The Boston Tea Party
Boston, Massachusetts is known as “the cradle of liberty.” (Stein, R. Conrad. The Boston Tea Party. New York: Children’s, 1996. N. pag. Print (pg. 28) (10-30-13)) The Boston Tea Party occurred on December 16, 1773 as a protest of the American colonists against the British government. Both the British and the colonists loved tea and it brought a substantial amount of money to the East India Trading Company. Due to the heavy debt incurred by the French and Indian War, the British government imposed new taxes upon the colonies. As a result, Great Britain passed the Tea Act. They didn’t want British companies to be hurt by the new tax so Parliament declared British companies exempt from the Tea Act. The Tea Act would force American colonists to buy tea from the East India Company saying “it was the cheapest around.” (http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/bostonteaparty.htm (10-25-13)) The result was a protest known as the Boston Tea Party. When the tax was passed, it affected all of the colonies. The price of tea went up in the Americas and it was hard for everyone in the tea business such as growers, producers, and shippers to survive. The colonists became angry and refused to pay the new tea tax and wanted to send the tea back to England. It wasn’t sent back so they decided to protest Britain’s unfair taxes. They were not permitted representation in British Parliament and because of this, they refused to cooperate.
Sons of Liberty was a group of people who wanted to change things. It was led by Samuel Adams and John Hancock. They would have secret meetings and talk about what they were going to do.
Four ships had planned to arrive in Boston with shipments of tea. One ship, The William, encountered a bad storm on December 10th, 1773 and never arrived. The first ship to arrive was the Dart Mouth, carrying 114 chests of tea. The Eleanor was second to arrive on Thursday, December 2nd with 114 chests of tea. The final ship to arrive was the Beaver. It had been held two weeks in quarantine due to a smallpox outbreak. ...