Sugar Act | Summary & Facts (2024)

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Sugar Act | Summary & Facts? ›

Enacted on April 5, 1764, to take effect on September 29, the new Sugar Act cut the duty on foreign molasses from 6 to 3 pence per gallon, retained a high duty on foreign refined sugar, and prohibited the importation of all foreign rum.

Sugar 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 War.

The Sugar Act of 1764, also known as the American Revenue Act, was passed by the British Parliament on April 5, 1764, to combat molasses smuggling in the American colonies and earn revenue to fund the colonies' defense. The measure was unpopular and contributed to the American Revolution from 1765 to 1789.

The first act was the Sugar Act, which was passed in 1764. This placed a tax on sugar and molasses imported into the colonies. This was a huge disruption to the Boston and New England economies because they used sugar and molasses to make rum, a main export in their trade with other countries.

The Sugar Act served as a revenue raising act, passed by Great Britain to tax sugar and other goods to pay for the Seven Years War.

The Sugar Act of 1764 was introduced by British Prime Minister George Grenville in an attempt to raise funds from the minimally taxed American colonists to provide for their defense and to use strict penalties to end the smuggling trade of sugar and molasses.

There was major resistance (protest) in New England where manufacturing rum was a big industry. Samuel Adams led the first protest to the Sugar Act in Boston. Adams tried to influence the local government and got many merchants to boycott (not buy) British goods. Boycotting became a tool colonists used to protest.

Second, the Sugar Act violated a long-standing precedent in which Britain had not taxed the colonies to raise revenue. Now the colonies faced an indirect tax, a tax added to the cost of the goods, rather than a direct tax that would require payment from the consumers. This would set a new precedent.

The Sugar Act 1764 was repealed in 1766 and replaced with the Revenue Act 1766, which reduced the tax to one penny per gallon on molasses imports, British or foreign. This occurred around the same time that the Stamp Act 1765 was repealed.

Why did people not like the Sugar Act? ›

Answer and Explanation: The colonists disliked the Sugar Act of 1764 because they saw it as illegitimate law passed by Parliament, an infringement on the colonists' control of their local affairs.

The Sugar Act of 1764 led to the famous slogan of "No taxation without representation" because the Americans didn't have any representation in the British Parliament. Q.

The Sugar Act, officially titled the American Revenue Act, was passed by British Parliament in April 1764 in cooperation with Prime Minister George Grenville.

British Prime Minister George Grenville proposed the Sugar Act as a way for Britain to generate revenue to protect its foreign colonies and pay its debts from the French and Indian Wars. In the American colonies, the Sugar Act was especially harmful to merchants and consumers in the New England seaports.

They feared Britain might be moving towards seizing power from colonial governments, such as the right to tax. The colonial leaders did not want that to happen. They wanted the American colonies free to govern themselves as they had been doing for many years.

If an accused smuggler was apprehended, the vice admiralty courts lacked juries and treated the accused as guilty until proven innocent. Little did Grenville realize that he was antagonizing the colonists, who believed that the Sugar Act and its anti-smuggling provisions violated their rights as Englishmen.

The Act and Its Effects

The British Parliament passed the law called the Stamp Act in 1765. The act said that people in the American colonies had to use a stamp on newspapers and legal documents. The colonists had to buy the stamp from the British government. The colonists protested the tax.

The Quartering Act required the American colonies to provide quarters (lodging) to British forces stationed in their towns or villages. The colonies also had to supply the troops with food and drink, fuel, and transportation. The British Parliament passed the law in 1765.

The Sugar Act 1764 was repealed in 1766 and replaced with the Revenue Act 1766, which reduced the tax to one penny per gallon on molasses imports, British or foreign. This occurred around the same time that the Stamp Act 1765 was repealed.

The Sugar Act was an extension of the Molasses Act of 1733; it reduced the tax on molasses from 6 pence per gallon to 3 pence but restricted the trade of other valuable goods and placed harsh penalties on anyone convicted of smuggling molasses.