Tag «Smuggling»

Navigation Acts: England’s First Attempt to Keep the Lid on American Independence

Often misunderstood, the Navigation Act was not born of a punitive measure against a rebellious colony; such as the Coercive Acts of 1774 (labeled the Intolerable Acts by American patriots) which punished Massachusetts after a band of rowdy Bostonians dumped a fortune of East Indian tea in the harbor. The legislation that established England’s Laws …

American Revolution’s Long Path to War

The seeds of self-governance began in America with the first splash of the Mayflower’s anchor in 1620, nearly seventy years before the idea of self-rule was encouraged in England.  Great Britain’s Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the 1689 Bill of Rights established that the British Parliament, and not the king, had the ultimate authority in …