1774
Parliament Passes The Boston Port Act
On this day in 1774, British Parliament passes
the Boston Port Act, closing the port of Boston and demanding that the city’s
residents pay for the nearly $1 million worth (in today’s money) of tea dumped
into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773.
The Boston Port Act was the first and easiest
to enforce of four acts that together were known as the Coercive Acts. The other
three were a new Quartering Act, the Administration of Justice Act and the
Massachusetts Government Act.
As part of the Crown’s attempt to intimidate
Boston’s increasingly unruly residents, King George III appointed General
Thomas Gage, who commanded the British army in North America, as the new
governor of Massachusetts. Gage became governor in May 1774, before the
Massachusetts Government Act revoked the colony’s 1691 charter and curtailed
the powers of the traditional town meeting and colonial council. These moves
made it clear to Bostonians that the crown intended to impose martial law.
In June, Gage easily sealed the ports of
Boston and Charlestown using the formidable British navy, leaving merchants
terrified of impending economic disaster. Many merchants wanted to simply pay
for the tea and disband the Boston Committee of Correspondence, which had
served to organize anti-British protests. The merchants’ attempt at convincing
their neighbors to assuage the British failed. A town meeting called to discuss
the matter voted them down by a substantial margin.
Parliament hoped that the Coercive Acts would
isolate Boston from Massachusetts, Massachusetts from New England and New
England from the rest of North America, preventing unified colonial resistance
to the British. Their effort backfired. Rather than abandon Boston, the
colonial population shipped much-needed supplies to Boston and formed
extra-legal Provincial Congresses to mobilize resistance to the crown. By the
time Gage attempted to enforce the Massachusetts Government Act, his authority
had eroded beyond repair.