Yet Americans were ready for war. The Tea Act of 1773, and the subsequent Boston Tea Party, arose from two issues confronting the British Empire in 1775. It began as a street brawl between American colonists and a lone British soldier, but quickly escalated to a chaotic, bloody slaughter. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. Contact Another Fabulous Site from Feldman Publishing | Advertise With Us | The colonists loved tea. The Boston Massacre and its fallout further incited the colonists’ rage towards Britain. But as with most ...read more, The Battles of Lexington and Concord, fought on April 19, 1775, kicked off the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). The Boston Tea Party was a catalyst for one of the most important events that ever took place in the history of the founding of America. The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that occurred on December 16, 1773, at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston Tea Party Was a reaction by the colonists of the British. We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe. In response to the Tea Act of 1773, levying taxes on tea imported to the American colonies by the British East India Company, American colonists seized tea shipments and tossed them into the Boston harbor on December 16, 1773, an event remembered as the Boston Tea Party. By December 16, 1773, Dartmouth had been joined by her sister ships, Beaver and Eleanor; all three ships loaded with tea from China. Massachusetts Historical Society. The event was the first major act of defiance to British rule over the colonists. What Was the Date of the Boston Tea Party? In 1773 the East India Company was one of the strongholds of British economy. The tree became a rallying point for the growing resistance to the rule of Britain over the American colonies, and the ground … "Why Was The Boston Tea Party Significant?." Creating a nation. For others it was one of the most significant moments in American history. The Sons of Liberty were a group of colonial merchants and tradesmen founded to protest the Stamp Act and other forms of taxation. For many people, the Boston Tea Party was a waste of a lot of good tea. On the night ...read more, The Committees of Correspondence were the American colonies’ means for maintaining communication lines in the years before the Revolutionary War. It took nearly three hours for more than 100 colonists to empty the tea into Boston Harbor. So just after three boats carrying shipments of tea docked on Boston’s harbor, about 200 men in Indian costume boarded the ships and dumped all of the tea overboard into the harbor. The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that occurred on December 16, 1773, at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. The Townshend Acts of 1767 went a step further, taxing essentials such as paint, paper, glass, lead and tea. The Boston Tea Party was a symbolic act that showed the British how far American colonists were willing to go to speak out for their freedom. Surely the colonists would rather spend less for their tea and buy it from British sources. A Tea Party Timeline: 1773-1775. On March 5, 1770, a street brawl happened in Boston between American colonists and British soldiers. While some important colonist leaders such as John Adams were thrilled to learn Boston Harbor was covered in tea leaves, others were not. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. The act’s main purpose was not to raise revenue from the colonies but to bail out ...read more, From April 1775 to March 1776, in the opening stage of the American Revolutionary War (1775-83), colonial militiamen, who later became part of the Continental army, successfully laid siege to British-held Boston, Massachusetts. Though lead by Samuel Adams and his Sons of Liberty and organized by John Hancock, the names of many of those involved in the Boston Tea Party remain unknown. Six of the Loyal Nine are documented to have been involved in the Boston Tea Party in one capacity or another. British ships carrying tea sailed into Boston Harbor and refused to leave until the colonials took their tea. The midnight raid, popularly known as the “Boston Tea Party,” was in protest of the British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773, a bill designed to … The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Skirmishes between British troops and colonial ...read more, Samuel Adams was a Founding Father of the United States and a political theorist who protested British taxation without representation, uniting the American colonies in the fight for independence during the Revolutionary War. Monetarily, this British Parliament plan made sense. Still, with the help of prominent tea smugglers such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams —who protested taxation without representation but also wanted to protect their tea smuggling operations—colonists continued to rail against the tea tax and Britain’s control over their interests. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! The colonists, however, disagreed. Practice: The American Revolution. READ MORE: 7 Events That Enraged Colonists and Led to the American Revolution. . The British thought that this would be a good way of forcing the colonists to pay the tea tax and still pay less money overall for the tea. All Rights Reserved. The protestors who caffeinated Boston Harbor were railing against the Tea Act, which the British government enacted in the spring of 1773. During the Boston Tea Party, several hundred participants, including Paul Revere, dressed in disguise, rowed in small boats out to three cargo ships anchored in Boston Harbor, climbed aboard and dumped 90,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. John Avery, Thomas Chase, Stephen Cleverly, and Thomas Crafts were present at the first planning meeting of the Boston Tea Party held in a small counting room above Chase and Speakman’s distillery. Boston was boycotting the tea in protest of the Tea Act and would not let the ships bring the tea ashore. The Boston Tea Party took place on the night of December 16, 1773, a few years before the start of the American Revolution in 1775. It wasn’t about to give up tax revenue on the nearly 1.2 million pounds of tea the colonists drank each year. Rather than inflicting new levies, however, the legislation ...read more, The Tea Act of 1773 was one of several measures imposed on the American colonists by the heavily indebted British government in the decade leading up to the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). The group of revolutionists included prominent patriots such as Benedict Arnold, Patrick Henry and Paul Revere, as well as Adams and Hancock. The Stamp Act of 1765 taxed colonists on virtually every piece of printed paper they used, from playing cards and business licenses to newspapers and legal documents. The Boston Tea Party was one of the more powerful and significant messages sent to Great Britain to let them know that the colonies of America were going to do what it took to be independent from them. No one was hurt, and aside from the destruction of the tea and a padlock, no property was damaged or looted during the Boston Tea Party. The colonists refused, and Hutchison never offered a satisfactory compromise. When- December 16, 1773 Significance- Showed Britain that the colonists were serious about boycotting their goods and remains an iconic image of American history. This is where tea comes into play. American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the harbor. After Parliament passed the Tea Act, American colonists reacted with a tea party of their own. Thanks to their Native American costumes, only one of the tea party culprits, Francis Akeley, was arrested and imprisoned. It showed Great Britain that Americans wouldn’t take taxation and tyranny sitting down, and rallied American patriots across the 13 colonies to fight for independence. George Robert Twelves Hewes (August 25, 1742 – November 5, 1840) was a participant in the political protests in Boston at the onset of the American Revolution, and one of the last survivors of the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre.Later he fought in the American Revolutionary War as a militiaman and privateer.Shortly before his death at the age of 98, Hewes was the … If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. So why was a masked raid on tea-carrying boats such a big deal? The Second Continental Congress. The Boston Tea Party took place on the night of December 16, 1773. In the American Revolution there were many who were willing to give their lives for the cause of American freedom. What was more important, the cost of a little tea or the principle of opposing unfair British rule? In June of 1774, George Washington wrote: “the cause of Boston…ever will be considered as the cause of America.” But his personal views of the event were far different. The Tea Act gave the East India Company a monopoly on the sale of tea, which made it cost about half of what the colonists were spending for their contraband tea. The Liberty Tree (1646–1775) was a famous elm tree that stood in Boston near Boston Common, in the years before the American Revolution.In 1765, colonists in Boston staged the first act of defiance against the British government at the tree. Resource Feed Newsletter Feed Game Feed All Feeds, Copyright © 1996 - 2021 Surfnetkids.com, Inc. | About | Privacy Policy | Salutary Neglect - British had been ignoring what was going on in the colonies, and then suddenly decided to take control again The colonists who advocated independence from the British and their unfair taxes wanted to send a message to Parliament that they could not ignore. Governor Thomas Hutchison refused to allow the ships to return to Britain and ordered the tea tariff be paid and the tea unloaded. The siege included the June 1775 Battle of Bunker ...read more, Most Americans can tell you that the first unofficial “declaration of independence” happened in Boston, when a band of tax-hating renegades dumped King George’s beloved tea into the harbor, a spirited act of defiance that united the colonies in revolution. During the late 1760’s and early 1770’s the government of Great Britain wanted to make sure that the thirteen colonies in American remained submissive and loyal to its rule. Said participant George Hewes, “We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of the water.”, Hewes also noted that “We were surrounded by British armed ships, but no attempt was made to resist us.”. Generally approved by … https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/boston-tea-party. The Boston Tea Party was a catalyst for one of the most important events that ever took place in the history of the founding of America. These acts also forced colonists to shelter soilders in their own homes. Tea from British suppliers was expensive. Surfnetkids. The Boston Tea Party. The “tea partiers” were not protesting a tax hike, but a corporate tax break. 1. 21 Feb. 2021. He was the second cousin of John Adams and the ...read more. Did you know? A second Boston Tea Party took place in March 1774, when around 60 Bostonians boarded the ship Fortune and dumped nearly 30 chests of tea into the harbor. On September 5, 1774, elected delegates from all 13 American colonies except Georgia met in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress to figure out how to resist British oppression. The Tea Act was seen by many as a challenge of loyalties. In protest, the colonists boycotted tea sold by British East India Company and smuggled in Dutch tea, leaving British East India Company with millions of pounds of surplus tea and facing bankruptcy. 9 Aug. 2007. The Boston Non-Importation Agreement of 1768 and the subsequent repeal of the Townshend Revenue Act taxes on all commodities except tea was a major cause leading to the December 16, 1773 Boston Tea Party. On the evening of December 16, 1773, patriots disguised as Indians boarded three ships in Boston Harbor and threw over three hundred crates of tea into the water to make sure the tea did not get unloaded. Later known as the Boston Massacre, the fight began after an unruly group of colonists—frustrated with the presence of British soldiers in their streets—flung snowballs, ice and oyster shells at a British sentinel guarding the Boston Customs House. Declaration of Independence. Definition. The Boston Tea Party. in a radical form of defiance, on December 16, 1773, sixteen men dressed as Mohawk Indians board three ships in Boston Harbor, carrying mainly tea, and dump their contents in the … That night, a large group of men – many reportedly members of the Sons of Liberty – disguised themselves in Native American garb, boarded the docked ships and threw 342 chests of tea into the water. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Intolerable Acts, or Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, ended local self-government in Massachusetts and closed Boston's commerce. U.S.History.org. Finally, on the night of December 16, 1773, colonials disguised as Indians boarded the ships and threw the tea overboard. The colonists could see what the British Parliament was trying to do and it just made them angrier. In 1764, Boston formed the earliest Committee of Correspondence to encourage opposition to Britain’s stiffening of customs enforcement ...read more, The Revolutionary War (1775-83), also known as the American Revolution, arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain’s 13 North American colonies and the colonial government, which represented the British crown. Why Was The Boston Tea Party Significant. There were advocates for both sides, but it was the opponents of the British that took part in the famous tea party. The Intolerable Acts - response to Boston Tea Party, closed Boston harbor 3. Obviously this act made the British Parliament furious and over the next two years tension would continue to rise until the Revolutionary war broke out. Stamp Act - taxes on documents and papers, first direct tax 2. By the time they adjourned in October 1774, they’d written The Declaration and Resolves which: Britain didn’t capitulate and within months, the “shot heard round the world,” rang out in Concord, Massachusetts, sparking the start of the American Revolutionary War. The Boston Tea Party. In retribution, they passed the Coercive Acts (later known as the Intolerable Acts) which: Britain hoped the Coercive Acts would squelch rebellion in New England and keep the remaining colonies from uniting, but the opposite happened: All the colonies viewed the punitive laws as further evidence of Britain’s tyranny and rallied to Massachusetts’ aid, sending supplies and plotting further resistance. © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. This APUSH study set covers the years 1766-1774, from Period 2 and Period 3 of the AP US History curriculum. Tea was a symbol of status and comfort. In order to achieve this type of power, the British Parliament instigated a series of taxes that the inhabitants of the colonies were required to pay. The participants reportedly swept the ships’ decks clean before they left. In May 1773, British Parliament passed the Tea Act which allowed British East India Company to sell tea to the colonies duty-free and much cheaper than other tea companies – but still tax the tea when it reached colonial ports. It was an act of protest in which a group of 60 American colonists threw 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor to agitate against both a tax on tea (which had been an example of taxation without representation) and the perceived monopoly of the East India Company . The Boston Tea Party, 1773. In response to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament attempted to punish Boston and isolate the colonies. Their resistance culminated in the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773, in which colonists boarded East India Company ships and dumped their loads of tea overboard. The event didn’t earn nearly as much notoriety as the first Boston Tea Party, but it did encourage other tea-dumping demonstrations in Maryland, New York and South Carolina. The Boston Tea Party has a history that you must first understand if you are to appreciate the significance of this event to our country. Next lesson. (Ironically, the ships were built in America and owned by Americans.). Sort by: Top Voted. Benjamin Franklin insisted the British East India Company be reimbursed for the lost tea and even offered to pay for it himself. But response to the Intolerable Acts began to unify the colonies instead. The Boston "Tea Party" Free Printable American History Reading with Questions for Grades 9-12 - American History Readings ; In 1773, however, Britain furnished Adams and his allies with an incendiary issue. In response, colonists convened the First Continental Congress and called for a complete boycott of British goods. But this was an issue that went much deeper than the cost of tea. The Intolerable Acts and the First Continental Congress. Web. The colonist disguised as Indians boarded a British ship and threw tea into the harbor on December 16, 1773. Most of the colonists’ bought smuggled tea in order to avoid the British taxes on this product. In the 1760s, Britain was deep in debt, so British Parliament imposed a series of taxes on American colonists to help pay those debts. Sponsored Posts | Back to Top. Tensions had been building for many years between residents of the 13 American colonies and the British authorities, particularly in Massachusetts. What- Three British ships with tea that refused to return to Britain were boarded and the tea was destroyed by throwing the crates into the Boston Harbor. The Boston Tea Party was a raid that took place in the Boston Harbor in 1773, during which American colonists dumped shiploads of tea into the water to protest a British tax on tea. The conflict energized anti-British sentiment ...read more, 1. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Reinforcements arrived and opened fire on the mob, killing five colonists and wounding six. Suddenly it found itself at odds with the American non-importation restrictions on tea and with a huge inventory it could not move. That morning, as thousands of colonists convened at the wharf and its surrounding streets, a meeting was held at the Old South Meeting House where a large group of colonists voted to refuse to pay taxes on the tea or allow the tea to be unloaded, stored, sold or used. The British government swiftly reacted to the Boston Tea Party. The delegates were divided on how to move forward but the Boston Tea Party had united them in their fervor to gain independence. It was a document that would change the face of America forever. In 1776 the Second Continental Congress signed and distributed the Declaration of Independence. The Coercive Acts were a series of harsh and grudging laws constructed by the British in response to the Boston Tea Party. The chests held more than 90,000 lbs. With the passing of the Tea Act in May of 1773, the tea tax under the Townshend Revenue Act was still in effect. Obviously, colonists were not anxious to pad the pockets and pay off the debts of the British, and so they opposed these taxes. Yet it was also something that most people could afford and used on a regular basis. Lexington and Concord. Opposition grew, and the threat of losing control of the colonies was a real concern for the British. Old South Meeting House. tea act 1773: in hopes of helping the british east india company out of its financial problems, the price of their tea was cheaper than that of smuggled dutch tea: 535305736: boston tea party 1773: in refusal of buying the cheaper tea, colonists boarded the british ships carrying tea and dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor: These laws intended to make Massachusetts pay for it's resistance, damage, and destruction of tea by closing down the Boston Harbor. Britain eventually repealed the taxes it had imposed on the colonists except the tea tax. The Boston Tea Party was one of the more powerful and significant messages sent to Great Britain to let them know that the colonies of America were going to do what it took to be independent from them. Economic causes of the Boston Tea Party. The Declaration of Independence. The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that occurred on March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston. The British did not like to be undermined and passed the Tea Act. (1773) in protest of the Tea Act, a band of colonists, led by Sam Adams, disguised as Indians, rowed out to the boat and dumped the tea chests into the harbor. (45 tons) of tea, which would cost nearly $1,000,000 dollars today. Following the Boston Tea Party in 1773, Lord North proposed a number of legislative measures that were supposed to punish the Bostonians. The British government felt the taxes were fair since much of its debt was earned fighting wars on the colonists’ behalf. Even after American independence, participants refused to reveal their identities, fearing they could still face civil and criminal charges as well as condemnation from elites for the destruction of private property. Women in the American Revolution. The colonists were willing to give up whatever they had to defend their right for independence. The Boston Tea Party was a significant event in the growth of the American Revolution. The Intolerable Acts. He voiced strong disapproval of “their conduct in destroying the Tea” and claimed Bostonians “were mad.” Washington, like many other elites, held private property to be sacrosanct. First, it closed the port of Boston until the colonists paid for the tea that was destroyed. The Tea Party Connection. 2)Named after the Boston Tea Party of the Revolutionary Era 3)Tea Party protesters first demonstrated in early 2009, and they grew steadily in visibility and power as a pressuring force within the Republican Party through the 2010 midterm elections and beyond. These measures were known as the Coercive Acts in Great Britain, while dubbed the Intolerable Acts in the colonies. Led by Adams, the Sons of Liberty held meetings rallying against British Parliament and protested the Griffin’s Wharf arrival of Dartmouth, a British East India Company ship carrying tea. American Founding Father Samuel Adams helped organize the Boston Tea Party and signed the U.S. Feldman Publishing. Most participants in the Boston Tea Party were under the age of forty and sixteen of them were teenagers. Uproar over the Stamp Act. But despite the lack of violence, the Boston Tea Party didn’t go unanswered by King George III and British Parliament. EyewitnesstoHistory.com. Many colonists felt Britain’s Coercive Acts went too far. From the Declaratory Act to the Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, and Intolerable Acts, this was a time when Britain tightened its grip on the American colonists, enacting strict laws that only increased the friction between them in the years leading up to the … 7 Events That Enraged Colonists and Led to the American Revolution, closed Boston Harbor until the tea lost in the Boston Tea Party was paid for, ended the Massachusetts Constitution and ended free elections of town officials, moved judicial authority to Britain and British judges, basically creating martial law in Massachusetts, required colonists to quarter British troops on demand, extended freedom of worship to French-Canadian Catholics under British rule, which angered the mostly Protestant colonists, censured Britain for passing the Coercive Acts and called for their repeal, declared the colonies had the right to govern independently, rallied colonists to form and train a colonial militia. They were furious at being taxed without having any representation in Parliament, and felt it was wrong for Britain to impose taxes on them to gain revenue. Tea smuggling in the colonies increased, although the cost of the smuggled tea soon surpassed that of tea from British East India Company with the added tea tax. Series of punitive measures passed on retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, closing the Port of Boston, revoking a number of rights in the Massachusetts colonial charter and expanding the Quartering Act to allow for the lodging of soldiers in private homes.

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