Boston Tea Party Essay

In current day America, citizens either take their freedom lightly or believe they have no freedom at all. However, our ancestors thought differently in the past. The English colonist came to the New World for a number of reasons. Many came to the New World to escape bad marriages, jail terms, but many historian believe that many came to either get out of poverty or the fear of them falling into poverty. According to Brands, “Religion was a big reason for the English to come across the Atlantic”. The first colony was Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, which was not successful. After the first colony was established many more were established like New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and etc..

Though many laws were passed taxing the colonists, America had no say in the British Parliament. Patrick Henry’s speech embodies this argument when he says “We have no representatives in the British Parliament…… The Stamp Act is against the law. We must not obey it” (Doc. 1). This act of defiance caught the colonists’ attention and made them feel that perhaps they could change the laws after all. Another act of defiance against the British was the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party was a riot against the British that involved colonists dumping tons of tea from British ships into the sea. Britain then passed a law that said that the Boston Harbor would be closed until the colonists paid for the tea. This angered the colonists even more, and eventually led to the Revolution. As you can see, many rebellious deeds inspired the colonists and helped them confront the British.

After months of protests Parliament realized their mistake and repealed the tax, but the damage had already been done and the Colonists would start a revolution to separate themselves from the British. On December 16, 1773 the Sons of Liberty, a group of Patriots led by Samuel Adams cut open 340 chests of British East India Company tea, weighing over 92,000 pounds (roughly 46 tons), onboard the Beaver, Dartmouth, and Eleanor and then dumped it into Boston Harbor; a total loss of $1,700,000 dollars in today’s money. Weeks after the ordeal the harbor still had the smell of tea. Until the 340 chest of British Eat India Company tea were paid for the British completely closed off Boston Harbor. The Intolerable act which was meant to punish the actions of the Sons of Liberty. This did not help Colonists’ approval of the British government. The harsh punishments unified the American colonists even more against British rule. The effect the Boston Tea Party had was noteworthy and ultimately sparked the American Revolution which started only two years later in Massachusetts on April 19,

First of all, the colonists came together to rebel against the British because of economic sanctions imposed on them. The Intolerable Acts were a series of inimical laws imposed by the British after the Boston Tea Party. One aspect of the Intolerable Acts was that the colonial ports were ordered to be shut down which could have caused starvation within the colonies. According to the “Circular Letter of the Boston Committee of Correspondence,” by Samuel Adams, “it is said that [a] fleet of British ships of war is to block up our harbour until we make restitution to the East India Company for their loss of tea,” (Document 2). Adams described how the British were shutting down colonial ports and blocking the Boston Harbor. He stated that all colonists should be united in opposition to Britain’s violation of liberties. Adams believed that the British’s goal was to divide the colonies and therefore, wished to unite by suspending all trade with Britain. Parliament cut off commercial intercourse of entire colonies with foreign countries and each other. According to Document 3, “several [colonies] were entirely prohibited from the fisheries in the seas near their coasts, on which they had always depended for their sustenance;” (Document 3). The British

Franklin even warned the British that they would suffer loss with this operation since all the countrymen wanted it to be sent back. Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to send the ships back , which then caused for Patriot leader Samuel Adams to plan the Boston Tea Party using around sixty members of the Sons of Liberty . They dressed up as Mohawk Indians and boarded the ships. The Indian clothing that they wore was just to represent that they were not English men anymore, that they were American, they didn't mean to blame it on them or make fun of them. They were able to dump about 18,000 dollars’ worth of tea to the ocean on the night of December 16 . The Sons of Liberty wanted to keep the looters from salvaging, so they went out for next few days in boats and hit the boxes of tea so they would actually sunk in the ocean.

American history is full of battles and freedom fighters. From the Boston tea party to voting rights. America fought against a king who was unfair and unjust. They may have had a civil war but it was also for the idea that rights were being taken away. The country has many amazing historical characters that made it the country it is today. This paper will discuss the Boston Tea Party, George Washington’s inaugural address, his warnings upon leaving office as well as the Boston Massacre, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and John Adams on voting rights.

The Tea Act was an excellent example of how the British treatment was extremely aggressive. For instance, Britain banned all sale on non-britain tea, which then lead to the colonists getting extremely aggravated. By doing this, the colonists of Boston, Massachusetts rebled by dressings as mohawks, and dumping all tea into the Boston Harbor, which soon would be called, “The Boston Tea Party”.

Because of Britain?s unfair taxes and laws the colonists reacted in several different ways. Some reactions were economic, some were written, some were political and some were even violent. One reaction was to the taxes put on tea. The colonists had the Boston Tea Party in which colonists dressed as Indians and dumped hundreds of crates of tea into the Boston Harbor. (Doc#6) One form of violent protest was tarring and feathering. (Doc#2) It happened to a British customs inspector named John Malcom. He was stripped naked tarred and feathered, and dragged around town by horse drawn cart. (Doc#3) Another form of violent protest was when a stuffed dummy was hung in Boston representing a British tax collector named Andrew Oliver. Later that same night, his house was torn down in minutes by protesters. (Doc#4) A form of boycott was organized by the Sons and Daughters of Liberty. They made a poster saying not to buy anything from William Jackson, that if they did they would bring disgrace to

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.

The remarkable book by Benjamin L. Carp, Defiance of the Patriots-The Boston Tea party & the Making of America, captivates as it expresses the importance of the Boston Tea Party and explains the history behind it. His theory evidently states that the Boston Tea Party was the result of decades worth of American outrage at Britain's overwhelming policies. Carp repeatedly emphasizes his point through metaphors and diction. His purpose differs from others on the topic, simply by challenging the ideas that have been engraved into young minds by quick history lessons and basic fundamentals. He strives to change the idea that the Boston Tea Party was the cause of the American Revolution. Through his book, he clarifies his belief that the revolution was inevitable and his concept of the fact that all events building up to the Boston Tea Party were significant to the America we have today.

The article “The Spirt of ‘74” written by Ray Raphael discusses the problem that arose after the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party was a major event in history that showed that the colonists were happy with the high taxes on tea. They formed a group called the Sons of Liberty and dressed like Native Americans and threw crates of tea into the Boston Harbor. This was a major because it showed that the colonists weren’t going to let Parliament put taxes on one of their major goods. However, the Sons of Liberty didn’t thank of the repercussions. The Boston Tea Party caused severe conciseness to the citizens, such the Coercive Act and Massachusetts Government Act.

Amid growing tension between England and her American Colonists, the British passed the Intolerable Acts, a law that created a punitive tax for the destruction of Tea in the Boston Harbor. Though the British saw the Intolerable Acts as a compromise in dealing with the vandalism, the American colonists were enraged. Their anger led to the creation of the First Continental Congress and paved the path for the conflict of the American Revolution.

An act that was passed on the Colonists were the intolerable acts that caused so many problems that happened after the sons of liberty, which were a group of rebels, poured crates of tea into British harbors that will later be known as the Boston tea party in 1773 ( Document 4). To show the Colonists that the British do not tolerate this kind of behavior, they closed ports of Boston until the colonists pay back for

The origins for the reason of the rebellion has its roots as far back as 1767, when the British Parliament passed the Indemnity Act, which repealed the tax on tea and made British tea the same price as the Dutch. By the time of the Boston Tea Party, it was estimated that the colonists drank approximately 1.2 million pounds of tea each year, and Britain realized it could make even more money off of the tea trade by imposing taxes onto the American colonies. In response to the increased taxes, the American colonists began smuggling tea from the Dutch and other European markets. These

After the tea was discarded in Boston by the colonists, Intolerable Act was the next step that British took. This Law was premeditated to specially harm those who were involved in Boston Tea party. Again, these were prohibited by the colonial people and they started forming their own troops, resulting a war in Lexington and concord in April 1775. Consequently, after all these incident, independence was declared and revolutionary war was started.