Claire Netemeyer APUSH website 2015-16
The Tea Act
Passed on May 10, 1773, the Tea Act did not actually bring any new taxes on tea to the colony, but was designed to help the Britain’s East India Company, which was on the verge of bankruptcy (Brinkley). The East India Company was struggling financially with 18 million pounds of unsold tea due to unfortunate stocks in England and colonists boycotting the previously taxed tea due to the Townshend Acts, (Boston Tea Party Historical Society) and under the circumstances of the Tea Act, that tea was to be brought to America and sold (Brinkley). When shipping their tea, the East India Company was not required to pay any of the taxes that were usually imposed on local merchants, giving them the opportunity to undermine the American tea merchants and make England the top dog of the colonial tea trade (Kindig).
The Tea Act directly taxed the tea in India, so there were no real taxes in the colonies (Boston Tea Party Historical Society). Although tea was cheaper because it was directly imported to America instead of having to stop in Britain, the East India Company could choose which merchants to which to sell their tea, creating trade monopolies and therefore conflict (Boston Tea Party Historical Society). This act was primarily an outrage to local colonial tea merchants but incited all American angers about how they had declared to have “no taxation without representation” when they were facing other unfair taxes (Brinkley). The colonists decided to boycott the tea (Brinkley).
About
Protests
With large portions of the population joined, this boycott surpassed other boycotts that were caused to taxation and linked all the colonists together in protest (Brinkley). Even, women, such as the members of the Daughters of Liberty, a women’s patriotic group who declared that they would “rather than Freedom, we’ll part with our tea” (Brinkley). Tea ships arriving in ports were met with angry crowds that would not allow them to dock and forced them to sail back to England, and in Maryland, one group even burned a warehouse full of unloaded tea (Stock).
Boston Tea Party
In one instance with the British ships, leader Samuel Adams called together a meeting after the Dartmouth docked in Boston harbor and passed a resolution for the Dartmouth to turn around to England without paying the fee for importation (Stock). Since British law declared that any ship’s cargo was able to be taken by officials if the ship did not pay the fee within 20 days, colonists selected 25 people to closely watch the ship for the next 20 days and prevent the tea from being unloaded (Stock). However, when the 20 day period ended, the British colonial governor refused to let the ships leave the harbor, inciting the colonists to a rebellion (Stock). That night; December 16, 1773; over 150 colonists dressed as Mohawk Indians emptied 342 chests of tea from various ships in the harbor into the water. This event has come to be known as the “Boston Tea Party” (Brinkley).
After the Boston Tea Party, the port of Boston was closed due to the 4 acts of 1774 (“The Intolerable Acts”) which overall catalyzed the revolution when colonists began meeting with Britain before war officially broke out (Brinkley).
Bibliography
Kindig, Thomas. "The Tea Act." US History. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.
Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation. 6th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.
"Significance of the Tea Act, 1773." Boston Tea Party. Boston Tea Party Historical Society, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.
"The Boston Tea Party: December 16, 1773." Global Events: Milestone Events Throughout History. Ed. Jennifer Stock. Vol. 6: North America. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2014. World History in Context. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.