Boston Tea Party 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 The Stamp Act was loathed by the American colonists and later repealed by parliament. (http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/History.htm) However, the British government quickly enacted other laws designed to solve monetary problems. Each act was met with resistance. The Boston Tea Party was the final act of focused rage against a Parliamentary law. The Americans were well organized to resist new financial demands placed upon them by the British Parliament. In 1765 the secret organizations known as the Sons and the Daughters of Liberty were created to boycott British products. By early 1773 the assemblies of Massachusetts and Virginia had created the Committees of Correspondence, which were designed to communicate within the colonies any threats to American liberties. In April 1773 the British Parliament passed the Tea Act, which allowed the East Indian Company to undersell colonial tea merchants in the American market. The stage was set for a confrontation. (Burns, B31) In the first few months of 1773 the British East India Company found it was sitting on large stocks of tea that it could not sell in England. It was on the verge of bankruptcy, and many members of Parliament owned stock in this company. (USA, 1) The Tea Act in 1773 was an effort to save it. The Tea Act gave the company the right to export its merchandise without paying taxes. Thus, the company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade. By October, the Sons of Liberty in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston threatened tea imports and pledged a tea boycott. The Tea Act was incendiary for many reasons. First, it angered colonial merchants who feared they would be replaced and bankrupt by this powerful company. Second, the company chose to give exclusive privileges to certain merchants for the sale of their tea. Third, the Tea Act revived... ... middle of paper ... ...itish government. In Boston, the site of a bloody confrontation between British redcoats and Americans citizens less than 10 years before, emotions ran high. Boston was a center of agitation and finally on the night of December 16,1773, the course of world history was changed. A revolutionary event was on the horizon. As once patriot mournfully observed, “Our cause is righteous and I have no doubt of final success. But I see our generation, and perhaps out whole land, drown in blood.” (Liberty, 2) The rest is history. Works Cited: Boston Tea Party Burns, Robert E. Episodes in American History. Massachusetts: Ginn & Co., 1973. Gilbert, Philip, and Norman Graebner. A History of the American People. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1971. Hewes, George. “Boston Tea Party – Eyewitness Account”. The History Place. http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/teaparty.htm (13 Mar. 2001) “Liberty: High Tea in Boston Harbor”. PBS Online. 1997. http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/chronicle/episode1.html (13 Mar. 2001) “USA: Boston Tea Party”. Department of Humanities Computing. 1997. http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/E/teaparty/bostonxx.htm (10 Mar. 2001)
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Show MoreIn May 1773, Parliament passed out the Tea Act. This act was designed to save the East India Company from bankruptcy.
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.
The Tea Act gave one British company the right to control all trade in tea with the colonies. Tea would be shipped to the colonists on this company's ships. It would be sold in the colonies by this company's merchants, while the colonists would still have to pay the tax on tea. This company was the East India Tea Company.The purpose of the Tea Act was not to impose higher taxes on the people but to rather bail out
With out competition the East India Company had full control over the prices they set. This infuriated the Colonists. Pamphlets and protests did not seem to be cutting it anymore, so some felt like action needed to be taken. The Sons of Liberty answered the call. In an act of defiance, “a few dozen of the Sons of Liberty, opposing new British laws in the colonies, systematically dumped three shiploads of tea into Boston harbor. They acted to prevent the royal authorities from collecting taxes on that import” (Bell). This made left Parliament infuriated. They did what they only know how to do and put a tighter squeeze on the colonists. Their answer was the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts in the Colonies. The first of these acts was the Boston Port Bill. This bill shut down the Boston Harbor, the livelihood of many Bostonians. It would not re-open until the tea that was dumped could be paid off. Another one of the Intolerable Acts was the Massachusetts Government Act, in which they had to hand their government over to royal officials. Many saw this as too far or unacceptable. As shown by the statement, “Most historians agree that the Intolerable Acts were among the leading causes of the American Revolution (1775–83) as the legislation galvanized opposition to British political and economic policies in the
By this point, the colonists were beginning to question Britain’s motives towards them. They believed they were being treated like slaves and being used solely for the economic growth of Britain. One night, in 1773, the colonists rebelled against these taxes on their tea. A group of men dressed as Native Americans boarded a ship at Boston Harbor and unloaded three vessels of taxed tea (Boston Tea Party). This event, known a...
In response to the Tea Act of 1773, the colonists had various reactions. The Tea Act was suggested by Lord North in order to save the East India Company from bankruptcy. This act also allowed the East India Company to bypass most of the taxes placed on tea, except for the Townshend Act tea tax. The Tea Act made the East India Company’s tea the cheapest, even with the tax. The colonists were
On a cold December night, a group of townspeople stormed the ships in the Boston harbor and tossed 342 chests of tea into the ocean. This event is known by the Boston tea party, it was a protest of the colonists against the Tea Act which passed by the Parliament on May 10, 1773. This act granted the British East India Company Tea a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies. Since the tea cargos were the only thing townspeople thrown overboard and they were really careful about the other things on the ship, they are sending a clear message: they are not going to pay the tax on tea. The colonists loved tea, they used it on daily basis. And it is
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.
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
The Boston Tea Party gave ideas to others and afterwards people boarded on the ships in Annapolis and New York to prevent any tea to land. Colonists all over the coast of North America continued to boycott any tea from the East India Company. Unfortunately their actions did lead to consequences from British Parliament. After Parliament closed the ports, all the colonists felt bad and started to support the Bostonians. The colonists called for a Continental Congress from the Committees of Correspondence. They wanted to set up a timetable for no consumption, exportation, or importation of British goods to protest.
The Intolerable Acts of 1774 greatly fueled the First Continental Congress. In response to the Boston Tea party, the British Parliament decided that a series of laws were needed to calm the rising resistance in America. “One law closed Boston Harbor until Bostonians paid for the destroyed tea. Another law restricted the activities of the Massachusetts legislature and gave added powers to the post of governor of Massachusetts.” As one can imagine, the American colonist viewed this as the British attempt to curtail their quest for independence.
Most people have heard of The Boston tea party. When American patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded the British ships in the Boston harbor and dumped all of the tea into the ocean. But what most people fail to realize is the great importance behind this protest. To fully understand a topic of history one must first acknowledge the actions behind it. The French and Indian war, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Revenue Act, as well as the Tea Act are all important catalysts of the legendary Boston tea party. Which is why we will discuss these topics before examining the events of the Boston tea party.
Britain finally heard about the Boston Tea Party in January 20, 1774. They shut down Boston Harbor and Boston until all 340 chests of British East India Tea Company were paid for. This was known as the Boston Port Act. The British also made the Quebec Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and
“John Hancock organized a boycott of tea provided by the East India Company, which was subject to an import tax, and helped to enforce the boycott by smuggling tea in so that the colonists would not go without their favored beverage.” This is what resulted in the Tea Act. "The trade in tea with China that was the most viable in the 18th century. Tea accounted for more than 60% of the Company’s total trade in the late 1700's. Customs duty on tea was providing 10% of the British government's annual revenues.” The Tea Act being passed was not aimed to make the American colonists angry, but it made many mad. American colonists could buy no tea unless it came from the company. American colonists saw this law as yet another meaning of “taxation without representation” because it meant that they could not buy tea from anyone else without spending a lot more money. There was a bad reaction to the Tea Act.
The imperial tactics of the British Empire were exercised on the colonists through heavy taxes trade restrictions because of their mercantilist economy. The Stamp Act taxed the colonists directly on paper goods ranging from legal documents to newspapers. Colonists were perturbed because they did not receive representation in Parliament to prevent these acts from being passed or to decide where the tax money was spent. The colonists did not support taxation without representation. The Tea Act was also passed by Parliament to help lower the surplus of tea that was created by the financially troubled British East India Company. The colonists responded to this act by executing the Boston Tea Party which tossed all of the tea that was imported into the port of Boston. This precipitated the Boston Port Act which did not permit the colonists to import goods through this port. The colonists protested and refused all of these acts which helped stir the feelings of rebellion among the colonists. The British Mercantilist economy prevented the colonists from coin...