Boston tea party what does it mean

The act also taxed glass, lead, oil, paint, and paper. Due to boycotts and protests, the Townshend Revenue Act taxes on all commodities except tea were repealed in The smuggling of tea grew rampant and was a lucrative business venture for American colonists, such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams.

The Townshend Revenue Act tea tax remained in place despite proposals to have it waived. American colonists were outraged over the tea tax. They believed the Tea Act was a tactic to gain colonial support for the tax already enforced. The direct sale of tea by agents of the British East India Company to the American colonies undercut the business of colonial merchants.

The smuggled tea became more expensive than the British East India Company tea. Smugglers like John Hancock and Samuel Adams were trying to protect their economic interests by opposing the Tea Act , and Samuel Adams sold the opposition of British tea to the Patriots on the pretext of the abolishment of human rights by being taxed without representation. December 16, According to eyewitness testimonies, the Boston Tea Party occurred between the hours of and PM and lasted for approximately three hours.

It is at this location where the December 16, destruction of the tea occurred. The original location of the Boston Tea Party no longer exists because of extensive landfills that destroyed the location. A historical marker commemorating the Boston Tea Party stands on the corner of Congress and Purchase streets.

It is estimated that hundreds took part in the Boston Tea Party. For fear of punishment, many participants of the Boston Tea Party remained anonymous for many years after the event. To date it is known that people are documented to have participated. Not all of the participants of the Boston Tea Party are known; many carried the secret of their participation to their graves. The participants were made up of males from all walks of colonial society. Many were from Boston or the surrounding area, but some participants are documented to have come from as far away as Worcester in central Massachusetts and Maine.

The vast majority was of English descent, but men of Irish, Scottish, French, Portuguese, and African ancestry were documented to have also participated. The participants were off all ages, but the majority of the documented participants was under the age of forty. Sixteen participants were teenagers, and only nine men were above the age of forty.

Many of the Boston Tea Party participants fled Boston immediately after the destruction of the tea to avoid arrest. Thousands witnessed the event, and the implication and impact of this action were enormous ultimately leading to the start of the American Revolution. Learn More. American Indians. In an effort to hide their true identities, many of the Sons of Liberty attempted to pass themselves off as Mohawk Indians because if caught for their actions they would have faced severe punishment.

Reports from the time describe the participants as dressed as Mohawks or Narragansett Indians. The disguise was mostly symbolic in nature; they knew they would be recognized as non-Indians. When I first appeared in the street after being thus disguised, I fell in with many who were dressed, equipped and painted as I was, and who fell in with me and marched in order to the place of our destination.

The three ships were the Beaver, Dartmouth, and Eleanor. Each of the three ships carried more than one hundred chests of British East India Company tea. The Sons of Liberty on the night of December 16, , offloaded the tea cargoes of all three ships. There were to be four ships sailing from London carrying cargoes of British East India Company tea to Boston, but the William ran aground off Cape Cod on December 10, in a violent storm.

The cargo of 58 chests of British East India Company tea was salvaged before the William was abandoned. A portion of the salvaged tea cargo ended up in Boston and was later destroyed by the Sons of Liberty. A popular misconception is the belief the Tea Party Ships were British. In fact, the vessels were built in America and owned by Americans, but the cargo of tea they were carrying from London to Boston was owned by the British East India Company. The Eleanor was one of several vessels owned by leading Boston merchant, John Rowe.

In addition to India, the British East India Company had extensive dealings in China because of the lucrative opium trade.

Additionally, they also transported Hyson and Singlo teas, which were both green teas from the Chinese province of Anhui. The shipment of British East India Company tea the three ships delivered to Boston consisted of chests of Bohea, 60 chests of Singlo, 15 chests of Congou, 15 chests of Hyson, and 10 chests of Souchong.

The word Tory comes from several Middle Irish words meaning robbers, outlaws or pursued men. Prior to the American Revolution, the term Tory evolved into describing those who upheld the right of the King over Parliament, and during the Revolution took on the form to describe anyone who remained loyal to Britain.

Additionally, colonists believed Parliament did not have the right to tax them because the American colonies were not represented in Parliament. Since the beginning of the 18th century, tea had been regularly imported to the American colonies. By the time of the Boston Tea Party, it has been estimated American colonists drank approximately 1. Britain realized it could make even more money off of the lucrative tea trade by imposing taxes onto the American colonies.

In effect, the cost of British tea became high, and, in response, American colonists began a very lucrative industry of smuggling tea from the Dutch and other European markets. These smuggling operations violated the Navigation Acts which had been in place since the middle of the 17th century.

The smuggling of tea was undercutting the lucrative British tea trade. In response to the smuggling, in Parliament passed the Indemnity Act, which repealed the tax on tea and made British tea the same price as the Dutch. The Indemnity Act greatly cut down on American tea smuggling, but later in a new tax on tea was put in place by the Townshend Revenue Act. The act also taxed glass, lead, oil, paint, and paper.

In May , British Parliament passed the Tea Act which allowed British East India Company to sell tea to the colonies duty-free and much cheaper than other tea companies — but still tax the tea when it reached colonial ports. Tea smuggling in the colonies increased, although the cost of the smuggled tea soon surpassed that of tea from British East India Company with the added tea tax.

The Sons of Liberty were a group of colonial merchants and tradesmen founded to protest the Stamp Act and other forms of taxation. By December 16, , Dartmouth had been joined by her sister ships, Beaver and Eleanor ; all three ships loaded with tea from China.

That morning, as thousands of colonists convened at the wharf and its surrounding streets, a meeting was held at the Old South Meeting House where a large group of colonists voted to refuse to pay taxes on the tea or allow the tea to be unloaded, stored, sold or used. Ironically, the ships were built in America and owned by Americans. Governor Thomas Hutchison refused to allow the ships to return to Britain and ordered the tea tariff be paid and the tea unloaded.

The colonists refused, and Hutchison never offered a satisfactory compromise. That night, a large group of men — many reportedly members of the Sons of Liberty — disguised themselves in Native American garb, boarded the docked ships and threw chests of tea into the water. While some important colonist leaders such as John Adams were thrilled to learn Boston Harbor was covered in tea leaves, others were not.

Benjamin Franklin insisted the British East India Company be reimbursed for the lost tea and even offered to pay for it himself.

No one was hurt, and aside from the destruction of the tea and a padlock, no property was damaged or looted during the Boston Tea Party.

Thanks to their Native American costumes, only one of the tea party culprits, Francis Akeley, was arrested and imprisoned. Even after American independence, participants refused to reveal their identities, fearing they could still face civil and criminal charges as well as condemnation from elites for the destruction of private property.

Most participants in the Boston Tea Party were under the age of forty and sixteen of them were teenagers. A second Boston Tea Party took place in March , when around 60 Bostonians boarded the ship Fortune and dumped nearly 30 chests of tea into the harbor.

The delegates were divided on how to move forward but the Boston Tea Party had united them in their fervor to gain independence. A Tea Party Timeline: Old South Meeting House. The Boston Tea Party. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.