The Boston Tea Party
by Robert Gray
http://www.fogtea.com
The Boston Tea Party is famous as a key point in the
American Revolution and in the history of the founding of
the United States. It was an early example of American
rebellion against British Rule and began as a political
protest by Boston, Massachusetts residents against the
British parliament.
On 16 December 1773, about 60 local Boston residents
disguised as Native American Indians boarded ships owned
by the British East India Company. Once aboard, they
smashed open the tea cargoes from wooden chests and dumped
them into Boston harbor. Washed up on shore next morning,
the cargo was of course worthless. Other ports soon
followed suit - and all patriotic Americans gave up tea
drinking and turned to coffee. Now you know why Americans
are such big coffee drinkers!
So what led to this incident? At that time, the drinking
of tea was just as popular in the American colonies as it
was in Britain. However the 1765 Stamp Act and the 1767
Townshend acts had resulted in a new tax on tea in order
to raise money for the British armed forces. This British
decision to tax the colonies without offering any
corresponding representation in the Westminster Parliament
caused outrage amongst Americans and gave rise to the
famous slogan "No taxation without representation."
This act of rebellion carried out by the Boston people
later became known as the Boston Tea Party. It drew
criticism from colonial and British figures alike. Indeed
Benjamin Franklin stated that the destroyed tea must be
repaid and offered to repay with his own resources.
However due to the fact that damage to private property
had taken place, the British Government felt that it could
not let this episode go unpunished. Britain responded
first by closing the port of Boston. Soon after new laws
were passed and imposed on the colonies. These laws were
so harsh that they later became known as the Five
Intolerable Acts. This led to more bad feeling.
The Boston Tea Party thus was one of the key events which
led to the American Revolutionary War.
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