KidzSearch Wiki

Boston Tea Party

An engraving of American colonists dressed as Native Americans throwing 342 trunks of the cargo that was on the British tea ships into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773.[1]

The Boston Tea Party was a protest by American colonists (called "patriots") against King George III's rule in colonial America. It happened on December 16, 1773.[2]

Specifically, the Boston Tea Party was a protest against the British colonial government for the Tea Act. This was one of several new taxes the British government had imposed on the American colonies.

Because they had no one to speak for them in the British government, the colonists were paying taxes but had no part in how the government was run. They argued that there should be "no taxation without representation" - meaning they should not have to pay taxes when they did not have a representative in the government. The taxes also reduced merchants' profits. Colonists began purchasing smuggled goods, which were much cheaper.

On the evening of December 16, 1773, several ships in Boston Harbor were holding tea imported from the British East India Company. Anyone who bought this tea would have to pay the new British tax. In protest, the Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams, boarded the ships and dumped the boxes of tea into the harbor. They disguised themselves as Native Americans for the protest.

The British government was enraged. Parliament passed even stricter laws for the colonies, later called the Intolerable Acts. One of these laws, the Boston Port Act, closed Boston Harbor until the colonists paid for all the tea they dumped. Another, the Massachusetts Government Act, took away Boston's right to govern itself.

The Boston Tea Party was one of the main events that started the American Revolutionary War.

David Kinnison [1764[?]-1852], who served briefly in the American Revolution, [3][4] claimed to have been at the Boston Tea Party.[5] However, he would have been only 9 years old at the time.

Boston Tea Party Media

  • This iconic 1846 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier was entitled The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor; the phrase "Boston Tea Party" had not yet become standard. Contrary to Currier's depiction, few of the men dumping the tea were actually disguised as Native Americans.

  • A notice from the "Chairman of the Committee for Tarring and Feathering" in Boston denouncing the tea consignees as "traitors to their country"

  • 1789 engraving of the destruction of the tea

  • A plaque commemorating the Boston Tea Party, currently affixed to side of the Independence Wharf Building in Boston

  • The Boston Tea Party Museum in Fort Point Channel

  • In 1973, the US Post Office issued a set of four stamps, together making one scene of the Boston Tea Party.

  • Replica of the Beaver in Boston

References

  1. ↑ Alexander, Revolutionary Politician, 125–26
  2. ↑ Labaree, Benjamin Woods (1979). The Boston Tea Party. Boston: Northeastern University Press. pp. 141–144. ISBN 0930350057.
  3. ↑ "Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the American revolution Vol 9 p.124". 1902.
  4. ↑ "Kennierson, David. Return of recruits sent by Massachusetts as portion of her quota of the Continental Army subsequent to Jan. 1, 1781, who were reported unfit for duty; 2d Mass regt.; age 17 years.; statute 4 ft. 9 in.; enguaged for town of Lebanon; term 3 years; reported under size." {Ibid.p.124}
  5. ↑ "David Kinnison's Tea Party". Retrieved April 25, 2018.

Other websites


Retrieved from "https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/w/index.php?title=Boston_Tea_Party&oldid=5744640"