Tea Act

Examples of Tea Act in the following topics:

• The Calm Before the Storm

  • The Tea Act of 1773 arose from the financial problems of the British East India Company and the dispute of Parliament's authority over the colonies.
  • Parliament attempted to resolve these issues through the Tea Act, which in turn set the stage for the Boston Tea Party and eventually the American Revolution.
  • Parliament passed a new act in 1772 that reduced this refund, effectively leaving a 10% duty on tea imported into Britain.
  • The North ministry's solution was the Tea Act, which received the assent of King George in May of 1773.
  • The Tea Act retained the three pence Townshend duty on tea imported to the colonies.

• The Boston Tea Party

  • In response to the British Tea Act of 1773, the Sons of Liberty took action in what would later be known as the Boston Tea Party.
  • Upon hearing word of the details in the British Tea Act of 1773, the Sons of Liberty took action after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain.
  • The Boston Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773.
  • Americans learned the details of the Tea Act while the ships were en route, and opposition began to mount.
  • Evaluate the political and economic motivations that shaped the colonial response to the Tea Act

• Conclusion: The Consequences of the British Parliamentary Acts

  • Like the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts led many colonists to work together against what they perceived to be an unconstitutional measure.
  • The Tea Act of 1773 triggered a reaction with far more significant consequences than either the 1765 Stamp Act or the 1767 Townshend Acts.
  • They understood that Parliament had again asserted its right to impose taxes without representation, and they feared the Tea Act was designed to seduce them into conceding this important principle by lowering the price of tea to the point that colonists might be satisfied.
  • They also deeply resented the East India Company’s monopoly on the sale of tea in the American colonies; this resentment sprang from the knowledge that some members of Parliament had invested heavily in the company.
  • The colonial rejection of the Tea Act culminated in an act of resistance known as the Boston Tea Party, in which a group of colonists from the Sons of Liberty threw $1 million in today's dollars worth of British tea that was meant to be sold in the colonies.

• Tax Protests

  • The first wave of protests attacked the Stamp Act of 1765, and marked the first time Americans from each of the thirteen colonies met together and planned a common front against illegal taxes.
  • The Boston Tea Party of 1773, the most popular example, dumped British tea into Boston Harbor because it contained a hidden tax Americans refused to pay.
  • The Parliament attempted a series of taxes and punishments which met more and more resistance, namely the First Quartering Act (1765), the Declaratory Act (1766), the Townshend Revenue Act (1767), and the Tea Act (1773).
  • In response to the Boston Tea Party Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts: the Second Quartering Act (1774), the Quebec Act (1774), the Massachusetts Government Act (1774), the Administration of Justice Act (1774), the Boston Port Act (1774), and the Prohibitory Act (1775).
  • During the Boston Tea Party of 1773, Americans dumped British tea into Boston Harbor in protest of a hidden tax.

• British Taxes and Colonial Grievances

  • The Townshend Acts, passed in 1767, taxed imports of tea, glass, paint, lead, and even paper.
  • In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, which exempted the British East India Company from the Townshend taxes.
  • Thus, the East India Company gained a great advantage over other companies when selling tea in the colonies.
  • The colonists who resented the advantages given to British companies dumped British tea overboard in the Boston Tea Party in December of 1773 .
  • The Boston Tea Party was orchestrated by the Sons and Daughters of Liberty, who fiercely protested the British-imposed taxes.

• Nonconsumption and the Daughters of Liberty

  • Proving their commitment to "the cause of liberty and industry" they openly opposed the Tea Act.
  • They experimented to find substitutes for taxed goods such as tea and sugar.
  • Discoveries like boiled basil leaves to make a tea-like drink, referred to as Liberty Tea, helped lift spirits and also allowed Colonials to keep traditions alive without the use of British taxed tea .
  • They helped end the Stamp Act in 1766.
  • These import duties were birthed from the Intolerable Acts that Britain passed in the wake of the Boston Tea Party the previous year, which protested high taxes against tea and other products.

• The Coercive Acts

  • Four of the acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December 1773.
  • The first of the acts passed in response to the Boston Tea Party was the Boston Port Act.
  • This law closed the port of Boston until the East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea and the king was satisfied that order had been restored.
  • Colonists objected that the Port Act punished all of Boston rather than just the individuals who had destroyed the tea.
  • Although many colonists found the Quartering Act objectionable, it generated the least amount of protest of the Coercive Acts.

• Government in the English Colonies

  • For example, taxes on the importation of products including lead, paint, tea and spirits were imposed.
  • After the Boston Tea Party, Great Britain's leadership passed acts that outlawed the Massachusetts legislature.
  • The Quartering Act and the Intolerable Acts required Americans provide room and board for British soldiers.

• The Townshend Acts

  • The first of the Townshend Acts, sometimes simply known as the Townshend Act, was the Revenue Act of 1767.
  • This act represented a new approach for generating tax revenue in the American colonies after the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766.
  • Discoveries like boiled basil leaves to make a tea-like drink, referred to as Liberty Tea, helped lift spirits and also allowed colonists to keep traditions alive without the use of British taxed tea.
  • They helped end the Stamp Act in 1766.
  • Although some in Parliament advocated a complete repeal of the act, North disagreed, arguing that the tea duty should be retained to assert the right of taxing the Americans.

• The Tea Ceremony

  • The Japanese tea ceremony or chanoyu, also known as the Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural ritual involving the cemeronial preparation and presentation of matcha or powdered green tea.
  • The tea bowl, available in a wide range of sizes and styles, with different styles used for thick and thin tea.
  • The tea caddy, a small lidded container in which the powdered tea is placed for use in the tea-making procedure.
  • The tea scoop, generally carved from a single piece of bamboo, ivory, or wood and used to scoop tea from the tea caddy into the tea bowl.
  • The tea whisk, used to mix the powdered tea with the hot water and typically carved from a single piece of bamboo.