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The boston tea party, summary of event
The influence of boston tea party on the american revolution
The influence of boston tea party on the american revolution
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George Hewes’ account of the Boston Tea Party is considered a firsthand account of this historically significant event. The Boston Tea Party took place the night of December 16, 1773. Three ships had arrived in Boston Harbor carrying Tea from the East India Tea Company. The Bostonians had were given a warning the cargo would be unloaded on December 17. Hewes recounts the events leading up to the Boston Tea Party including the actual attack on the ships and its aftermath. He provides a descriptive narrative, thus contributing to the historical context surrounding the Tea Party. This event as well as, the unfolding discord within the colonies provides the necessary spark to ignite the American Revolution. Hewes starts his narrative with …show more content…
He provides the backstory to create an understanding of the timeline and how the events unfolded with the Patriots. Hewes continues to give details about the assault on the wharf. He states, “It was now evening, and I immediately dressed myself in the costume of an Indian…I repaired to Griffin’s Wharf, where the ships lay…”(Hewes 1). Hewes uses these details in his account to give actual substance and background. The narrative continues to discuss how the assembly of men was divided and assigned to commanders. The leaders assumed charge of the disguised rebels and boarded the unsuspecting ships. Once aboard his assigned ship, Hewes writes, “as soon as we were on board the ship appointed me boatswain, and ordered me to go to the captain and demand of him the keys…(2). Hewes played an active role in the assault and had a front row view of the events. After the tea was thrown overboard, Hewes remarks on the ancillary events taking place simultaneously. He said, “there were several attempts made by some citizens of Boston…to carry off small quantities of it for their family use” (Hewes 3). …show more content…
It was during this period that “the government in London concerned itself with the colonies in unprecedented ways…to help raise funds to pay for the war and finance the empire” (Forner 141). The British government was heavily in debt after fighting the Seven Years War on several fronts. The need to raise funds was paramount, and the colonies were a ready source. Consequently, the British government started imposing taxes on the colonies as a means of income. This was a change in the relationship between America and the mother country. Many Americans opposed these taxes (Forner 142-143). According to Forner, “Opposition to the Stamp Act was the first great drama of the revolutionary era and the first major split between the colonist and Great Britain over the meaning of freedom” (142). This Act was eventually repealed by Parliament in 1766 after significant opposition by Americans (Forner 144). The Stamp Act was just the beginning of several events and taxes on the colonist leading up to the Boston Tea Party. After the failure of the Stamp Act, the British Government tried several different schemes to garner tax revenue from the
Many people believe that the Boston Tea Party arose just because of the Tea Act that came into play in 1773, but in-fact, this major statement arose from two issues surrounding the British Empire in 1765. The first of the issues was that the British East India Company was at risk of going under and the Parliament was finding ways to bring it back. The second issue was that there was a continuing dispute about the extent of the Parliament’s authority. Many colonists believe that the Parliament went overboard with their power and the people were concerned about the future. Attempting to resolve these two major issues, the North Ministry only worsened the problem and produced a showdown that would eventually result in revolution.
The British were facing economic difficulties after the French and Indian war; therefore, they passed taxes on the colonies to help repay the debt. Initially, the British introduced the Sugar Act in 1764. The colonists did not approve of the British taking control over them. The colonists opposed the Sugar Act because they had to pay three cent tax on sugar. In addition, the Sugar Act increased the taxes on coffee, indigo, and wine. This act was the start of colonist frustration. Subsequently came the Stamp Act the following year in 1765. The Stamp Act was the mind changer for many colonists known as the Patriots. The Patriots started forming as a result of England enforcing acts. The patriots believed the colonies should go to war and separate
(140) It was during this time period that “the government in London concerned itself with the colonies in unprecedented ways…to help raise funds to pay for the war and finance the empire.” (Forner 141) The British government was heavily in debt after fighting the Seven Years War on several fronts. The need to raise funds was paramount and the colonies were a ready source. The British government started imposing taxes on the colonies as a means of income. This was a change in the relationship between America and the mother country. Many Americans opposed these taxes. (Forner 142- 143) According to Forner, “Opposition to the Stamp Act was the first great Drama of the revolutionary era and the first major split between the colonist and Great Britain over the meaning of freedom.” (142) This act was eventually repealed by Parliament in 1766 after great opposition by Americans. (Forner 144) The Stamp Act was just the beginning of several events and taxes on the colonist leading up the Boston Tea
In order to obtain some of the colonists’ finances, Britain began to pass a series of taxes. The Stamp Act was passed in 1765, and placed a tax on any paper goods that were going into the colonies from Britain. This included newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards, just to name a few (Stamp Act).The colonists had been so accustomed to their freedom from the crown at this point, that they were enraged. The relationship between the Mother country and the colonies did not get much better with the instatement of the Townshend Acts of 1767. These acts passed taxes on every day goods that the colonists needed, such as lead, tea, glass and paint (Townshend Acts).
The Shoemaker and the Tea Party examines three main events, The American Revolution, The Boston Massacre, and the Boston Tea Party, and in which ways they are shaped as memories over time. Within the chapter labeled “Taming the Memory of the Revolution, 1783-1820,” Young goes on to discuss what it takes for an event to pass into a public memory. During the time of the American Revolution, so many negative events happened that many Americans did not want to past as memories, such as the Boston Massacre. Young makes a point that instead of remembering all of the negative events that happened, “exchange that Anniversary for Another,” (Young, 1999, 108). With that being said, The Boston Massacre happened on March 5, 1770, while the Declaration of Independence was adopted into Congress July 4, 1776 – the Fourth of July overshadowed March 5th,
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.
Without colonial consent, the British started their bid to raise revenue with the Sugar Act of 1764 which increased duties colonists would have to pay on imports into America. When the Sugar Act failed, the Stamp Act of 1765 which required a stamp to be purchased with colonial products was enacted. This act angered the colonists to no limit and with these acts, the British Empire poked at the up to now very civil colonists. The passing of the oppressive Intolerable Acts that took away the colonists’ right to elected officials and Townshend Acts which taxed imports and allowed British troops without warrants to search colonist ships received a more aggravated response from the colonist that would end in a Revolution.
For my whole life, I have lived in Boston. In 1773, me and some others went on to the British’s ship to protest. We threw 342 chests of tea into the Ocean. This had caused the Boston Tea Party. As I am serving in the war, young women at home are crushing on British soldiers, only for their handsomeness and red fancy coats. At one point Washington’s position was uncertain. Valley Forge was located about 18
The men were really the Sons of Liberty led by Samuel Adams. The Sons of Liberty was a group who was formed to protest British taxation and to protect the rights of colonists. They started walking to the harbor that night in their disguises and more men joined them until the group had about 150 people. They walked to the ship and when one guard tried to stop them. A man in the group raised his gun and said, “The path is wide enough for all of us; we have nothing to do with you and intend you no harm-if you keep your own way peacefully we shall keep ours.” He was smart when he stepped aside. The men ordered the captain and the crew below and used their axes to open up the crates and throw the tea leaves into the harbor. Anyone who tried to steal the tea leaves instead of throwing it overboard was either beaten or tossed overboard. After the main event, some of the Sons of Liberty got in canoes and started batting down the leaves. They vowed to not eat fish from Boston harbor because they fish had been swimming through the tea.
The imperial tactics of the British Empire were exercised on the colonists through heavy taxes trade restrictions because of their mercantilist economy. The Stamp Act taxed the colonists directly on paper goods ranging from legal documents to newspapers. Colonists were perturbed because they did not receive representation in Parliament to prevent these acts from being passed or to decide where the tax money was spent. The colonists did not support taxation without representation. The Tea Act was also passed by Parliament to help lower the surplus of tea that was created by the financially troubled British East India Company. The colonists responded to this act by executing the Boston Tea Party which tossed all of the tea that was imported into the port of Boston. This precipitated the Boston Port Act which did not permit the colonists to import goods through this port. The colonists protested and refused all of these acts which helped stir the feelings of rebellion among the colonists. The British Mercantilist economy prevented the colonists from coin...
That day would happen on March 5th 1770. On this evening, a British guard was patrolling a custom house, some colonists began taunting the soldier and soon a crowd of angry colonists arrived. The British officer decided it would be necessary to call in more troops. Later, around eight soldiers arrived to support the guard, by this time the mob grew to about three hundred people. A colonist kicked one of the soldiers down, and the soldier fired upon the crowd. After a short pause, the other British troop fired on the colonists. Thanks to the press and art of Paul Revere, this event is now known as the Boston Massacre. The Boston Tea Party, one of the most famous events of per-revolution America. The British imposed a tax on all tea and this united the colonists in an agreement against the tax. The Sons of Liberty once again mobbed up and threatened the shop owners to not support the tax. Throughout the colonies, agents of the Tea Act were forced to resign. When this didn't seem to be enough, the Sons of Liberty devised a plan at the liberty tree in Boston. On the night of December 16th a group of men dressed as Mohawk Indians, boarded four British ships carrying tea and dumped it all into the harbor. This tea never landed and therefore this tea was never
The war had been enormously expensive, and the British government’s attempts to impose taxes on colonists to help cover these expenses resulted in chaos. English leaders, were not satisfied with the financial and military help they had received from the colonists during the war. In a desperate attempt to gain control over the colonies as well as the additional revenue to pay off the war debt, Britain began to force taxes on the colonies. Which resulted in The Stamp Act, passed by parliament and signed by the king in March 1765. The Stamp Act created an excise tax on legal documents, custom papers, newspapers, almanacs, college diplomas, playing cards, and even dice. Obviously the colonist resented the Stamp Act and the assumption that parliament could tax them whenever and however they could without their direct representation in parliament. Most colonials believed that taxation without their consent was a violation of their constitutional rights as Englishmen. Which is where the slogan “No Taxation without Representation” comes
The British had been taxing everything they could get away with on the colonists. When they taxed the tea – that of which the colonists could only buy from the British, the colonists told the British to take their tea ships home. The British refused. As a result, colonist Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty protested by sneaking on board the tea ships disguised as Indians and dumped the tea in its entirety into the Boston Harbor. The British, angered by this, closed the harbor and imposed more penalties ("Boston tea party," 2009). The American Revolution began shortly thereafter.
One of the British actions that angered the colonists was the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act was passed in response to colonist's complaints about the Sugar Act. The Stamp Act, according to the chart in document one, forced colonists to buy a stamp and place it on all of their paper products. Colonists boycotted the Stamp Act and and formed the Committees of Correspondence and the Sons of Liberty. The Sons of Liberty, according to document two, tarred and feathered British officials and tax collectors to protest the Stamp A...
After the Seven Years Way England was broke for she had spent more money needed to win the war. Also winning the war gave the colonist a “we can do it spirit”. However because England now was facing debt she decided to tax the colonies. One the first acts passed was the sugar act passed in 1764. This Act was the raise revenue in American colonies. What it did was lowered the tax from six penses to three penses per gallon on foreign molasses. Molasses is a product made by refining sugarcane, grapes or sugar beets into sugar. This upset the colonist because before the sugar act they didn’t have to pay the tax so even if it was lowered that meant nothing for they now had to pay for it. A year later, in 1765, the Britain’s passed another act known as the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act put a tax on stamped paper, publications, playing cards, etc. Because it was on all paper products in a way it affected everyone; from the papers for the upper class such as lawyers, publications such as newspapers for the middle class, and playing cards for the lower class for entertainment. Next, the Townshend Act passed by Charles Townshend. This came in 1767, which imposed taxes on colonial tea, lead, paint, paper, and glass which just like the Stamp Act affected all of the classes in the colonist in the Americas. Though this act was removed three years later in 1770, it still left colonists with a warning that conditions may become worse. Around 1773, parliament passed the Intolerable Acts one of those acts which affected taxation was the Bost...