The Tea Act
After the Boston Massacre, there was a period of peace. Loyalists didn't mind paying the tea
taxes, and the Patriots drank the tea that had been smuggled into the colonies, without paying any duties.
The Tea Act was a law that Lord North hoped would save the British East India Company. The British East
India Company was a trading company that controlled all the trades between Brittan and
Asia. This large trading
company needed to sell 17 million pounds of tea, after the American boycott had hurt the company, to avoid going broke.
The Tea Act lowered the cost of tea so much that the cost of taxed tea was even cheaper
than the smuggled Dutch tea. This also gave monopoly, or complete control to the
British East India Company. It was thought that Lord North had tried to trick the Americans
into buying taxed tea.
The Boston Tea Party
The colonists were not fooled by Lord North’s attempt to make Americans buy taxed tea. So
when the tea ships arrived, protesters kept them from unloading the tea, causing
some of the ships to turn around and sail back to England. But when
Boston’s governor found out, he ordered the British navy to block the exit from the
Boston Harbor, so the protestors couldn’t stop the ships from unloading.
But on December 16, 1773, the Sons of Liberty had a plan. They would help
unload the tea ships, but not exactly how the governor had in mind. The Sons of Liberty dressed
as Mohawk Indians, and began to “unload” the ships.
They began to throw all of the tea chests overboard! From the descriptions of George
Hewes, one of the 50 men throwing tea, within three hours
they had thrown all of the tea overboard. They were surrounded by British
armed ships, but they had not attempted to stop the men.
In conclusion, 90,000 pounds of tea was wasted into the sea that night. The
news of the Boston Tea Party excited the patriots. But they knew that such an act would
have very high consequences.
The 50 men unloading the tea ships, dressed as Mohawk Indians.
Sources
source: date i visited: author/creator of the source:
www.google.com 8/25/07 unknown
http://www.politicaldogs.org/uploaded_images/boston-tea-party-762868.jpg/...8/25/07 unknown
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