What did the colonists say about the Sugar Act?

Beginnings of Colonial Opposition. American colonists responded to the Sugar Act and the Currency Act with protest. In Massachusetts, participants in a town meeting cried out against taxation without proper representation in Parliament, and suggested some form of united protest throughout the colonies.

What was the main purpose of the Sugar Act in 1764?

Sugar Act, also called Plantation Act or Revenue Act, (1764), in U.S. colonial history, British legislation aimed at ending the smuggling trade in sugar and molasses from the French and Dutch West Indies and at providing increased revenues to fund enlarged British Empire responsibilities following the French and Indian …

What was the Sugar Act summary?

What did the Sugar Act of 1764 do?

Rhode Island: Colonial period. The Sugar Act of 1764, which was meant to end the trade in smuggling sugar and molasses in the colonies, threatened Rhode Island commerce. Most of the colony’s trade in sugar was illegal; Rhode Island responded to this act with an official remonstrance admitting the illegality….

When did the sugar happen?

The Sugar Act was passed by Parliament on April 5, 1764, and it arrived in the colonies at a time of economic depression. It was an indirect tax, although the colonists were well informed of its presence.

How did the Sugar Act affect molasses smuggling?

The bribe to customs officials per gallon of smuggled molasses was 1.5p. The new Sugar Act lowered the duty to 3p per gallon. The British wrongly assumed that Americans would be willing to accept the newly reduced tax. The smuggling continued until 1766 when the tax was lowered to one pence, making it cheaper to legally pay the tax than to smuggle.

Why was the Sugar Act a tax on trade?

While many perceived the Sugar Act as an infringement of their constitutional rights because they were, for the first time, taxed to raise revenue for the benefit of the crown, others viewed it as a tax to regulate the flow of trade and as a continuation of the existing and long accepted 1733 Molasses Act.