Boston Harbor was closed by these laws and would not be reopened until all the lost tea had been paid for. He also reduced town meetings in Massachusetts and stopped council member elections. Parliament strengthened the cantonment law, allowing the military to house soldiers in settlers' homes. The Intolerable Acts united the colonies against acts that threatened the political freedom of the colonists. “That we despise the chains of slavery; we despise any attempt to impose them upon us (Farmington, Conn., Intolerable Acts Resolutions, 94),” describes how American colonists viewed the Intolerable Acts as a form of repression, making them equivalent to the level of