Page 33 - All About History - Issue 19-14

Bluffer’s Guide

THE TEA PARTY

Key events

Townshend
Revenue Act
29 June 1767
This placed new taxes on a
numberofgoodsbut,by1770,
allexceptteawererepealed.
Tea Act
10 May 1773
Designed to aid the struggling
East India Company, the Tea Act
also firmly established the right
The protesters’ choice of
disguisewasadeliberateone to tax colonists.
In disguise Philadelphia Tea Party Dartmouth arrives
in Boston
Some protesters wore Native American costumes, Shipments of tea arrived in Philadelphia, New York 27 November 1773
The first ship to arrive in
dressing up as Mohawk warriors. They wanted to and Charleston at the same time as Boston. In these
Boston, its cargo had to be
disguise their identity, but their choice of disguise cities, the cargo was prevented from being unloaded or claimed and unloaded within
was also symbolic. The Sons of Liberty were seized by customs officials because it was unclaimed. 20 days.
identifying themselves with the American tribes That didn’t happen in Boston because Governor
rather than as subjects of the British crown. Hutchinson refused to back down to the protesters. Public meeting
29 November 1773
Sons of Liberty urged the
Why Boston? Dartmouth to leave Boston, but
Governor Hutchinson refused to
Boston was the capital of Massachusetts, let it leave the colony.
oneof13separatecoloniesinNorth Dumping the tea
16 December 1773
America. It was the third-largest city Protesters boarded the ships in
onthecontinent,behindPhiladelphia the harbour and dumped 342
chests of tea in the water.
andNewYork.Italsohadareputation

for political radicalism, with firebrand Key figures
leaderswhippingupanti-Britishandpro-
Samuel Adams was one of the Thomas Hutchinson
colonial sentiment. Massachusetts radicals 1711-1780
The governor of Massachusetts
No taxation without Intolerable Acts was unpopular in the colony
and seen as a supporter of
representation The Tea Party might have remained a small- British taxes.
SinceAmericancolonistscouldnotvoteinBritish scaleprotesthadtheBritishgovernmentdecided Samuel Adams
elections, they believed the British Parliament had no to negotiate. Instead, they passed the Coercive 1722-1803
authority to tax them – it violated their fundamental Acts – known in America as the Intolerable Acts The politician was also the
right to ‘no taxation without representation.’ This was a –designedtopunishMassachusettsbyremoving leader of the Sons of Liberty
central grievance of the Sons of Liberty and had already powers of self-government. It simply served to and publicised and defended the
ledtoprotestsovertheStampandRevenueActs. increase opposition to Britain. Boston Tea Party.
The traitor’s drink Lord North
1732-1792
FollowingtheBostonTeaParty,tea British prime minister, reluctant
to compromise, he spearheaded
becamesynonymouswithBritainand the Coercive Acts.
manyAmericansconsidereddrinking John Adams
it to be unpatriotic. John Adams wrote 1735-1826
Local politician, second cousin
that “tea must be universally of Samuel Adams. He became
cond president of the USA.
renounced.” Tea
George Robert
drinking declined, Twelves Hewes
resultinginalasting 1742-1840
One of the last survivors of
preference in the USA fo the incident, who helped ©Alamy;Look&Learn
Tea became a symbol of British abuses against ecord and popularise the Tea
the colonists its alternative, coffee. rty in his memoirs.

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