How did the patriots respond to the Proclamation of 1763?

The American colonists (there was not yet a group known as the patriots at that point) reacted to the Proclamation of 1763 in two main ways.  First, they protested it, though not nearly as vehemently as they would protest future British policies.  Second, they tended to ignore it.

The British government created the Proclamation of 1763 because they wanted to appease Native Americans.  There had been an Indian uprising known as Pontiac’s Rebellion and the...

The American colonists (there was not yet a group known as the patriots at that point) reacted to the Proclamation of 1763 in two main ways.  First, they protested it, though not nearly as vehemently as they would protest future British policies.  Second, they tended to ignore it.

The British government created the Proclamation of 1763 because they wanted to appease Native Americans.  There had been an Indian uprising known as Pontiac’s Rebellion and the British did not want this sort of thing to happen again.  They did not want to have to spend money to protect settlers west of the Appalachians and they did not want to jeopardize trade with the Indians.  For these reasons, the government issued the proclamation, prohibiting settlement west of the mountains.

American colonists were unhappy about this.  They felt that they deserved to expand past the Appalachians.  They felt that they had fought in the French and Indian War in part to drive France out of the west so they could move in.  They wanted to get the Indian lands for themselves.  Because of this, they protested against the Proclamation of 1763.  However, they did not do so violently and their protests were very minimal compared to what would happen later.

Second, the colonists ignored the proclamation.  Most of them, like George Washington, believed that the proclamation would be a temporary measure and that they would once again be able to expand out into new lands.  Washington wrote to a business colleague that he thought that the proclamation was simply issued “as a temporary expedient to quiet the minds of the Indians.”  Therefore, he and other colonists continued to go out into the western lands to stake claims.  The British did not really have the ability to stop the colonists, so the Proclamation of 1763 ended up being rather ineffective.