1. Chapter 5
Section 4

2. Tea Act
Tea became popular after it was brought to the colonies in the early 1700s.
Most tea was brought to the colonies by the British East India Company.
The company sold it to tea merchants who sold it to the colonists.
The British East India Company found itself in financial trouble because the colonists refused to buy British tea due to the tax that was kept on it from the Townshend Acts.
Parliament tried to help the East India Tea Company by passing the Tea Act of 1773.

3. Rejection of the Tea Act
The Tea Act of 1773 allowed the East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonists making tea cheaper.
The colonists still had to pay a tax but their cost was less.
The colonists rejected the Tea Act and it made the tea merchants very angry.
Once again, colonists responded with a boycott.
Daughters and Sons of Liberty enforced the boycott.

4. The Boston Tea Party
In late November 1773, three ships carrying tea arrived in Boston harbor.
Governor Thomas Hutchinson ordered the captain to pay the required taxes, unload, and sell the tea as usual.
If the taxes were not paid within 20 days, he would seize the cargo and have it sold. The deadline was December 16.
At Griffin’s Wharf, where the tea ships were anchored, about 50 to 60 people dressed as Native Americans, boarded the ships, split open the tea chests, and dumped the tea into the harbor.
By 10:00 P.M the Boston Tea Party was over. However, the effects would be felt for a long time to come.

5. School House Rock
Let’s watch the School House Rock video of the Boston Tea Party.

6. Punishment for Massachusetts
The British were outraged by the behavior of the colonists.
In 1774, Parliament encouraged King George III to punish Massachusetts.
First, no ship could enter or leave the harbor until the colonists paid for the tea.
Second, Parliament forbade colonists to hold town meeting more than once a year without the governor’s permission.

7. Intolerable Acts
Third, Parliament provided for customs officers and other officials charged with major crimes to be tried in Britain instead of Massachusetts.
Fourth, Parliament passed a new quartering Act stating that Redcoats would no longer camp in tents instead, British commanders could force citizens to house troops in their homes.
These laws were called the Intolerable Acts by the colonists because they were so harsh.

8. The First Continental Congress
In response to the Intolerable Acts, colonial leaders called a meeting in Philadelphia.
In 1774, delegates of 12 colonies gathered in what became known as the First Continental Congress.
Only Georgia did not send a delegate.

9. A Resolution
After much debate, the delegates passed a resolution backing Massachusetts in its struggle against the Intolerable Acts.
They agreed to boycott all British goods and to stop exporting goods to Britain until the harsh laws were repealed.
The delegates also urged each colony to set up and train its own militia.
A militia is an army of citizens who serve as soldiers during an emergency.

10. The Shot Heard Around the World
In Massachusetts, volunteers known as minutemen trained regularly.
They were called minutemen because they kept their muskets at hand, prepared to fight at a minute’s notice.
Britain sent more troops to Boston bringing the total number up to 4,000.

11. The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
On April 18, about 700 British troops quietly left Boston to surprise attack Concord, a village about 18 miles from Boston.
The Sons of Liberty were watching and as soon as the British left, they hung two lamps from the Old North Church in Boston to signal that the redcoats were on the move.
Messengers mounted their horses and galloped the the night toward Concord.
Paul Revere shouted “The British are coming!” as he passed through each sleepy village.

12. The Shot
At daybreak, the redcoats reached Lexington, a town near Concord.
There they met 70 minutemen commanded by Captain John Parker.
The British ordered the minutemen to go home.
Outnumbered, the minutemen began to leave, but a shot suddenly rang out.
No one knows who fired it, but in the brief struggle, eight colonists were killed and one British soldier was wounded.

13. Lexington and Concord The British pushed on to Concord.
They found no weapons in the village so they turned back to Boston.
On the bridge outside Concord, they met 300 minutemen.
Again, fighting broke out.
This time, the British were forced to retreat.
As they withdrew, colonial sharpshooters took deadly aim at them from the woods and fields.
By the time they reached Boston, 73 redcoats were dead and 200 were wounded or missing.

14. A Turning Point News of the battles at Lexington and Concord spread.
To many colonists, the fighting ended all hope of reaching an agreement with Britain.
Only war would decide the future of the 13 colonies.

15. School House Rock
Let’s watch the School House Rock video “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World.