The Boston Tea Party
Prelude to the Tea Party
Much like their friends and family in Britain, American colonists loved tea. They drank so much tea that the British government saw an opportunity to fill their coffers by imposing a heavy tax on British tea imported by the colonists. Irritated, the Americans responded by purchasing their tea from other European markets including the Dutch. To the British, this move was a violation of the Navigation Acts and anyone who participated in it was a smuggler.
Americans didn’t seem to care. They wanted their tea, and they didn’t like the heavy taxes they had to pay to have it. By 1767 “tea smuggling” was thriving and the result crippled the British owned East India Company so bad that they were on the verge of collapse.
To remedy the problem, Parliament passed the Indemnity Act which repealed the tax so that British tea could be sold for the same price as the Dutch tea. The act proved to be effective in slowing tea smuggling for a while, but later that year the Townshend Revenue Act was put in place to tax not only on tea, but also other commodities such as glass, lead, oil, paint and paper. The Americans protested and staged boycotts until finally in 1770 the Townshend Act was repealed—all except for the tax on tea.
Matters were made worse three years later with the passage of the Tea Act which was designed to give the British East India Company a monopoly on tea trade. Americans were outraged, and the stage was set for what would become known as The Boston Tea Party.
Tea Party and Aftermath
American colonists had become weary of the ever-increasing tax burden placed on them by the British Crown. Many felt that it was the king’s way of covering expenses incurred during the French and Indian War. Americans reasoned that since Britain would not give them a seat in Parliament, then they had no authority to tax them. “No taxation without representation” became their rallying cry.
On December 16, 1773 a chapter of the Sons of Liberty in Boston called a meeting to discuss how to handle their frustrations with the Brits. Reports vary, but a group of somewhere between 30-150 men, walked to Boston harbor, boarded ships in port and dumped 342 chests of British tea overboard. They wanted to let the King know that they would not be forced to buy from the government owned East India Company nor would they submit to the exorbitant taxes for their tea.
Furious, London reacted by passage of the “Intolerable Acts” which among other things closed the port of Boston until the East India Tea Company was repaid for the lost tea.
Benjamin Franklin urged repayment and a group of merchants from New York went to Lord North with an offer of restitution. North refused, and the conflict escalated.
The British hit Massachusetts hard abolishing the local government and placing the colony under military rule. General Thomas Gage was appointed as military governor of Massachusetts with orders to handle the brewing crisis and enforce Parliamentary acts. When he arrived in Boston in May 1774, Bostonians were hopeful that he would help them work through their difficulties with the homeland. Hope soon faded as Gage kept the ports closed, rescinded the provincial assembly’s right to nominate members to the Governor’s Council and ordered a raid on the American’s munitions stores at Concord.
When they saw that Gage was no friend to freedom, the Massachusetts representatives ignored his authority and refused to meet with the newly appointed Governor’s Council. Instead they began to send delegates to the First Continental Congress to discuss their predicament with other colonies.
When he discovered their defiant actions, Gage dissolved the assembly and called for new elections to replace them. Desperate to maintain control, Gage tried to bribe as many prominent political leaders as he could. Patriots like Samuel Adams refused but Benjamin Church and others accepted money in exchange for supplying the general with intelligence on the activities of the “rebels.” Battle lines were being drawn and more blood was about to be spilt.
Founders Trivia
In a letter to George William Fairfax dated June 10, 1774, George Washington (1732-1799) said that he supported the "cause of Boston" in that "Americans will never be taxed without their own consent." However, he noted that he did not approve "their conduct in destroying the tea."
Most colonist including Washington and Benjamin Franklin held property rights sacrosanct and considered the Tea Party an act of vandalism. They believed those who destroyed the tea should compensate the East India Company for the loss. Despite these feelings, when the colonist experienced British punishment for the protest, many of them united in their opposition to the crown.
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