Jason Walker 09/06/12 History Boston Tea Party The topic I have chosen to write about is the Boston Tea Party. This Tea Party was basically a resistant movement against the British Government. The reason why is because the British Government started to put taxes on the tea, and other things like the stamp act, to make the colonists pay for the protection they get from the British army that is there. But the colonist did not want to pay for those taxes at all. Reason being, is because the British army was not need.
In 1773 was the dumping of tea in the Boston Harbor and in June of 1774 the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts, were created which frustrated the colonists. The way the English had so much rule over them was one of the main reasons why they wanted to declare independence. The battle at Lexington and Concord was April 19, 1775 with the formation of the Second Continental Congress being in 1775. John Dickinson, the author of the document, was a delegate in both the First and Second Continental Congress. He was an esteemed writer who helped Thomas Jefferson write a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, and also wrote Olive Branch Petition, an appeal to King George III to resolve the dispute.
The Colonists thought if they complained loudly enough that Parliament would get rid of the taxes. But any taxes Parliament repealed were soon reinstated with other taxes or duties. England was trying to raise money to pay for the French-Indian war and was heavily taxing the Colonists. Things got really bad when the British taxed the favorite drink of the Colonist’s, tea. Tea was really popular at that time, kind of like coffee is today.
The Boston Tea Party happened in 1773. It all started when the British decided to start taxing the colonists in many ways, including a tea tax, as a way to get back their war costs. The colonists refused to pay some of these taxes and therefore England had to retract the taxes; all the taxes were taken back except for the tea tax. Parliament decided to get their tea from somewhere else rather than from where their tea was being taxed. This plan, however, backfired when the ships at the harbor were to have their tea goods sent to a warehouse where it was stored for three years.
It raised its prices and provided the India Company with ownership of the tea. The Act was authorized to protect the financial ruin. British allowed the taxes for the lowering cost of the products. The Tea Party was involved with destruction of the tea from different ships; one of the ships was named the Dartmouth, led by Captain Hall, another named the Beaver, led by Captain Bruce, and the last one was the Eleanor, led by Captain Coffin, each one of these ships held 114 containers of tea. All the tea on the three ships wound up in the Boston Harbor.
One of the more important events was the Boston Tea Party. When the Boston Tea Party[->0] comes to mind, many people think of the ship and the tea and patriotism in the 18th century. No one seems to think of the many different viewpoints that were brought up from that moment to the viewpoints from numerous textbooks over the years. Some thought highly of the patriots and their actions; some, however; were against the acts of colonists. Although the Patriots of the colonies viewed the Boston Tea Party[->1] as a rude awakening to England, the English viewed it as an
Townshend knew that his program would be controversial in the colonies, but he argued that, "The superiority of the mother country can at no time be better exerted than now." The Townshend Acts were created right after the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act was the English parliament taxing stamps on the colonies and it ended by the colonies wanting to have the same rights as the english. Unlike the stamp acts, it took quite some time before the colonists were concerned about it. Soon the colonies started to boycott, this resulted in a decrease in british trade for three years which eventually lead to the Townshend Acts being repealed by the prime minister.
Although communication between the King’s representatives and the Crown was slow Britain did react forcefully to the colonist rebellious actions. The Boston Tea Party was considered one of the earliest rebellious actions taken against the Crown. In 1767 the British government enacted the Indemnity Act, which did not last long and was replaced by the Townshend Act. The Townshend Act placed taxes on lead, glass, paper and tea. The most signification of which was the tax on tea; because the colonist drank approximately 1.2 million pounds of tea each year.
It was on December 16, 1773, when American patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians threw 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company from ships into Boston Harbor. Most people have heard about the Boston Tea Party but not everyone understands the importance of it, and why the Tea Party is still remembered today. The events leading to the Boston Tea Party began already ten years before (1763), when the English won the French-and-Indian War. The king of Britain passed taxes on the colonies to make up for the loss of money because of the war. The British-American colonists named the acts after Charles Townshend, who sponsored them.
The attempt to resolve these issues by the North Ministry resulted in a revolution. (The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence (2001), Library of America, 880pp) During the 17th century, the Europeans acquired a taste for tea which rival companies were created to import the tea from China. The Parliament in England, gave the East India Company the control of the importation of the tea in 1968. The Tea became very popular in the British colonies which caused the Parliament to remove foreign competition by passing a Tea Act in 1721 which required that colonies to import their tea from Great Britain and nowhere else. By law, the East India Company did not export the tea to the colonies.