Boston Tea Act Research Paper

on December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams organized a group of men called the Sons of Liberty. They dressed up as Mohawk Indians. They boarded three ships in the Boston Harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard. It took nearly three hours to accomplish this. The British Parliament passed the Tea Act on April 27, 1773 which was a import tax and it raised the price of tea to three cents per pound on all tea sent to America.

The Tea Act caused huge amount of resistance in the colonies that eventually led to what we now know as the Boston Tea Party. The East India Company was planning on distributing the tea to shopkeepers in the colonies, avoiding any direct trade with American merchants who wanted to sell to the shopkeepers. This was causing many problems for Radical Patriots and merchants who were losing out on profits by the British authority. The Tea Act could have been considered an early attempt on a British monopoly of tea as stated by British general Frederick Haldimand of New York. The Tea Act and its policies “has introduced the mercantile part of the Inhabitants to be very industrious in opposing this Step and added Strength to a Spirit of Independence already too prevalent” (Chapter 7, pp. 156).

Like the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts, the Intolerable Acts pushed the Colonists toward war with Great Britain. In 1767 Parliament passed the Townshend Acts. One of those acts required Colonists to pay a tax on tea. In 1773 Parliament

The colonies have spoken! Sounds of justified defiance shall reach London’s parliament with screeching sounds unbearable to the human ear! On May 10, 1773, parliament instituted a new tax called the Tea Act. This act granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies. Yesterday, on December 16, 1773, colonist dressed up as Indians and raided East India Company ships, revolting against the multiple tax laws placed on the colonies.

The Aftermath and Acts That Followed the Boston Tea Party Karla Valeria Gonzalez Formatted Rough Draft Mr. Isaac G. Pietrzak U.S. History 1301 November 4, 2016 On the Thursday in December 16th of the year 1773, several men began to dump what is now worth over a million dollars of British tea into the Boston Harbor. This later became known as the famous Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party was basically the initial cause of the aftermath. The Intolerable Acts, the Continental Congresses, and battles following the Boston Tea Party were the beginning to our freedom.

On May 10, 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, the primary objective of which was to save the British East India Company from bankruptcy. It also eliminated all tea tax except the three pence Townshend tax. A third goal of the Tea Act was to offer Americans tea at a lower price than that of the colonial smugglers [1]. However what happened was the average American colonist became angry with this latest act in a long line of unpopular policies, laws, and taxes imposed on him by Britain [2].

In 1771 a group of colonist protested 13 years of increasing oppression, by attacking merchant ships in Boston Harbor. The British in disgust of the attacks retaliated by imposing even harsher penalties through taxes and such. The British adjusted import duties to bolster the troubled east India company that produced the tea and readied it for export to the colonial settlements in America. This was deemed the Tea Act of 1773, consignees in New Yor, Philidelphia and Charleston rejected the shipments of tea from the East India Company because they felt that the British taxation was unfair and that the merchants could not pay the taxation and make a profit off of the imports. Merchants in Boston Conceded to Patriot

Throughout the middle of the 17th century, the relationship between Great Britain and her American colonies was plagued by stresses. Both the Stamp Act, passed in 1765, and the Tea Act, enacted in 1773, caused colonists great ire towards the British due to feelings of unfair taxation. As a response to the Tea Act, colonists in Boston ruined thousands of pounds of tea by pouring it into the Boston harbor (History.com). Earlier, Benjamin Franklin had attempted to get all of the colonies to meet together, but they had abstained (U-s-history.com). After the Tea Party, however, the Coercive Acts were put into place by Parliament, urging the colonists to greater action, causing them to assemble the 1st Continental Congress (History.com).

The Tea Act, although it greatly lowered the cost of tea, came with great resistance because if the colonists purchased the tea, they were acknowledging the ability for parliament to tax the colonies. The ability to tax the colonies was what the British needed to reduce their debt, but this is exactly what the colonists did not want because they felt that they could only be taxed by their own government in which they had representation. The Sons of Liberty reacted to the Tea Act by organizing a protest in which Sam Adams and John Hancock led a group of colonists dressed as Mohawk Indians for disguise to ships that carried tea that were stuck in the harbor without a place to unload their tea because of the boycott on tea. The Sons of Liberty went on to the boat and dumped three hundred forty two chests of tea overboard into the Boston Harbor. The British parliament responded to this by passing the Coercive Acts, known as the “Intolerable Acts” which shut down the Boston Harbor, gave control of the Massachusetts Government over to British control, allowed any british official accused of a crime be tried in Britain and for British soldiers to quarter in the private property of colonists.

One of the most iconic acts of rebellion from American history is the Boston Tea Party. Dressed as Indians, the Brothers of Liberty snuck onto three boats and dumped British-backed East India Trading Company tea into the Boston Harbor. This was in response to unfair taxation being implemented on the American Colonies. That was some 200-plus years ago when times were very different, but through their acts of bravery and courage, they have inspired a movement today called the Tea Party Movement. Different from the Boston Tea Party, the Tea Party Movement is a political group rather than one act of rebellion.

A group of colonists known as Samuel Adams and members of The Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians who boarded three ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. This midnight raid became known as “The Boston Tea Party” which is popularly known in American history. The arrival of these ships Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver spread quickly making the colonist grow angry because they did not want to pay taxes. Although, The Tea Act of 1773 was one of the series of taxes that the inhabitants of the colonies were required to pay, the Tea Act was created to save the West India Company from faltering. Therefore, taxing the colonists was the best alternative way of saving the Company.

They called themselves the Sons of Liberty. They borded three ships and dumped all the tea on bored into the harbor. Then, they marched through the streets of Boston. The colonists were punished. The British Parliament closed

Before Britain passed the tea act research proves. “In March 1765 Britain passed a law called the stamp act that made every colonist pay for taxes on every piece of printed paper they used”(Carr). The colonist was so mad they would take out stamp act agents and later would be incarcerated. The Englishmen didn 't approve of the tax on tea research shows. “ before the dumping of the tea, there was an act made that when tea entered Boston all tea was taxed 3 pence a pound”(Macaulay).

The Tea Act of 1773 reinstated the issue of Britain’s right to tax the colonies. The Parliament and the colonies disagreed on a system of government in which the colonies would share the same rights and control as Parliament over their colonial affairs. Between 1773 and 1776, enormous amounts of tension between the center and the peripheries regarding the right to control the colonies led to the disintegration of the empire. The colonies and Parliament continued their dispute about the supremacy of the colonies that began with the Stamp Act of 1765.

It showed the British that the Americans were against all of the unfair taxation and were willing to fight for what they believed in. Secondly, it showed how brave and independent the colonists were. Finally the Boston Tea Party showed the colonists that when people work together, their opinions are heard. As you can see,The boston tea party was a key part in starting the American revolution because it shows that the American people were against unfair taxation,were very brave, and it motivated the rest of the colonists to stand up for their rights.