Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was the key-event for
the Revolutionary War. With this act,
the colonists started the violent part
of the revolution. It was the first try
of the colonists, to rebel with
violence against their own government. The
following events were created by
the snowball effect. There, all the colonists
realized the first time, which
they were treated wrong by the British
government. It was an important step
towards the independence dream, which was
resting in the head of each
colonist. They all flew from their mother country to
start a new life in a
new world, but the British government didn't gine them the
possibility by
controlling them.
The events leading to the
Boston Tea Party began already ten years before
(1763), when the English won
the French-and-Indian War. The king of Britain
passed taxes on the colonies
to make up for the loss of money because of the
war. He did it in a line of
acts, called the Sugar Act (tax to protect and
secure the colonists) and the
Stamp Act ( tax on all licences, newspapers and
business papers ). The
colonists reacted with protests against those acts, what
made the British
Parliament to repeal the taxes within 5 months. Then they (the
government)
passed taxes on lead, paint, paper and tea. These acts were called
the
Townshed Duties, but the colonists called them the "Insidious
Acts". Mass
meetings were held and people tried to influence others not to
buy English
imported goods anymore. In the end the parliament removed all the
taxes
except for tea. Actually the colonists easily didn't want to accept, to
pay
taxes to a government, they don't really belong to anymore. Although this
tax
on the tea cost a colonial family just pennies a year. Sam Adams, a kind
of
leader of the colonists, figured out, that the tax could be raised or
lowered by
the parliament at will. (Sam Adams: "The power to tax is the power
to
destroy!" ).He also pointed out, that the colonists had no
representation
in the Parliament, and that they can't be taxed without having
a representation
in there, to care for their interests and wills. However,
most people drank tea
smuggled in from the Netherlands, so they didn't care
very much whether the
parliament raises or lowers the taxes. When the East
India Tea company realized,
that the colonists were drinking cheap, smuggled
tea, the Parliament gave them (
the company ) the monopoly to export tea
without paying duties. That way the tea
could be much cheaper than the
holland tea, even with the taxes. This act was
called the Tea Act, which was
of great importance for the following Boston
Tea
Party.
The colonists reacted to this
act by holding meetings to discuss it. Supporter
of the revolution (just to
name some of them: John Adams, John Hancock, Dr.
Joseph Warren) wrote
letters of protest to the government's officials, but they
didn't achieve
anything. The tea ships arriving in Boston still had to pay the
full British
tax.
In September, 1773, a radical group of
colonists found out, that three East
India tea cargo ships, laden full
with tea, were heading for Boston under full
sail. They knew, that if the
ships got unloaded and the tax would be paid, it
would be a crushing
defeat.
The same radical group wanted to make
the agents of the East India Company
resign from their job in front of a big
crowd, but this part didn't work. Over
the following weeks speeches in form
of propaganda were made, to get all
colonists informed about the events.
People even quitted drinking tea (what they
did for their whole life ) and
started drinking coffee.
The actual event On
November 18th, 1773, the ships arrived. Pamphlets were
posted to arrange a
meeting between the citizens and the governor ( Hutchison ),
called the
"Committee of Correspondence". They wanted him to call the
ships back to
Britain. When he didn't agree, a bunch of men, disguised as
Indians, went
and stormed towards the harbor, planning to throw the tea into the
bay. They
divided in three groups, each of them with one leader. After they made
the
captain and his crew getting down below, they grabbed all the boxes of
tea,
opened them and threw them overboard. Even some members of the crew
helped them
to destroy the tea. A big crowed was created in the harbor, some
of them even
tried to steal some tea. Altogether they destroyed 340 chests.
At 10:00 pm the
event was over, and the streets of Boston were empty again.
The next day
everybody was happy, and plans were made, to public the
important event in all
colonies of
America.
The reactions of the British
Government were called the "Intolerable
Acts". The Boston Harbor was
closed by 4000 British soldiers, so that
Boston couldn't get any food or
other important goods. But this act failed it's
mission, because the other
colonists sent the Boston citizens food and other
life important goods. They
also created a militia to protct themselves of the
British army. They
also weren't allowed to held any meetings in Boston anymore.
These tries
to get the colonies under their control again were the last ones
with a view
of success.