Definition
Parliament passed the Coercive Acts between March and June 1774, after the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Port Act closed Boston Harbor until the town paid for the destroyed tea, the Massachusetts Government Act let the Crown appoint the colony's council and limited town meetings, with General Thomas Gage, the army's commander, as governor, and the Administration of Justice Act let royal officials accused of crimes be tried in another colony or in Britain. A new Quartering Act let troops be housed in empty buildings, though not in occupied homes. Colonists called these laws, together with the separate Quebec Act, the Intolerable Acts.
Why it matters on the AP exam
The Coercive Acts turned a dispute over Boston into a crisis for all the colonies. Other colonies sent food and money to Boston, and twelve colonies sent delegates to the First Continental Congress in September 1774, which declared colonial rights and organized a boycott through the Continental Association. Britain meant the acts to isolate and punish Massachusetts, but they united the colonies, and fighting began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775. Short-answer prompts ask students to identify the acts as the British response to the Tea Party and to explain how British actions after 1763 led to revolution.
Connections
- Boston Tea Party: the destruction of the tea in December 1773 that the acts punished
- First Continental Congress: twelve colonies met in Philadelphia in September 1774 to answer the acts
- Minutemen: Massachusetts organized these militia companies in the months after the acts
- Declaration of Independence: its grievances included quartering troops, trials in Britain, and changes to colonial governments