Equal Protection and Race........................................................................................................ 1839. Overview..............................................................................................................................
Sugar cane plantations in the colonies of the West Indies. The older Sugar and Molasses tax charged the customer a duty of 6 pence per gallon of molasses. The bribe to customs officials per gallon of smuggled molasses was 1.5p. The new Sugar Act lowered the duty to 3p per gallon.
The Sugar Act is one of the manytaxes imposed by Parliament. It also added tax on molasses to stopthe colonists from smuggling it in. This law not only taxed sugarand molasses, but also taxed other products that England shipped tothe colonists.