Charles Townshend spearheaded the laws, but died before their detrimental effects became apparent.
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The Townshend Acts (/ˈtaʊnzənd/)[1] or Townshend Duties were a series of British acts of Parliament passed during 1767 and 1768 introducing a series of taxes and regulations to fund administration of the British colonies in America. They are named after the Chancellor of the Exchequer who proposed the programme. Historians vary slightly as to which acts they include under the heading "Townshend Acts", but five are often listed:[a]
The Revenue Act 1767 passed on 29 June 1767.
The Commissioners of Customs Act 1767 passed on 29 June 1767.
The Indemnity Act 1767 passed on 2 July 1767.
The New York Restraining Act 1767 passed on 2 July 1767.
The Vice Admiralty Court Act 1768 passed on 8 March 1768.
The purposes of the acts were to
raise revenue in the colonies to pay the salaries of governors and judges so that they would remain loyal to Great Britain,
create more effective means of enforcing compliance with trade regulations,
punish the Province of New York for failing to comply with the 1765 Quartering Act, and
establish the precedent that the British Parliament had the right to tax the colonies.[4]
The Townshend Acts met resistance in the colonies. People debated them in the streets, and in the colonial newspapers. Opponents of the Acts gradually became violent, leading to the Boston Massacre of 1770. The Acts placed an indirect tax on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea, all of which had to be imported from Britain. This form of revenue generation was Townshend's response to the failure of the Stamp Act 1765, which had provided the first form of direct taxation placed upon the colonies. However, the import duties proved to be similarly controversial. Colonial indignation over the acts was expressed in John Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania and in the Massachusetts Circular Letter. There was widespread protest, and American port cities refused to import British goods, so Parliament began to partially repeal the Townshend duties.[5] In March 1770, most of the taxes from the Townshend Acts were repealed by Parliament under Frederick, Lord North. However, the import duty on tea was retained in order to demonstrate to the colonists that Parliament held the sovereign authority to tax its colonies, in accordance with the Declaratory Act 1766. The British government continued to tax the American colonies without providing representation in Parliament. American resentment, corrupt British officials, and abusive enforcement spurred colonial attacks on British ships, including the burning of the Gaspee in 1772. The Townshend Acts' taxation of imported tea was enforced once again by the Tea Act 1773, and this led to the Boston Tea Party in 1773 in which Bostonians destroyed a large shipment of taxed tea. Parliament responded with severe punishments in the Intolerable Acts 1774. The Thirteen Colonies drilled their militia units, and war finally erupted in Lexington and Concord in April 1775, launching the American Revolution.
^"Townshend Acts". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
^Dickerson (1951), pp. 195–95.
^Chaffin (1999), p. 128.
^Chaffin (1999), p. 126.
^Chaffin (1999), p. 143.
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The TownshendActs (/ˈtaʊnzənd/) or Townshend Duties were a series of British acts of Parliament passed during 1767 and 1768 introducing a series of taxes...
from the colonies. Parliament believed that these acts, such as the Stamp Act 1765 and the TownshendActs of 1767, were legitimate means of having the colonies...
establishment of the controversial TownshendActs is considered one of the key causes of the American Revolution. Townshend was born at Raynham Hall in Norfolk...
taxes apart from those imposed by the TownshendActs. The Sons of Liberty strongly opposed the taxes in the Townshend Act as a violation of their rights...
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headquartered in Boston. Resistance to the TownshendActs grew slowly. The General Court was not in session when news of the acts reached Boston in October 1767....
tensions flared again following the British Parliament's passage of the TownshendActs, a group of new taxes and regulations imposed on the thirteen colonies...
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duty-free export of tea from Britain, although the tax imposed by the TownshendActs and collected in the colonies remained in force. It received the royal...
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repeal of the Stamp Act the TownshendActs, introduced by Charles Townshend, were passed by Parliament in 1767. These acts included The Revenue Act of...
any taxes it imposed on the colonists (such as the Stamp Act and the TownshendActs) were unconstitutional and were a denial of the colonists' rights as...
colonies, such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the TownshendActs of 1767. Parliament believed that these acts were a legitimate means of having the colonies...
not the current constitution) in February 1768 in response to the TownshendActs. Reactions to the letter brought heightened tensions between the British...
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Florida) James W. Townsend House (Lake Butler, Florida) TownshendActs, proposed by Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, that placed a tax on common...
association that was formed in 1765 to protest the Stamp Act, and later the TownshendActs, and was a general term for women who identified themselves as fighting...
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(This letter, adopted in response to the 1767 TownshendActs, called for united colonial action against the acts. King George III had issued a demand for its...
center of resistance to unpopular acts of taxation by the British Parliament in the 1760s. In 1768, the TownshendActs were enacted in the Thirteen Colonies...
The Quartering Acts were two or more Acts of British Parliament requiring local governments of Britain's North American colonies to provide the British...
failure of the Sugar Act and Stamp Act. The TownshendActs, named for Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend, are passed by Parliament, placing duties...
opposition to British colonial rule, especially to the Stamp Act and the TownshendActs. The newspaper was headquartered in Philadelphia. The newspaper was...
Act and TownshendActs united the colonies in a common cause. While the Stamp Act was withdrawn, taxes on tea remained under the TownshendActs and took...
Thirteen Colonies, and were important in uniting the colonists against the TownshendActs in the run-up to the American Revolution. According to many historians...
order to pressure the Parliament of Great Britain into repealing the TownshendActs. On April 8, 1768, Dawes was elected as a member of the Ancient and...
broadcast on History Channel covering the American Revolution from the TownshendActs of 1767 to George Washington's inauguration in 1789. John Adams – 2008...
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