Program Information

In early spring 1774, the British Parliament, angered over colonial insubordination, passed a series of acts that would prove the law of unintended consequences. They would toss up a revolution.

A Moment in Time is a brief, exciting and compelling journey into the past. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past, its relevance to the present and its impact on the future, A Moment In Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.

Transcript

Lead: In early spring 1774 the British Parliament, angered over colonial insubordination, passed a series of acts that would prove the law of unintended consequences. They would toss up a revolution.

Intro: A Moment In Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Just before Christmas the previous year in Boston harbor, colonial agitators disguised as American Indians removed thousands of pounds of British East India Company Tea from cargo holds and threw it in the water. The Company was in debt and needed a political boost. It was able to persuade Parliament to permit the sale of tea direct to American consumers thereby undercutting local merchants and smugglers. A tiny little import tax was assigned to the tea; thus followed the Boston Tea Party. This act of defiance sent the House of Commons into a shouting rage and in retaliation it passed what was known in America as the Coercive or Intolerable Acts. The port of Boston was closed until restitution was paid British East India, the independent legislative powers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts were restricted, British officials arrested in America were removed from colonial jurisdiction and transported to England for trial and colonials were required to quarter royal troops in their homes.

Many were enflamed throughout the colonies with the cry, "No Taxation without Representation!" and a spirit of solidarity was created with the beleaguered Bostonians. The crown considered these acts imperative for governing the colonies effectively. Not so the colonials. People in America viewed the acts as a harsh, vindictive and an unwarranted exercise of arbitrary rule. Almost immediately a sense of continental colonial unity began to grow. Inter-colonial committees, called Committees of Correspondence, which theretofore had only exchanged information, began to endorse a gathering of representatives from each colony to discuss their response to the Intolerable Acts. Anger begat anger and a revolution began to take shape. Next Time: The First Continental Congress.

Research assistance by A. J. and Kira Doughan. The producer of A Moment In Time is Steve Clark. At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

Virginia Standards