C: The Quartering Act

Definition of the Quartering Act (A BRITISH Action)

“To quarter” means to give soldiers a place to stay. The Quartering Act was a British law passed by the Parliament of Great Britain 1765 that was designed to force local colonial governments to provide provisions and housing to British soldiers stationed in the 13 Colonies of America. The 1765 Quartering Act made provisions for British troops to be given food and shelter at the expense of the American colonists. Colonists also had to provide fuel, candles, beer, and transportation to the troops.

Reasons for the Quartering Act of 1765

In April 1763, George Grenville became the British Prime Minister. Grenville needed to reduce the national debt. Before the French and Indian War the British national debt was only 72 million pounds. By the end of the French and Indian War January 1763, the debt had escalated to almost 130 million pounds. The cost of bringing the British army back to Britain could be avoided if the soldiers remained in the colonies - so the forces stayed in America as a standing army, through the provisions of the Quartering Act.

The British victory in the French Indian Wars, saw the start of changes in the American colonies. The 13 colonies were looking to expand their territories to the west. The British had other ideas. The Proclamation of 1763 was designed to calm the fears of Native Indians by halting the westward expansion by colonists whilst expanding the lucrative fur trade. The introduction of the massive boundary, called the Proclamation Line, required the establishment, and the manning, of posts along the border - which the British administration argued was for the defense of the colonists and could be implemented through the Quartering Act.

To pay the war debt the British ended their policy of Salutary Neglect in the colonies. They started to enforce the laws of the Navigations Acts and looked for ways of imposing new taxes in the colonies. If they were to collect the new taxes the British would needed a strong military presence to enforce the new measures - the Quartering Act would help them achieve this.

The Effect of and COLONIAL RESPONSE to The Quartering Act of 1765

In 1765 several taxes and new laws were passed by the British Parliament to increase revenue for Great Britain—which were to the detriment of the American colonists. The Quartering Act was one of these new measures and was passed on March 24, 1765. The British sent an additional 40,000 soldiers to the colonies in 1765 to protect the borders of the colonies and also to help to collect taxes from the colonists - it was a British show of force. The British believed that the colonies should foot the bill for British protection - hence the provisions of the 1765 Quartering Act. The colonists felt that the army had been sent to control them, not to protect them like Parliament claimed. They felt that the British should have asked for their approval before passing a law that affected their personal lives and their pocketbooks.