Boston Port Act

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Prohibitory Act 1776
Relates toIntolerable Acts
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Boston Port Act, also called the Trade Act 1774,

14 Geo. 3. c. 19) which became law on March 31, 1774, and took effect on June 1, 1774.[2] It was one of five measures (variously called the Intolerable Acts, the Punitive Acts or the Coercive Acts) that were enacted during the spring of 1774 to punish Boston for the December 16, 1773, Boston Tea Party.[3]

Background

Satirical image depicting three sailors feeding fish to imprisoned Bostonian citizens.

The Act was a response to the

Massachusetts Colony's seat of government should be moved to Salem and Marblehead made a port of entry. The Act was to take effect on June 1.[4]

Passage

Even some of the strongest allies of America in Parliament at first approved the Act as moderate and reasonable and argued that the town could end the punishment at any time by paying for the merchandise destroyed in the riot and allowing law and order to have their course. However, the

Lords.[4]

Aftermath

Royal Navy warships subsequently began patrols at the mouth of Boston Harbor to enforce the acts. The British Army also joined in enforcing the blockade, and Boston was filled with troops led by Commander-in-Chief Thomas Gage.[4] Colonists protested that the Port Act penalized thousands of residents and violated their rights as subjects of George III.[2] As the Port of Boston was a major source of supplies for the citizens of Massachusetts, sympathetic colonies as far away as South Carolina sent relief supplies to the settlers of Massachusetts Bay. So great was the response that the Boston leaders boasted that the town would become the chief grain port of America if the act was not repealed.[4]

June 1 was widely observed as a day of fasting and prayer, bells being tolled, flags placed at half-mast, and houses draped in mourning.[5] That was the first step in the unification of the Thirteen Colonies since they now had a cause for which to work together.

The First Continental Congress was convened in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774 to co-ordinate a colonial response to the Port Act and the other Coercive Acts.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Bernstein. The Education of John Adams. OUP. 2020. p 285.
  2. ^
    ISBN 9780313049514
    .
  3. ISBN 9781317474166
    .
  4. ^ a b c d This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Boston Port Bill" . Encyclopedia Americana.
  5. New International Encyclopedia
    (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  6. ^ Ciment (2016), p. 684.

Further reading

External links

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