 We had to stand attention for hours on end to protect the rotten rebels. My young men only got paid two cents a day for it. The Quartering Act was one way for King George III to secretly tax the colonists so they could pay back their debt for what he felt they owed him for the French and Indian War. But some colonists could barely afford their own food and shelter, and now they were responsible for feeding and sheltering a soldier too? Listen to Samuel Adams explain.