Use the following questions to guide your thinking and to prepare for the class discussion.
1. According to the documents that state the Parliamentary position (those from the Parliamentary Acts and Jenyns), what rights did the mother country have over the colonies? If these documents mention the right to tax, what specifically do they say about this right?
2. Do you discern in the documents written by the British an acknowledgement of political rights belonging to the colonists?
3. What do the colonial leaders (Henry, Adams and the members of the Continental Congress) say about the right of taxation?
4. According to these men, what political rights belonged exclusively to the colonies? Were any powers to be shared by the colonial legislatures and Parliament?