Coercive Acts

Four measures passed by the British Parliament in 1774 as retribution for American colonial defiance and the Boston Tea Party. The acts closed the Boston port until colonists paid for the destroyed tea, subjected the colony to a military government, allowed convicted royal officials and soldiers to be tried outside the colony, and authorized housing for British troops in private American homes.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts, were a series of four measures passed by the British Parliament in 1774, partly to retaliate for such incidents as the Boston Tea Party but also to implement a more vigorous policy in the American colonies. The Boston Port Act, enacted in response to the Tea Party, closed the harbor to all shipping until the town had compensated the East India Company for the destruction of its tea and assured the king of its future loyalty. The Massachusetts Government Act deprived Massachusetts of its charter and the right to choose its own magistrates. The Act for the Impartial Administration of Justice provided that English colonial officials indicted for murder in Massachusetts should be tried in England. Finally, the Quartering Act allowed the housing of troops in any town in Massachusetts.

Bibliography

Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Thomas, Peter D. G. Tea Party to Independence: The Third Phase of the American Revolution, 1773–1776. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

—Frank J. Klingberg/S. B.