Boston TEA Party
In the fall of 1773 seven shipping vessels crossed the North Atlantic Ocean to several ports on the American Coastline. Beneath the stormed beaten decks were six-hundred thousand pounds of tea. Delivering to the ports of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, the famous East India Company of London was assigned to transport the large amount of tea. Because of the controversy over the Townshend duties, the colonists refused the tea to be landed on shore. In New York and Philadelphia, the shipping vessels were ordered to turn back toward the Atlantic Ocean. In Charleston the tea was immediately seized by custom officials. But on the chilly evening of December 16, 1773 three-hundred-and-forty chests of tea was dumped into the harbor of Boston by antagonistic patriots, this rebellion was known as the Boston Tea Party. Significant in the coming of the American Revolution, the Boston Tea Party convinced the colonists that their freedom was in jeopardy. American independence! came by revolution, rather than evolution. Only familiar to the natives in China, tea was to be introduced around the world. In the 1660's, the beverage was not known to countrymen. Englishmen, a century after, soon became addicted to the exotic brew. Th
t decided to repress the trade into the continent. Postmus, Nicholas V. The East India Company's Affairs. London, 1946. The notion of destroying the East India Company's tea was the last resort in the minds of Boston patriots. The Sons of Liberty, who had showed up for reasons varying from patriotism to the quest for excitement, and Bostonians boarded the tea ships on the cold December evening. Carrying hatchets to destroy the tea chests, three groups consisting of thirty to sixty participants and a leader were working on destroying the tea. Several men on each tea ship hoisted the chests on deck while another group broke open the chests and poured the tea into the harbor. A large crowd silently approving the damage watched along the wharf. In less than three hours, the gangs had destroyed and dumped all the tea into the harbor. It was made clear that nobody was to keep any tea. One patriot filled the lining of his coat with loose tea and was quickly spotted, stripped of his clothing, and given a beating. Governmental authorities did not interrupt the proceedings during the night of the destruc! rs to take full responsibility for the consequences. of 1768 the American public laid the foundation for a protest movement particularly put together against the Townshend Act. The merchants of Boston agreed not to accept goods from Great Britain until all of the revenue acts were nullified. The merchants at both New York and Philadelphia resisted to follow along with the change, disappointing Boston. Despite their cries for help to other towns, Boston patriots soon found out that the ban against tea was to be temporary. After four years of boycotts and petitions for repeal of the Townshend Act, the great protest movement against the Townshend Act ended. a. The middle class enjoyed drinking tea as well, if somewhat pretentiously. Samuel Johnson described himself as "a hardened and shameless tea drinker who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool, who with tea amuses the evening , with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning" (Labaree p. 3). ce competition for Chinese tea began. Firmly placing itself in American history, the Boston Tea Party is one of the major factors in the causing of the Revolution. The colonists' opposition to the power of the government proved the patriots' strength. The shipments of tea in New York and Philadelphia were eventually turned back toward Great Britain. In Boston, however, the violent retaliation sparked a period when colonies realized the truth of bureaucratic vivacity. Because the evolution of a continent did not progress, the American nation was to be born in violent rebellion rather than in peace. With two sides more willing to fight than to retreat, war became unavoidable. The East India Company, officially known as The United Company of Merchants trading to the West Indies, was one of two of the most powerful financial organizations of Great Britain. The cornerstone of the East India Company's trade, in the middle of the eighteenth century, was tea. The trade of tea accounted for over ninety percent of its commercial profits. The East India Company not only prospered, but also faced serious financial crisis in 1772. During a depression that left businesses and banking houses stagnant, the Company owed the government one-million pounds. After the drastic financial decline, on August 4, the East India Company gave final approval to send two-thousand chests of tea to four American ports. Only one major problem was not fully considered. The directors of the Company discovered that the Townshend duties in the colonies might introduce economic and political problems. The East India Company was well aware of the tea smuggling both at home and in the colonies. Parliament finally enacted a remedy to the situation in 1767. As a five year experiment, the Indemnity Act lowered
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2703
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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