The Boston Tea Party The night of December 16th 1773 also known as The Boston Tea Party may be one of the most influential and liberating days in American History. This particular day is important in American History because it was the main event in American history that sparked the Revolution. When the Boston Tea Party occurred on the evening of December 16th, 1773 it was the result of culmination of many bad feeling between the British Government and her colonies. A reoccurring issue that occurred between Great Britain and her colonies is that the colonies wanted to have the right to tax themselves. Britain however, did not agree with this. Britain believed that parliament had the right to supervise the colonies and tax them as necessary. …show more content…
A year later in 1765 The Stamp Act was enforced. Parliament did not expected any complaints from the colonist because all previous taxes were small. The Stamp Act raised money by taxing newspapers,legal documents, dice and playing cards. The colonies had expressed outrage so parliament repealed this tax. England however, still needed money so the townshend act was formed. The Townshend act taxed lead,glass,paint and tea. When the Townshend act was formed, colonist reacted with caution. Samuel Adams, an assemblyman and a member of The Sons of Liberty wrote the Massachusetts Circular Letter, this letter stated that Parliament's attempt to raise revenue went against the colonists rights because the colonies were not represented in Parliament. Boston then became the center of colonial defiance. The Sons of Liberty often held violent protests in which they tarred and feathered custom officials. Americans refused to buy British goods and Britain received great financial …show more content…
Insults were exchanged between citizens and off-duty soldiers, mobs formed in the streets of Boston and taunts occurred all day. At one point a citizen insulted a red coat and all out violence occurred. The soldier called for assistance and many soldiers rushed to his aid. Verbal attacks then turned into a physical confrontation in which colonists pelted soldiers with ice,snowballs,stones and clubs. Someone from the British side began shooting and killed 5 people and injured 6 others. This caused tension between the colonists and Britain. News was spread throughout the colonies that a horrid massacre had taken place in Boston and many colonist were convinced that the citizens of Boston were forced to defend themselves from out of control British soldiers. Britain however said that the British soldiers were driven to violence by the abusive and threatening citizens of Boston. This event in Boston is what caused Parliament to repeal the Townshend Act. Only the tea tax was kept.(8) This was known as the Tea Act of 1773. The Tea Act promised to lower the cost of East India Company tea by eliminating costs elsewhere. Most Americans saw this tax as unfair because they saw this tax as a”taxation without representation” When news of the tax spread to the colonies protests became spread out across the colonies. Hundreds of people gathered in
Many people believe that the Boston Tea Party arose just because of the Tea Act that came into play in 1773, but in-fact, this major statement arose from two issues surrounding the British Empire in 1765. The first of the issues was that the British East India Company was at risk of going under and the Parliament was finding ways to bring it back. The second issue was that there was a continuing dispute about the extent of the Parliament’s authority. Many colonists believe that the Parliament went overboard with their power and the people were concerned about the future. Attempting to resolve these two major issues, the North Ministry only worsened the problem and produced a showdown that would eventually result in revolution.
In 1773, the Tea Act placed taxes on tea, threatening the power of the colonies. The colonies, however, fought back by pouring expensive tea into the Boston harbor in an event now known as the Boston Tea Party. The enraged Parliament quickly passed the Intolerable Acts, shutting down the port of Boston and taking control over the colonies.
Passed in 1767, the Townshend Acts put taxes on several basic items that, to obtain them, needed to be imported. These items included glass, paper, lead, and tea. The British planned out the Townshend Acts a little differently than they had previously planned other acts. They passed the Townshend Acts in a way for them to still make money, but to avoid direct conflict with the colonists. The British thought that if they taxed imported items, as opposed to taxing items produced in the colonies (like the Stamp Act did), that the colonists wouldn’t have as much hostility towards the act. The second part of the Townshend Acts was sending of troops and warships to Boston. In September of 1768, warships arrived in Boston harbor carrying four thousand troops. The soldiers came to keep structure after all the colonists’ chaotic reactions of the past acts. The establishment of the Writs of Assistance was the last part of the Townshend Acts. British soldiers used the Writs of Assistance to search colonists’ houses for smuggled goods. After the British passed the Townshend Acts, the colonists had several reactions in response to them. One reaction was boycotting. This colonial boycott was on all imported British goods, and it was extremely widespread. The boycott encouraged more colonists to join the Sons and Daughters of Liberty, which lead to many colonists replacing items, which they would normally buy from British merchants, with homemade versions. These items included fabrics, candles, and tea. Another reaction was non-importation agreements. Non-importation agreements are written agreements that said that whoever signed one would not purchase items from British merchants until they got representation in British Parliament. A tremendous amount of colonists signed these agreements, and those who didn’t were sometimes harassed or had their property destroyed. Similarly,
George Hewes’ account of the Boston Tea party is considered a firsthand account of a historically significant event. The Boston Tea party took place the night of December 16, 1773 on three ships anchored in Boston Harbor. Hewes recounts the events leading up to the Boston Tea Party, the actual attack on the ships and its aftermath. He provides descriptive narration thus contributing to the historical context surround the Tea party. This event and many others leading up to it, provide a colorful backdrop on the eve of the American Revolution.
Before the French and Indian War, Britain had used a system of Salutary Neglect with the colonies, giving them a sense of freedom. While Britain still acknowledged the colonies, and the colonists remained loyal to the crown, the colonies were generally left to govern themselves. After the French and Indian War, however, King George III saw in his colonies a way to capitalize. Britain was in a post-war economic depression, and needed a source of income (Stamp Act). The colonies provided a perfect answer. They had set up their own systems of trade and manufacturing during the times of salutary neglect, and were becoming increasingly self sufficient. In order to obtain some of the colonists’ finances, Britain began to pass a series of taxes.
When the Boston Tea Party occurred on the evening of December 16,1773, it was the culmination of many years of bad feeling between the British government and her American colonies. The controversy between the two always seemed to hinge on the taxes, which Great Britain required for the upkeep of the American colonies. Starting in 1765, the Stamp Act was intended by Parliament to provide the funds necessary to keep peace between the American settlers and the Native American population. The Stamp Act was loathed by the American colonists and later repealed by parliament.
In the mid eighteenth century colonist of the new world started to rebel against Britain. Living in the colonies cost Britain a great deal of money Colonist did not like that they were being taxed. There were several acts passed that angered the colonists. For example, the Stamp Act, the Stamp Act was passed in 1765 taxed all legal documents including newspapers and other printed materials. The Stamp Act affected all that bought printed materials and it did not affect the poor because it was not too expensive. The colonist started to rebel and boycotted “No taxation without representation.” The colonists rebelled in many ways one of them was the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party occurred in 1773 as an act of revolt colonists threw tea cargo of a ship to the ocean. These acts of Britain towards the new colonies caused colonist to revolve and declare war to separate from Britain. The colonists were not justified to going to war to break away from Britain because England was paying more taxes and the mother country deserved absolute respect; however, the colonists were justified to break away from Britain because they were taxed without representation.
Britain decided to pull back most taxes except for the tea tax. Tea was important to the colonists
It also happened because the tax was a political move of the Parliament to claim control over the colonies. In light of the concept of agitation, it is clear that the Tea Party was a form of protest because the agitators did not like how the Parliament reasserts control. Although no one was hurt in this midnight raid, it sure did create a tension on the part of the Parliament. The physical presence of those who joined the raid tried to challenge the Tea Act of 1773. Although wasting a lot of tea should not be made a big deal, tea during that time was expensive and it has become a symbol of comfort by the colonists because they loved it. As such, the Boston Tea Party is significant because it showed that American colonists are very much willing to speak their freedom and exercise the same. Also, they are very willing to give up anything so that their right for independence is attained. Clearly, this is a form of lateral deviance because the agitators are very much willing to work outside the Parliament and in fact, colonists are ready for war. According to the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Tea Party led to the American Revolution on April 19, 1775 in Massachusetts. Accordingly, the participants of the midnight raid were not punished but one person who was remained anonymous was stripped and punished devastatingly. Klein asserts that more than 92, 000 pounds of tea were
Parliament needed to start taxing American colonists throughout the Seven Year Wars. They couldn’t raise taxes in the British population because their taxes were already too high. Their next option was to tax American colonists. American colonists were taxed on coffee, sugar, glass, paper, wine, and printed materials. Previous from the tax, tea from the colonies would be smuggled in from the Dutch since it had to be sent to England first.
During the year 1765, the first direct tax was imposed on the colonies called the Stamp Act. This was ran by the British Parliament. Colonists had issues with the shocking and unnecessary taxation. The Sons of Liberty were upset about high taxes against the colonist, and they went to court against the British. It was difficult because they had no representatives in the Parliament to defend them. Samuel Adams and a group called the Loyal Nine led protesters. Those protesters were part of a riot in the Stamp Act in August 1765
The Boston Tea Party was the British colonies angering the King of Britain in order for them to be represented fairly and not be taxed without it. This was the most disrespectful thing the colonies could do because this messed with the British money and messing with the money of any nation gets them to listen. The king established more acts in return for the colonies disloyalty to him and this further progressed the tension between Britain and the colonies.
The Boston tea party was a brief incident among many, composing, economic, and political crisis that ultimately caused a revolution. These events consisted of The French and Indian war, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Revenue Act, the Tea Act, and of course the Boston Tea Party. The incident caused by the colonies infuriated the British government therefore as punishment parliament responded to the abuse with the Coercive Acts of 1774 . When the thirteen colonies once again decided to resist the British troops revolution spread. “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” This act later on lead to the American Revolutionary War, were years later independence was
In the 1760s, Boston was full of disorder. With each new British law came protest from American colonists. The people of Boston believed that Britain did not have the right to tax them because they did not elect their representatives in Parliament. Only the Massachusetts Assembly, whose members were elected every year, had the right to tax its citizens. The Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767 led to boycotts and unrest, steered by a group known as the Sons of Liberty. As a result, the British government sent troops to Boston to keep order. Instead of staying in a fort on an island in the Boston harbor, the British troops stayed on the commons and were living in buildings in the middle of town. The British troops’ presence in Boston was not welcome and Bostonians viewed them as a threat. Because they did not like the English army in their city, fights between the American colonists and the British troops were common.
The Tea Party began February 19, 2009 by Rick Santelli as a political outcry to the financial crisis that did not only threaten the United States, but the entire world. Conservatives were deeply concerned with the perpetual bail outs for failing banks, and the millions of thousands of dollars going towards government programs like the newly proposed national healthcare bill. The Tea Party protests have continued, but have increasingly become more unpopular as the Tea Party continues to head a farther right direction.