During the second half of the 18th century, the British began trying to get more of a profit from their American colonies. However, this was handled very poorly and only served to push the colonists toward revolution. One of the most famous acts of early American resistance is the Boston Tea Party. This event began with the British retracting a series of taxes known as the Townsend Acts. Colonists refused to pay the Townsend taxes, much as they had done with the Stamp Act. Though this resistance was partially due to the financial burden of the taxes, the primary issue was that the colonists refused to pay duty to a government in which they held no representation.
Eventually the British government was forced to retract all of the Townsend taxes with the exception of a tax on tea. This single tax was left in place not so much as a source of revenue, but as a statement that the British had the right to tax the colonies. After the colonists continued to refuse payment of the tax, the British came up with a plan to encourage them. The British Parliament gave the East India Company, a British trading company, a monopoly over tea imports in
America . The tax on tea was also reduced, so now the colonists were able to buy their tea for cheaper than ever before. Despite bargain prices, the issue still remained that if colonists bought the tea they would be acknowledging Parliament’s right to tax them.
The colonists did not give in to Parliament’s attempt to entice them with cheap tea. Instead they worked to make sure none of the tea would even reach store shelves. In Philadelphia and
New York , ships bearing the East India Company’s tea were not allowed to land. In
Charleston the ships were able to land, but their cargo was locked in a warehouse where it sat for three years before Patriots began selling it to finance the war effort. It was in
Boston where the East India Company was met with the most outrage. When the ships docked in
Boston
Harbor on December 17, 1773 they were greeted by 7,000 angry locals who wanted the East India Company out immediately. In a town meeting held the next morning, a letter was drafted which ordered the ships to leave harbor immediately with their cargo. When the message was delivered, the colonists were told that the ships would not leave until the tax was paid. It was the outrage at this news which inspired one of the most famous events on
America ’s road to independence.
The night of the East India Company’s refusal to leave
Boston , a group of 200 men dressed as Indians and met on a hill near the harbor. The men marched toward the three East India Company ships and boarded them. Once the ships were secured, the patriots began cracking open barrels of tea and tossing them overboard. British naval vessels began to surround the tea ships, but they made no attempt to intervene. Three hours later every ounce of tea had been dumped into the
Boston
Harbor . What came to be known as the Boston Tea Party is one of the most inspirational stories in early American history. This group of colonists was able to resist the
British Empire by standing together and letting the British know that they could no longer exploit the Americans.
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