Violence, Protests, and New Taxes
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One consisted of colonial leaders using enlightenment ideas in their sermons and speeches, they also spread their cause by handing out pamphlets that promoted protesting against unfair taxes.
Another method they used that was probably one of the most effective were economic boycotts. They agreed on non-importation agreements from England. Now the women played an important role, since they couldn't import the material they used, they had to make it. It was because of all their contributions that they were named Daughters of Liberty.
The third way that colonists protested was much more physical. They used Violent Intimidation to get their point across. Mobs destroyed the homes of tax collectors and they used tarring and feathering as well.
Tarring and Feathering was a punishment that went back to the Middle Ages with Richard the Lionhearted and the Crusades. Tarring and feathering was successfully used as a weapon against the Townshend Duties (including the tea tax which led to the Boston Tea Party). In Parliament they hotly debated how best to punish the Bostonians. one member argued that "Americans were a strange set of people, and that it was in vain to expect any degree of reasoning from them; that instead of making their claim by argument, they always chose to decide the matter by tarring and feathering." Fearing that the practice was getting out of control and was harming their image, Boston leaders called a halt to the practice.
