Parliament's imposition of taxes on the North American colonies
led to organized opposition by the colonial legislatures. In
1773 Parliament passed a tea act giving the East India Company a
monopoly on the tea sold in the colonies. In December of that
year, residents of Boston, Massachusetts, tossed three shiploads
of tea into the harbor rather than let it be landed. In the
spring of 1774 Parliament retaliated and passed the Coercive
Acts (known in the colonies as the Intolerable Acts). These acts
included the Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boson to
all commerce effective June 1, 1774, until the tea was paid for
and restitution made to royal officials. The Massachusetts
Government Act altered the charter of Massachusetts to limit
town meetings and to allow the king to appoint a military
governor in place of the governor elected by the colony's
assembly, called the General Court. Word of the closing of the
port of Boston reached Williamsburg when the General Assembly
was in session in May 1774. Alth