Boston Massacre Source Analysis

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The heart of the matter was far from being resolved. Actually, the colonists considered those measures as an attempt from the King to gain power over the colonies while the previous kings had delegated their power to charter companies so that they found companies in the New-World. Franklin helped the colonial cause by saying that the colonies were not opposed to all the taxes but the British replied by saying that repeal amounted to “giving up the legislature of the kingdom which will put us in the position of being dictated to by the Americans. Those statements revealed that the opinion verged on the extreme. The 1766 Declaratory Act stipulated that the British parliament had every right of legislation over the thirteen colonies whatever the…show more content…
One month later, the British ministry headed by Lord North concluded that colonial duties on British manufactures were preposterous and repealed all the Townshend Acts except on tea and by the end 1770 there was apparently a complete reconciliation between England and the colonies except in Boston. Another underlying problem in the colonies has to be mentioned, the western problem. Apart from the power struggles between the colonial empires and the issues related to the natives, the problem was also political : what degree of self-government should be given to the new settlements and what should be their relationship with the “older” colonies? In all the colonies, there was western discontent which sometimes gave a push towards the will for independence because the newly settled regions were globally more radical than the seaboard. However, this issue was often overshadowed by the debate over the various acts. Calm followed the agitation of 1767 - 1770 and prosperity was increasing yet the situation remained tense in Boston and numerous acts of defiance occurred, the most famous one being the burning down of a British ship the Gaspee by patriots
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