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Massachusetts State Seal
Commonwealth Museum   Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin
Commonwealth Museum Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin

Intolerable Acts and Colonial Resistance

The British Parliament responded to the Boston Tea Party with the Coercive Acts of 1774, called the “Intolerable Acts” by the colonists.

Proclamation by General Gage, 1774. After the “Intolerable Acts,” Gage warned colonists to “avoid all Hypocrisy, Sedition, and Licentiousness, and all other Immoralities.” In 1811 this copy was used as scrap paper by Attleboro’s May family to tally family holdings including “sheep shears” and “bundles of hops.”

Proclamation by General Gage, 1774. After the “Intolerable Acts,” Gage warned colonists to “avoid all Hypocrisy, Sedition, and Licentiousness, and all other Immoralities.” In 1811 this copy was used as scrap paper by Attleboro’s May family to tally family holdings including “sheep shears” and “bundles of hops.”
- Courtesy of American Antiquarian Society

Coercive Acts of 1774

The port of Boston would be closed and blockaded until restitution was made for the tea. The Massachusetts Government Act restricted town meetings to one a year and mandated Royal appointment of the Council (the upper house of the legislature). The Act for the Impartial Administration of Justice allowed removal of trials to other colonies or Britain – ending the principle of trial by a jury of peers. The Quartering Act allowed high ranking officers to demand accommodations for troops.

The Road to Revolution

At first George Washington had expressed disapproval of the destruction of the tea. After the Coercive Acts he felt that liberty was threatened in all the colonies. On September 5, 1774 representatives of twelve of the thirteen colonies met in Philadelphia to oppose the Coercive Acts. Meetings of the “First Continental Congress” became a major step toward revolution.


General Thomas Gage replaced Thomas Hutchinson as Governor of Massachusetts. He would be in command in April of 1775 when fighting broke out at Lexington and Concord. - Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
General Thomas Gage replaced Thomas Hutchinson as Governor of Massachusetts. He would be in command in April of 1775 when fighting broke out at Lexington and Concord.
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia was the scene of the First Continental Congress. Colonial representatives met in response to the Coercive Acts, introduced in Massachusetts after the Boston Tea Party. - Pbjamesphoto
Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia was the scene of the First Continental Congress. Colonial representatives met in response to the Coercive Acts, introduced in Massachusetts after the Boston Tea Party.
- Pbjamesphoto
John Adams

President John Adams Portrait
- unknown

John Adams on the Tea Party
Adams admired the theatricality of the tea party and the fact that it did not lead to loss of life. “This is the most magnificent Monument of all. There is a Dignity, a Majesty, a Sublimity, in this last Effort of the Patriots, that I greatly admire…This Destruction of the Tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important Consequences. And so lasting, that I can’t but consider it as Epocha in History.” John Adams, 1773