(I have looked for similar questions & didn't find any, please post relevant ones below!)

As a AP U.S. History student, I'm aware of the series of escalating British Acts (and the escalating colonial responses) that are usually cited as the main catalyst for the war. But why were the early taxes so awful to begin with? Did they hurt the economy that badly? Who, exactly, was hit hardest?

I'm confused because, to me, there's a huge gap between how the writers of the time cast the revolutionary fight and the insignificance of the catalyst. The end of Salutary Neglect seems like a much more important reason, but that's not really what people point to as a main cause of the war.