The Rebels Rebellion

In 1773 parliament passed the tea act in which the British pay less for tax to ship places. This made the prices of tea lower from Britain. Since Boston's tea would be more expensive nobody would buy it from them. The tea act was just another problem adding up between the colonists and britain. This made the colonists want to be independent from Britain. The colonists decided to rebel and dumb three hundred and forty two chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. The act was given the name the Boston Tea Party. Most of the British thought of the Boston Tea Party as an act of terrorism. Really the Boston Tea Party was just another step to independence for the colonists.

Spies warned General Thomas Gage of the British military that colonists were gathering weapons to fight against the British for their independence. (Waldman 5) On April 14, 1775 General Thomas Gage received covert orders from Britain capture colonial leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who had been provoking the colonists to rebel against the British for their freedom, as well as to capture and destroy the colonial rebels military supplies. Spies and friends of the colonial Patriots leaked out General Gage's plan. Through the late nights of April 19, 1775 General Gage sent 700 British Redcoats to Lexington green. The colonial Patriots had assembled a halt to try and slow the British's progression towards Concord. Both sides came into contact and stood their ground intensely. “Lay down your arms, you damned rebels, or you are all dead men!” (King 25) A shot was fired, (unclear still to this day what side shot first) and the Battle of Lexington and Concord had begun! Chaos back and forth between the two sides as they were firing at each other. When the smoke had cleared eight rebellious Patriots lay dead and nine were wounded, while the British Redcoats only had one injured. The British Redcoats

The Boston Tea Party was the result of the Stamp Act being revoked. "Parliament...repealed the Stamp Act...the ministry devised a...indirect tax on tea." (Document 7B2) Many colonists felt as if they were being tricked into paying high taxes, and this was unnecessary and unjust. This caused the colonists to hope for a revolution to begin.

Today we look back at the American Revolution and picture a united people fighting for inalienable rights, but to grasp the impact that Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” had upon his contemporaries we must understand the situation in the American colonies in 1776. When Paine wrote his pamphlet, the colonist and The Parliament in London, were almost 10 years into a debate over the rights of limited self-government by the colonies. In the months preceding the publication of Paine’s pamphlet the situation had steadily worsened until the April 19th, 1775 armed confrontation between Massachusetts colonists and British Army soldiers. By the end of that day, blood had been shed by both sides, and armed colonists placed the British garrison in Boston under siege. Despite this violence, most colonists viewed the events as a part of a struggle between Englishmen that would be resolved with the continued allegiance of the colonies to the Crown, but with more favorable treatment from London. It was with this popular mindset throughout the colonies, that Paine would deliver his “Common Sense” pamphlet arguing for complete independence from England. Paine understood that to make his argument resonate he needed to appeal to the public in a manner that had yet to be done.

Though many laws were passed taxing the colonists, America had no say in the British Parliament. Patrick Henry’s speech embodies this argument when he says “We have no representatives in the British Parliament…… The Stamp Act is against the law. We must not obey it” (Doc. 1). This act of defiance caught the colonists’ attention and made them feel that perhaps they could change the laws after all. Another act of defiance against the British was the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party was a riot against the British that involved colonists dumping tons of tea from British ships into the sea. Britain then passed a law that said that the Boston Harbor would be closed until the colonists paid for the tea. This angered the colonists even more, and eventually led to the Revolution. As you can see, many rebellious deeds inspired the colonists and helped them confront the British.

To begin, the Seven Years War, fought by the French along side the Indians versus the American colonies along side the British, carried a considerable cost for everyone involved. The American colonies and Britain ended up coming out on top, however, due to the sacrifice of the British jumping in to help. The only downfall was that “the royal ministries believed that the colonists should pay for their share of the costs of Britain’s (and their own) glory”. (txtbook) However, the radical new view of Americanized government believed that if new taxes were to be imposed that they should be able to have a part in their creation. This new belief was “no taxation without representation” and challenged King

After months of protests Parliament realized their mistake and repealed the tax, but the damage had already been done and the Colonists would start a revolution to separate themselves from the British. On December 16, 1773 the Sons of Liberty, a group of Patriots led by Samuel Adams cut open 340 chests of British East India Company tea, weighing over 92,000 pounds (roughly 46 tons), onboard the Beaver, Dartmouth, and Eleanor and then dumped it into Boston Harbor; a total loss of $1,700,000 dollars in today’s money. Weeks after the ordeal the harbor still had the smell of tea. Until the 340 chest of British Eat India Company tea were paid for the British completely closed off Boston Harbor. The Intolerable act which was meant to punish the actions of the Sons of Liberty. This did not help Colonists’ approval of the British government. The harsh punishments unified the American colonists even more against British rule. The effect the Boston Tea Party had was noteworthy and ultimately sparked the American Revolution which started only two years later in Massachusetts on April 19,

The Stamp Act further increased the duties on almost any printed material. The amount of mass defiance and rioting, especially in the major cities, that followed shocked the British government, they have never seen this amount or scale of discontent before with their subjects in America. As time went on, so did the riots, mostly in New York, Boston, and Newport, Rhode Island. Finally in March 1766, after a long debate, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act only to pass the Declaration Act, which stated that Parliament could enact laws for the colonies in all cases. Only now most Americans began to realize the power parliament had over controlling their basic rights. England further angered the colonists in June of 1772, when they announced that instead of having a legislature put into place by them, England would pay the governors and judges. Even though it would save the colonists money, they had the mindset of if the judges were paid by England, then they would obey them and what they said. In response, Boston created a Committee of Correspondence to win the sympathy of other colonies, by the end of 1773, all but 3 colonies had Committees of Correspondence. The final step before revolution started was taken in 1773 when the Parliament passed the Tea Act, which allowed the East India Company to ship tea directly to North America with a tax to the colonists, but the merchants who competed with the company announced this as

When the Boston Tea Party occurred on the evening of December 16,1773, it was the culmination of many years of bad feeling between the British government and her American colonies. The controversy between the two always seemed to hinge on the taxes, which Great Britain required for the upkeep of the American colonies. Starting in 1765, the Stamp Act was intended by Parliament to provide the funds necessary to keep peace between the American settlers and the Native American population. The Stamp Act was loathed by the American colonists and later repealed by parliament.

The 1773 Tea Act did cause the American Revolution in that it sparked huge opposition amongst the colonists. It was the third time that the British had tried to tax the Americans — both the 1765 Stamp Act and the 1767 Townshend Duties had been repealed due to such opposition. The Tea Act was the final straw for many colonists — the Sons of Liberty organised a huge protest in which they boarded the ships carrying the East India Company’s tea, and threw £10,000 worth of tea into the sea in defiance. This was known as the Boston Tea Party and demonstrated to the British that the Americans were not willing to accept British taxation. The slogan ‘no taxation without representation’ was frequently used, showing how the Americans felt the British, in trying to tax them, were attempting to impose a tyrannical rule. The Boston Tea Party provoked outrage in Britain, with many of the politically conscious calling for the Americans to be punished. This then led to the Coercive Acts in 1774, which aimed at isolating Boston — although it only resulted in increasing the tension between the

The Tea Act of 1773 was a tax on tea but, the British lowered the cost of tea significantly enough that even with the tax, British tea was cheaper than Dutch tea. Also to keep the price down, the British East India Co. got rid of the middleman in the colonies and opened up their own shops. If the colonists bought this tea, they would be accepting the fact that the British could tax without representation. On Dec. 16th 1773 the ships docked at the Boston ports. The Sons of Liberty dressed up as Indians and threw 324 chests of tea into the water. England responded to the Boston Tea Party by the Coercive Act of 1774.

As the year 1776 began in the American colonies, tension with King George III’s England was at perhaps an all-time high.  Americans were frustrated with the actions of their rulers overseas.  Taxes and trade restrictions had been placed on them, and British and mercenary soldiers occupied their towns and cities.  There had even been fighting at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill.  As America grew, England’s hold on it tightened, and a few voices began speaking of independence.  The loudest and most convincing of these belonged to Thomas Paine, born in England and living in Philadelphia.  His pamphlet, Common Sense, expressed the argument for American independence in a way no one had before and had a great influence on the Declaration of

This act made Britain sell the tea straight to the colonies, skipping the merchants. This tea was cheaper then the tea that was smuggled, however, the colonists still didn’t buy it. This was because there was still a tax on the tea. The Tea Act made the colonists think that they were trying to be fooled, which they were, by the British. This made them angry and they had multiple reactions. Some reactions were not allowing ships with tea to board the harbor. This sent back more than one ship to England. Also they still were tar and feathering the British. On December 16, 1173 the Boston Tea Party occurred. The Sons of Liberty, a patriot group, had fifty men dress up as Mohawk Indians. During the Boston Tea Party, tea that the British sent to sell was being thrown overboard off a boat (Doc. 3). After this all happened 342 crates of tea worth one million dollars, was gone to waste. The next day the sea was filled with tea crates and tea. The Sons of Liberty sunk the tea crates under the ocean to make sure the tea was ruined. The Tea Act made colonists mad and angry, leading to the Declaration of

It was the Tea Act. This act stated that only the British East India Company could sell or transport tea. Members of parliament passed this act because many of them had stakes in the company. At the time the British India Company was going bankrupt. This act threatened all colonial businesses by creating a monopoly. In Boston, the colonists devised a plan to resist this act. Several colonists dressed as Indians to deceive the British. These colonists seized the imported tea and dumped it into the harbor. The colonists dubbed this “the tea party.” The British responded to these actions by creating four acts jointly called the Coercive Acts. These acts closed the Boston ports to all trade, increased power of Massachusetts governor, granted trials of royal officials in Massachusetts be tried elsewhere, and allowed the new governor rights to quarter his troops anywhere. These Coercive Acts only angered the colonists more. They have strengthened their non-importation of British goods. They have also begun the forming of local militia companies.

Shortly after George Washington becoming chief, Britain's General Gage a discreet plan to send out British soldiers to Lexington April 19th, 1775, where their goal was to capture Colonial leaders such as John Hancock and leader Samuel Adams, then to concord, where they would have to seize all gunpowder. Fortunately friends of the Americans leaked Gage’s plan to the people. Two