The Boston Tea Party Carmen Halliday

The Causes. King George III and his government looked to taxing the American colonies as a way of recouping their war costs in 1763 In 1773, Britain's East India Company was sitting on large stocks of tea that it could not sell in England They were also looking for ways to reestablish control over the colonial governments that had become increasingly independent while the Crown was distracted by the war A series of actions was made: -Stamp Act (1765) -the Townsend Acts (1767) -The Boston Massacre (1770) In 1773, Britain's East India Company was sitting on large stocks of tea that it could not sell in England In an effort to save it, the government passed the Tea Act of 1773 It was the Crown's attempt to tax tea that spurred the colonists to action and laid the groundwork for the American Revolution.

The Event. When the East India Company sent shipments of tea to Philadelphia and New York the ships were not allowed to land In Charleston the ships were permitted to dock but their cargo was consigned to a warehouse.  where it remained for three years until it was sold by patriots in order to help finance the revolution. December 16, 1773, as many as 7,000 agitated locals went to the wharf where the ships were docked. A mass meeting at the Old South Meeting House that morning resolved that the tea ships should leave the harbor without payment of any duty A committee was selected to take this message to the Customs House to force release of the ships out of the harbor  but the Collector of Customs refused to allow the ships to leave without payment of the duty A group of about 200 men, some disguised as Indians, marched two-by-two to the wharf, descend upon the three ships and dumped their offending cargos of tea into the harbor waters.

The Impacts. The destruction of the tea raised the spirit of resistance in the colonies.  On April 22, 1774 in New York.  On October 19 in Annapolis, Md  On December 22 in Greenwich, N.J March 1774 Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts  which closed the Port of Boston The Boston Tea Party was the fuse that led to the explosion of American independence The event itself was a flash point between the chain of events that came before and the inevitable progression to revolution that followed

The Importance to Nationalism. The Boston Tea Party raised a spirit of independence and revolution amongst the colonists. The event itself was a flash point between the chain of events that came before and the inevitable progression to revolution that followed

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