“For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever” I need to know what act it was

What does the quote describe? “the closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us….the shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.”