Boston Tea Party Civil Disobedience

The Boston Tea Party can be considered to be the foundation of civil disobedience during the founding of the United States of America. This historical event which laid the foundation for the strength of America, is considered to have been incited by the group Sons of Liberty which were colonists who stood up against the British Empire’s attempts to crush their rights, which led to their motto of “no taxation without representation.” The Boston Tea Party is an act of civil disobedience which occurred during the winter of 1773 in Boston, Massachusetts which was incited by the British Empire’s extreme taxation of the colonies and the lack of representation of the colonies by members of their own choosing in parliament. The event had the intended

Civil disobedience takes a few variant forms, depending on the particular situation and cause, though its basic definition can be obtained through the process of breaking the phrase down to its root words, ‘civil’ which roughly means polite, ‘-obedience’ which roughly equates to being compliant, and then the ‘dis-‘prefix which means the opposite of the following root word which happens to be ‘-obedience.’ These rough definitions can be strung together to form a basic working definition of politely refusing to be compliant, in order to better a cause. Though this is a solid definition for most purposes, a more detailed understanding needs to be attained. “…American author Henry David Thoreau set forth the basic tenets of civil disobedience… [In which]…The individual, Thoreau claimed, is ‘a higher and independent power,’ from which the state obtains its power,” ("Civil Disobedience." 1). Thoreau’s understanding of civil disobedience is that people control the power and if the people feel wronged, then they will take the power away from the state and into their own

With growing unrest in the colonies due to parliaments sneaky taxes and acts, they decided that they should be more direct and tax colonial goods directly, specifically newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, broadsides, legal documents, dice, and playing cards. The act was known as the Stamp Act for the use of stamps to signify paid taxes or unpaid taxes. Stamps were placed on goods that had been paid for, and was required for sale. (Boston Tea Party Historical Society). “The British government failed to consider fully the logistical difficulties that would arise in putting the stamp duty in place in a remote location,” (Oats 101). At this point in history, the group that would later be responsible for inciting the America revolution and the Boston Tea Party was formed, The Sons of Liberty, a group aimed at maintaining secrecy and control in America. In addition to this group forming, colonists banded together to form a ‘Declaration of Rights and Grievances’ by which colonists claimed that they could not be taxed unless they had proper representation in parliament by which they could properly represent the needs and feelings of their colonies. (Boston Tea Party Historical