1.  In this lesson, you will analyze four primary source documents relating to the Boston Tea Party.  After analyzing the documents, you will conduct a mock-trial in which you must decide whether or not individuals involved in throwing tea overboard in the Boston Tea Party broke the law, should be jailed, and should have to pay for the tea.  You will develop arguments, listen to each other, develop counter-arguments and work as teams to come to a conclusion on the issue from the perspective of their assigned character.

2.  I can describe the events which prompted the Boston Tea Party with reference to the Tea Act (1773), the East India Company, and the Sons of Liberty.  I can analyze four primary sources related to the Boston Tea Party and explain the motivations different groups had to force conflict or else seek agreement with Parliament.

3.  The decade before the Revolution began was a continual tug of war between those wanted to force confrontation and those who sought accommodation and compromise with the British.  Recall, that in 1773 Parliament repealed the disastrous Townshend Acts but kept the tax on tea as a symbol of Britain’s right to make laws for the colonies.  That same year Parliament passed the Tea Act which gave the East India Company control over the American tea trade.

4.  The East India Company was facing bankruptcy with 18 million pounds of unsold tea sitting in London warehouses.  Meanwhile, tea was very popular in the colonies but most of it was smuggled from the Netherlands which meant the colonists were not paying tax on it.  The new Tea Act ensured that only tea shipped aboard East India Company vessels and sold by its merchants could be brought to the Colonies. East India Company coat of arms. “Where God Leads, Nothing Hurts”.

5.  Colonists who had not been paying tax on smuggled tea would now have to pay tax on this regulated tea.  Even with the tax added, the East India Company tea was cheaper than the smuggled Dutch tea.  However, the colonists were outraged since the tax represented a violation of their rights.  Likewise, colonial merchants were angry at the loss of trade with the Dutch.

6.  Protests against the Tea Act took place all over the colonies.  In Charleston, South Carolina, colonists unloaded tea and let it rot on the docks.  In New York City and Philadelphia, colonists prevented tea ships from landing.  In Boston, the Sons of Liberty organized what became known as the Boston Tea Party.

7.  In the fall of 1773, as newspapers published the particulars of the East India Company plan, colonists learned that the tea was coming.  Merchants who wished to sell the tea in Boston petitioned the governor to safeguard it once it arrived.  However, British soldiers were confined to Castle William outside Boston since the unfortunate events of the Boston Massacre.  Therefore, the streets of Boston belonged to the Patriots. A North View of Castle William in the Harbour of Boston from Massachusetts Magazine, 1789.

8.  On Sunday, 28 November, a ship called the Dartmouth, carrying 114 chests of tea, arrived in Boston Harbor.  The Boston Committee of Correspondence called a meeting, open to all Bostonians and anyone from neighboring towns, at Faneuil Hall.  So many tried to attend the meeting, the Hall could not hold them all so the meeting was switched to Old South Meeting House.  Once there, the attendees demanded that the tea be returned to England and appointed a watch of 25 men to guard Griffin's Wharf.

9.  On 15 December, two more ships, the Eleanor and the Beaver, also both laden with tea, arrived at Griffin's Wharf.  The law was clear: if the duty on the Dartmouth's tea was not paid by 17 December, the customs officer was authorized to seize the ship and its cargo.  The governor, the ships' owners, and the merchants desiring to sell the tea all refused to return the tea to England.

10.  At another meeting at Old South on 16 December, the attendees resolved to prevent the East India tea from being “landed, stored, sold, or consumed.”  At the end of the meeting, thirty to sixty men, dressed as Indians, proceeded to Griffin's Wharf.  Once there the men proceeded to dump 342 chests of tea into the sea. “The Boston Tea Party, protesting the English tax on tea” by Charlotte M. Yonge, 1879.

11. Primary Source Activity

12.  You will now analyze four historical documents from the 1760s relating to the events of the Boston Tea Party and more specifically the importation of tea and the payment of tax.  Each document represents one of four unique perspectives.  You may work in pairs or groups of no more than four.  Read the Primary Sources within your groups  Complete the corresponding Reading Notes.  Be prepared to share your responses aloud.

13.  You will now be divided into teams whereby you will represent the perspective of one of four historical characters.  Group 1 – A member of the Sons of Liberty  Group 2 – A merchant who imported British goods  Group 3 – A tradesman who supported British tax laws.  Group 4 – A person from Marshfield who has been called to a very special meeting.

14.  Within your groups, you must consider and debate the following question –  Should those who threw tea overboard be made to pay for the damaged tea and should they be jailed for their actions?

15.  Taking into account what you have learned through the primary source analysis and from your assigned identity, you must determine where you stand on the issue.  In discussing this question you must choose one of four options:  strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree.  You must be prepared to justify your decisions with logical reasons.  Arguments must consist of at least three points.

16. Mock Trial

17.  One of the four options related to the debate question has been posted in each corner of the room.  You must now go to the corner of the room which corresponds to your interpretation of what your assigned identity’s stance would be.

18.  Selected groups will now present their arguments.  Students in other groups will have the option to join the group who has just presented their argument.  The corner with the most students at the end of the activity decides the fate of those who threw the tea into the harbor.

19.  What arguments were made in favor of fines and imprisonment for the perpetrators?  What arguments were made against fines and imprisonment?  Which arguments were most persuasive? Why?

20. The Aftermath

21.  Following what later became known as the Boston Tea Party, many colonists rejoiced believing that Britain would now see how strongly the colonists opposed taxation without representation.  Others doubted that destroying property was the best way to settle the tax debate.

22. “The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor” by Nathaniel Currier.

23.  Some colonial leaders offered to pay for the tea if Parliament would repeal the Tea Act.  Britain rejected the offer preferring the tea to be paid for and the perpetrators to be brought to trial.  In response to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts 1. The Port of Boston was closed until the East India Company was compensated for the destroyed tea 2. The Massachusetts legislature was dissolved and the colony ruled directly by officials appointed by Parliament 3. British government officials were immune to prosecution in Massachusetts 4. The Quartering Act was renewed forcing Massachusetts to pay for feeding and housing soldiers sent to restore order in the colony

24.  Passage of the Coercive Acts was used by Patriot leaders as evidence of Britain’s growing tyranny over the colonies  The Coercive Acts further fueled the flames of rebellion in the thirteen colonies.

25.  Complete the chart below with regard to what you have learned about the various groups and their motivations relating to British tax laws and the importation of tea:

26.  This lesson is important today because the Boston Tea Party showed that the colonists were not content to simply accept British policies toward the colonies and do nothing about the issues which aggrieved them.  Furthermore, the Tea Party was more than an act of lost tempers and hotheads. The Tea Party had been carefully planned and executed with deliberate precision.

27.  Prior to the actual Tea Party event, the colonists had met to discuss their response to the Tea Act.  It was at this time that strong and powerful leaders, such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams, began to emerge and take charge of the Independence cause.  British and Colonial responses to the Tea Party were contributing factors toward the War of Independence.  The British felt that the Colonies must be punished whereas the Colonists demonstrated through the First Continental Congress that they could rule independent of Britain.