SAQs for APUSH Topic 3.3 — No Taxation without Representation

Ten questions designed to help students review for the annual exam and that relate to a political slogan which expressed the belief of many colonists that they were not represented in the distant British parliament and hence any taxes it imposed on the colonists (such as the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts) were a denial of the colonists’ rights as Englishmen.

In the context of British taxation of its American colonies, the slogan “No taxation without representation” appeared for the first time in a headline of a magazine article printed in 1768.

1. The French and Indian War was one historical event that occurred before the 1768 first-ever public appearance of the slogan “no taxation without representation.” The French and Indian War played an all-important role in terms of the history of the slogan “no taxation without representation.” Click here for ten questions that relate to this 1754 armed struggle that pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France, each side supported by military units from the parent country and by Native American allies.
2. Pontiac’s War was another historical event that occurred before the 1768 first-ever public appearance of the slogan “no taxation without representation.” It too played an all-important role in the history of the slogan “no taxation without representation.” Click here for ten questions that relate to this ruthless and brutal 1863 conflict named after a prominent Native American Indian leader
3. The Stamp Act (1765) and the Townsend Act (1767) were two other historical events that occurred before the 1768 first-ever public appearance of the slogan “no taxation without representation.” Both the Stamp Act (1765) and the Townsend Act (1767) played all-important roles in the history of the slogan “no taxation without representation.” What was the purpose of the Stamp Act? What was the purpose of the Townsend Acts?
4. Imperial struggles of the mid18th century, as well as new British efforts to collect taxes without direct colonial representation or consent began to unite the colonists against perceived and real constraints on their economic activities and political rights. All of the following are evidence of how the colonists responded in face of British efforts to collect taxes without direct colonial representation: Smuggling, boycotts, attacks on tax collectors, the Boston Tea Party, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, and Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. Name and briefly describe one other colonial response to British efforts to collect taxes without direct colonial representation.
5. Imperial struggles of the mid18th century, as well as new British efforts to assert imperial authority in the colonies, began to unite the colonists against perceived and real constraints on their economic activities and political rights. “The “ending of salutatory neglect” is something that is often mentioned by historians when describing “new British efforts to assert imperial authority in the colonies.” What was “salutary neglect?”