Aditya Prasad
Mr. Craig
U.S. History I
9 April 2018
TEA ACT
The Tea Act of 1773 was a British Law, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on May 10, 1773. Under this Act, British East India Company could directly sell their tea in the American colonies compared to selling its tea only in auction in London. Further the duties charged on the tea shipped to American colonies would be waived. (https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/the-tea-act) The tea act was one of the crucial act and turning points in the history of American colonies that later led to the revolutionary war. It was series of many acts that sparked the revolutioanlry war. The Tea Act was different because because it showed that colonies valued principles more that money.
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The American colonists in the ports of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston had time to consider the implications and impact of the Tea Act before the ships laden with tea arrived in their harbors. They had time to plan their responses and what action they could take against the Tea Act: The press became more active in its political discussions, Circulars and handbills were printed and distributed, The Sons of Liberty organized public demonstration against the British government, Public meetings were held - everyone got to hear about the Tea Act resulting in strong Anti-British attitudes. Americans decided they would continue to boycott tea from the British. To enforce the Nonimportation Agreements by merchants not to purchase British goods. A public meeting was held in Philadelphia and there was agreement that anyone who aided in “unloading, receiving, or vending” the tea was an enemy to his country. The colonists agreed that the Consignees, who were supposed to receive the tea, should “resign their appointment”. The Sons of Liberty reorganized and owners and occupants of stores were warned against harboring the tea, and all who bought, sold or handled it, were threatened as enemies to the …show more content…
Three ships- Beaver, Dartmouth and Eleanor arrived in the Boston harbor. The sons of liberty group wanted to send back the ships without unloading them but Lieutenant Governor and Chief Justice of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson held them back. On December 16, 1773, a group of men dressed up as Native Americans boarded the company ships, opened the tea chests and dumped them into Boston harbor. This later came to be known as Boston Tea Party. Even to this day, around the anniversary of Boston Tea Party, a reenactment is thrown in Boston. British Government condemned the Boston Tea Party act and came down very hard on the
The Tea Act was another taxation related act enacted by the British Parliament passed on May 10, 1773. What makes this act different from the rest is that it actually reduced the amount of taxes on tea not increase it. It went from 12 pence (pennies) to 3, that’s a big difference. This act was passed because an East India tea company was going bankrupt so British let them import all their leftover tea to the colonies. The Prime Minister at the time thought that the colonist wouldn’t complain because they had to pay less taxes for tea.
“The die is now cast. The colonies must either submit or triumph.” ~King George III The Tea Act, sometimes known as the Boston Tea Party, has a lot to say about tea. It is referred to by John Adams as "the Destruction of the Tea in Boston." The night, December thirteen seventeen seventy three. Colonists disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians. Seventeen Million Pounds of unsold tea was dumped mid day. With the colonists throwing over the tea off the ships, King George decided to punish the Bostonians.
On December 16th, 1773, the Sons of Liberty dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. This was a reaction to the new tea tax placed on the colonists. 3 other ports peacefully had the shipments of tea return to Great Britain. Due to heavy populations of Patriots in the areas of Charleston, New York, and Philadelphia ports. The colonists were not justified in the doing of this reaction, because they wasted a portion of Great Britain’s money, tried to frame Native Americans, and finally they committed treason against England.
The Tea act was extended by the British Parliament in 1773 to reduce the tax on tea shipped to the dependencies. The Act was one of many measures imposed on the American colonists by the British regime. The Act imposed a tax on tea imported to the colonies by a company that Great Britain had set up for that role. That society owned the sole right to import tea to the settlements, so almost all tea consumed by colonists would be taxed. They were so furious that they boycotted tea altogether.
The Tea Act of 1773 was put in place to save the East India Company from going out of business because the British needed them for there economy to work. The American’s that were mostly affected by this act would be the American’s that had business’s because they could not feed their family and their business wasn’t running right at all no one was buying anything from them. The American’s decided that they had had enough and got on ships of the East India Company and thru over 300 chests of tea into the Boston harbor that night. The main point of the Tea act was to help the British and only the British not the colonies at
Although tea was taxed and people were buying it, it didn’t stop others from smuggling until Parliament decided to establish the Tea Act of 1773. The Tea Act was designed to cut out the British middleman and prevent smuggling tea from other sources. This of course didn’t settle well with colonists and “the Sons again organized resistance. On December 15, the Sons of Liberty announced an agreement or Association to resist the Tea Act” (Association of the New York Sons of Liberty, 1773). Shortly after this announcement, 150 men dressed as Indians boarded on of the incoming ships, tossing 342 chests of tea into the harbor (Class Notes: 7-2). The response to this was quick and stern, the Parliament issued “the Coercive Acts, four laws meant to punish Massachusetts for destroying the tea. In America, those laws, along with a fifth one, the Quebec Act, were soon known as the Intolerable Acts” (Roark 180). These acts resulted in the blockade of the port of Boston, the shutdown of MA government and military law, and a new Quartering Act which allowed troops to reside in houses of residents (Class Notes:
In 1773, Parliament aroused the Americans by passage of the Tea Act. This act, designed to help the East India Company by making it cheaper for them to sell tea in America, was interpreted by Americans as a subtle ploy to get them to consume taxed tea. In Boston, in December 1773, a group of men dumped the tea into the harbor.
Paul Revere was the first to deliver the news when he rode to Manhattan, New York on the 21st of December. Once the news had hit London, the British shut down the Harbor “until all of the 340 chests of British East India Company tea were paid for” (Labaree). After the whole Party, the Boston Harbor smelled like tea as expected after 92,000 pounds of tea had been dropped into it. To make sure the tea was not salvaged by the British, member of the Sons of Liberty went out in boats and hit the tea with spears to make sure that the tea could not float back to the top of the harbor. As mentioned before, the Intolerable Acts also known as the Boston Port Act was put in place to retain the money lost from the tea.
The tea act was a tax on tea passed by the parliament to tax the colonists to pay off their debt from the french and indian war. The patriots were outraged by the tea act because they felt why should the British be able to tax us when we are all the way across the ocean. Ever since the tea act was passed in 1773 there have been hostilities had been near the breaking point. The colonists did not like that the British East India tea company was given an exclusive right to sell tea in America. Sam Adams organized the sons of liberty because he wanted to take down the unfair tax on tea. He and the sons of liberty dumped hundreds of pounds of tea into the harbor. This was one of the main events that lead up to the Revolutionary war.
Due to disagreements with the taxes on tea from the Townsend Acts, Sam Adams lead a group of protestors to dump tea from a ship in the Boston harbor. As Jack Rakove says in his book, Revolutionaries, “Had the value of the tea not been so dear, the Boston Tea Party might be remembered, if at all, as a minor piece of political theater” (Rakove 30). The British were dealing with debt from the seven years’ war and saw this attack on their property a direct insult to their sovereignty. Unlike many Loyalist, the Patriots supported and respected the attack, as can be seen in an article by the Boston Gazette, where they say, “A number of brave & resolute men, determined to do all in their power to save their country from the ruin which their enemies
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.
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.
Why did the Boston Tea Party happen in the first place? On December 16, 1773, an incident took place in which 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company were thrown from the British ships into the Boston Harbor by American patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians. The American colonies were protesting both a tax on the tea and a perceived monopoly. So in 1773 Parliament passed a tea act designed to aid the financially troubled East India Company by granting a monopoly on all tea exported to all the colonies, an exemption on the export tax, and a “drawback” of duties owed on certain surplus quantities of tea in its possession(“Sons”). In the year of 1773, colonists had a goal to work hard and change a law they didn't think was fair.