Quebec, << kwih BEHK, >> Act was a law passed by Britain (now also called the United Kingdom) in 1774 to calm tensions in Quebec. At that time, Quebec, though a British colony, had a largely French, Roman Catholic population. The act formally granted political rights and religious freedom to Catholic French Canadians in the colony.
After the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), Britain had taken control of Quebec from France. During the next 10 years, cultural and political tensions developed as the British attempted to bring Quebec under British laws. These laws severely limited the rights of Catholics. The Quebec Act retained British criminal law but guaranteed the use of French civil law in Quebec. It restored to the Catholic clergy in Quebec rights and privileges they had enjoyed when Quebec was a French colony. In addition, it enlarged Quebec to include much of present-day Ontario, Quebec, and the midwestern United States.
The Quebec Act angered many British colonists in both Quebec and the 13 American Colonies. British merchants in Quebec felt persecuted by the act. American colonial leaders felt that it was an assault on American freedoms and rights. The Quebec Act became known as one of the Intolerable Acts (see Intolerable Acts ), which the Americans used to help justify the Revolutionary War in America (1775-1783).
See also Carleton, Sir Guy .
