Portraits of Politics

Patrick Henry introducing the Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions to the House of Burgesses in 1765

QUICK FACTS

           

Great Britain

Prime Ministers

  • George Grenville, 16 Apr 1763 – 13 Jul 1765
  • Marquess of Rockingham, 13 Jul 1765 – 30 Jul 1766
  • William Pitt, 30 July 1766 – 14 October 1768
  • Duke of Grafton, 14 October 1768 – 28 January 1770
  • Lord North, 28 Jan 1770 - 20 Mar 1782
  • Marquess of Rockingham, 27 Mar 1782 – 1 Jul 1782
  • Earl of Shelburne, 4 Jul 1782 – 2 Apr 1783
  • Duke of Portland, 2 Apr 1783 – 19 Dec 1783

Secretarys of State for the American Department

British Legislation

  • Proclamation of 1763
  • American Duties Act of 1764 (Sugar Act)
  • Currency Act of 1764
  • Stamp Act (1765)
  • Quartering Act of 1765
  • Repeal of the Stamp Act (1766)
  • Declaratory Act (1766)
  • Townshend Acts (1767)
    • Revenue Act
    • Indemnity Act
  • Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts; 1774)
    • Boston Port Act
    • Massachusetts Government Act
    • Administration of Justice Act
    • Quartering Act of 1774
    • Quebec Act

American Colonies

The Colonial Response

Racial prejudice worked to perpetuate American slavery, even if it was not essential to sustain the institution. Slavery, serfdom, and peonage had existed elsewhere without racial connotations. Indeed, bondage had been so historically ubiquitous one might well ask why, by the 1760’s, it had come to trouble so many white Americans so much. The answer lies in part — and this part help explain why people like Mason did not act more aggressively on their concerns — in the reservations many whites felt about living alongside members of a supposedly inferior race, whether slave or free. The problem was inherent in American slavery, and emancipation, by undermining white control, would only make it worse.

Jeff Broadwater
George Mason: Forgotten Founder (2006)