|
|
A History | Events Leading to the American Revolution | Boston Tea Party
Boston Tea Party
"Fellow countrymen, we cannot afford to give a single inch! If we retreat now, everything we have done
becomes useless! If Hutchinson will not send tea back to England, perhaps we can brew a pot of it
especially for him!"
Samuel Adams - December 16, 1773
1773. In the contest between British Parliament and the American colonists before the Revolution, Parliament,
when repealing the Townshend Acts, had retained the tea tax, partly as a symbol
of its right to tax the colonies, partly to aid the financially embarrassed East India Company. The colonists
tried to prevent the consignees from accepting taxed tea and were successful in New York and Philadelphia. At
Charleston the tea was landed but was held in government warehouses. At Boston, three tea ships arrived and
remained unloaded but Gov. Thomas Hutchinson refused to let the ships leave without first paying the duties. A
group of indignant colonists, led by Samuel Adams, Paul
Revere, and others, disguised themselves as Native Americans,
boarded the ships on the night of Dec. 16, 1773, and threw the tea into the harbor. In reply Parliament passed
the Boston Port Bill (see Intolerable Acts). See study by B. W. Labaree (1964).
During the Boston Tea Party, patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians,
heaved 342 chests of tea overboard from three British ships. Although the lithograph shows the tea party taking
place during the day, it actually occurred at night. The tide was out and the water was so shallow that tea
piled up in mounds higher than the boat decks.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
