Boston Tea Party

Examples of Boston Tea Party in the following topics:

• Tax Protests

  • 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.

• 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.
  • 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.
  • Whether or not Samuel Adams helped plan the Boston Tea Party is disputed, but he immediately worked to publicize and defend it.
  • "Americans throwing Cargoes of the Tea Ships into the River, at Boston"
  • 1789 engraving of the destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor.

• The Patriots

  • Prior to 1775, many of these Patriots were active in the Sons of Liberty, an organization formed to protect the rights of the colonists from usurpation by the British government and best known for initiating the Boston Tea Party in 1773.
  • The Sons of Liberty were the earliest Patriots and incited the Boston Tea Party.

• The Calm Before the Storm

  • The Tea Act of 1773, and the subsequent Boston Tea Party, arose from two issues confronting the British Empire in 1775: first, the financial problems of the British East India Company, and second, an ongoing dispute about the extent of Parliament's authority, if any, over the British American colonies without seating any elected representation.
  • 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.
  • British firms bought this tea and exported it to the colonies, where they resold it to merchants in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston.
  • Boston was the largest colonial importer of legal tea; smugglers still dominated the market in New York and Philadelphia.
  • In July of 1773, tea consignees were selected in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Charleston.

• 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.
  • The citizens of Boston viewed the Coercive Acts as unnecessary and cruel punishment that inflamed outrage against Britain even further.

• 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 .
  • These duties taxed items that were frequently imported to the colonies from Britain, including tea, paint, paper, and glass.
  • 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.

• Conclusion: The Consequences of the British Parliamentary Acts

  • Protests led eventually to the Boston Massacre of 1770, in which five colonists were killed.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • The British responded by implementing the Coercive Acts, which were punitive in nature and meant to make an example of the colonies, and sending British troops to Boston to close Boston Harbor, causing tensions and resentments to escalate further.

• The Boston Massacre and Military Occupation

  • The Boston Massacre was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which nine British Army soldiers killed five colonial civilian men.
  • The Boston Massacre, called "The Incident on King Street" by the British, was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five colonial civilian men.
  • In the days and weeks following the incident, a propaganda battle was waged between Boston's radicals and supporters of the government.
  • Later events such as the Boston Tea Party further illustrated the crumbling relationship between Britain and its colonies.
  • A sensationalized portrayal of the skirmish, later to become known as the "Boston Massacre," between British soldiers and citizens of Boston on March 5, 1770.

• Lexington and Concord

  • Tensions continued to rise throughout the colonies, and especially in New England, after the Boston Tea Party and the meeting of the First Continental Congress.
  • As Boston became the headquarters of British military operations, many residents fled the city.
  • Hoping for secrecy, his troops left Boston under cover of darkness, but riders from Boston let the militias know of the British plans.
  • Seventy-three British soldiers and 49 Patriots died during the British retreat to Boston.
  • Even now, after open warfare had started, Gage still refused to impose martial law in Boston.

• The Spreading Conflict

  • The British Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774 to reform colonial administration in British America and, in part, to punish the Province of Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party.
  • In May 1774, the Boston Town Meeting, with Samuel Adams acting as moderator, passed a resolution that called for an economic boycott in response to the Boston Port Act, which was one of the Coercive Acts.
  • The articles of the Continental Association imposed an immediate ban on British tea and a ban on importing or consuming any goods (including the slave trade) from Britain, Ireland, and the British West Indies to take effect on December 1, 1774.
  • They had seized arsenals, driven out royal officials, and besieged the British army in the city of Boston.
  • On June 14, 1775, the Congress voted to create the Continental Army out of the militia units around Boston, and quickly appointed Congressman George Washington of Virginia as commanding general of the Continental Army.