout the colonies. By the end of the year, many colonies were practicing nonimportation, which meant they refused to purchase goods (food, supplies) from the British.

The British further angered American colonists with the Quartering Act, which required the colonies to provide housing and supplies to British troops living in the colonies to enforce the British Parliament’s laws.

In 1768, the British Parliament sent soldiers to Boston, Massachusetts, to force the colonist community there to follow their laws. Over the next two years, things turned violent. In 1770, the British soldiers shot and killed five people in a crowd after an argument got out of control – this event is known as the Boston Massacre.

Increasing the Divide

Other events, including setting fire to a British ship called HMS Gaspee and destroying shipments of tea – known as the Boston Tea Party – further divided the Boston colonist community and the British.

In the end, the British removed the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s right to rule themselves. This was a threat to the community of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a threat to the freedom of all American colony communities.

Under such threat, the 13 Colonies moved toward a single community. They formed the Continental Congress to represent the 13 Colonies as a single community to face the threat of the British to their freedom.

This new, united community of all 13 Colonies called themselves Patriots.

The Patriots knew they were stronger together than on their own.

April 19, 1775

When the British Army tried to steal military supplies from the colonists, war broke out between the colonists and the British.

June 14, 1775

The Second Continental Congress knew they needed an organized army to protect the colonies from the British. On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress officially created the Continental Army and named General George Washington the Commander in Chief. Meanwhile, a large fight broke out between the colonists and the British, known as the Battle of Bunker Hill. The British won this fight but lost many soldiers and had a weakened army.

General George Washington arrived in Boston in July 1775 to take command and organize the Continental Army, and by March 1776, the newly created Continental Army surrounded the British Army in Boston and ran them out of the colony. The British soldiers had nowhere to go and some even had to flee by boat to escape the Continental Army!

After a year of being at war with Britain, the Patriots were ready to declare their independence.

Let’s Reflect.

Have you ever been given a chore to do with your brother, sister, or friend where you did all of the work and they did nothing?

How did that make you feel?

That feeling is what the colonists felt when King George would demand money from them in exchange for nothing!