Remembering the Sons
of Liberty: Boston Tea Party’s Architects
Most Americans are
aware of the pivotal moment in Boston’s history, where a group of people
opposed to high taxes and took a bold stand against King George’s rule. This
act of defiance involved tossing the highly valued tea into the harbor, which
became known as the Boston Tea Party. According to Historians credence, the
event served as an unofficial Declaration of Independence and
played a significant role in uniting the colonies in their fight for
revolution.
On the night of
December 16, 1773, a pivotal event unfolded in American history. A a grassroots paramilitary cum political organization known as the Sons of Liberty, comprised of people who actively instigated and provoked dissent in colonial America, covered in secrecy took bold and memorable action. They disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded three British ships anchored in Boston Harbor. In a daring act of protest, they tossed numerous crates of tea into the water. They were active in several colonies, including Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, and Virginia. The Sons of Liberty played a crucial role in uniting colonists against British oppression and laying the groundwork for the American Revolution.
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Their motivation
stemmed from anger towards the Tea Act, a law imposed by the British government
that was deemed unjust by American colonists. The Sons of Liberty wanted to
express their dissent and push back against British authority. Their actions
sparked a rebellion and became a powerful symbol of America’s struggle for
freedom. This historic event, famously called the Boston Tea Party. In this
article, we will explore the causes, events, and enduring significance of the
Boston Tea Party, which played a pivotal role in shaping the American
Revolution and the quest for independence.
💻 Table of Contents:
- Background: The Tea Act and Colonial Resentment
- The Symbolic Destruction: A Message of Resistance
- The Impact of the Boston Tea Party and the Intolerable Acts
- The Boston Tea Party’s Legacy in U.S. History
Background: The Tea
Act and Colonial Resentment:
To understand the
magnitude of the Boston Tea Party, it is crucial to grasp the circumstances
that led to this act of rebellion. The Tea Act of 1773 was a British
legislation that granted the East India Company a monopoly on the importation
of tea into the American colonies. This move aimed to rescue the struggling
company while also asserting British control over the colonial tea trade.
However, this act was
met with fierce opposition from the colonists, who viewed it as an infringement
on their rights and a continuation of the pattern of unjust taxation imposed by
Britain. The Tea Act not only threatened the livelihood of colonial merchants
but also served as a symbol of British oppression, fueling the already
simmering resentment among the colonists.
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The British
government didn’t like this protest and thought it was like treason. After the Boston Tea Party in 1773, the British Parliament passed strict laws known as the Intolerable Acts in 1774. These laws revoked local self-government in Massachusetts and imposed a trade embargo on Boston. These actions further angered the colonists, leading to protests and the convening of the First Continental Congress in 1774. Tensions continued to escalate, eventually sparking the American Revolutionary War with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775. The Boston Tea Party was an important moment that showed how much the
colonists wanted to be free from British rule.
The Symbolic
Destruction: A Message of Resistance
On the night of the Boston Tea Party, the Sons of Liberty, a secret organization advocating for colonial rights, executed a meticulously planned operation. Disguised as Mohawk Indians to conceal their identities, they boarded three British ships: the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver, which were docked in Boston Harbor. While the specific individuals who led the protest remain uncertain, influential patriots like Samuel Adams, one of the founding fathers of the United States, played a crucial role in organizing and supporting the event. The group of approximately 50 individuals operated with a resolute determination to make their protest heard.
With swift precision,
the disguised patriots unloaded the valuable cargo of tea from the ships. They
wrecked 92,000 pounds or 340 chests of tea. The British East India Company, the
owner of the tea, estimated its value at £9,659. In today’s money, that’s
around $1,700,000 (equivalent in 2021). Their actions were not motivated by greed or destruction but
by a deliberate political statement. They believed that by destroying the tea,
they were making a clear and defiant stand against the Tea Act and the unjust
authority of the British Parliament.
In March 1774, a
Second Boston Tea Party occurred. About 60 Bostonians boarded the ship Fortune
and threw around 30 chests of tea into the harbor. While not as well-known as
the first Boston Tea Party, this event inspired similar tea-dumping protests in
Maryland, New York, and South Carolina.
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The destruction of
the tea in Boston Harbor was a symbolic act of resistance, showcasing the
colonists’ resolve to protect their rights and freedoms. By discarding the tea
into the water, the patriots were not only rejecting the British taxes but also
challenging the very notion of British authority over the colonies.
The Boston Tea Party
reverberated throughout the colonies and garnered widespread support. It served
as a rallying cry and an inspiration for further acts of resistance against
British oppression. In response to this audacious act, the British government
enacted the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts, in an attempt to
punish the people of Boston and tighten their grip on the colonies. However,
instead of quelling the spirit of rebellion, these acts only further united and
galvanized the colonists in their fight for independence.
The Impact of the
Boston Tea Party and the Intolerable Acts:
After the Boston Tea
Party, 92,000 pounds of dumped-tea caused a lingering smell in the harbor. The
British responded to the Boston Tea Party by shutting down Boston Harbor until
the payment was made for the 340 chests of tea, as stated in the Boston Port
Act of 1774. The Intolerable Acts, which included the Boston Port Act, Massachusetts
Government Act, Administration of Justice Act, Quartering Act, and Quebec Act,
further outraged and united the American colonists against British rule.
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The Boston Tea Party
marked a significant act of resistance by the American colonists. The
consequences of the Boston Tea Party and the Intolerable Acts were immense,
ultimately igniting the American Revolution, which commenced in Massachusetts
on April 19, 1775. The events of the Boston Tea Party also inspired similar
acts of resistance in other colonial ports, further fueling the flames of
revolution.
Inspired by the
original Boston Tea Party, there were at least 10 similar tea parties along the
Eastern seaboard, as mentioned in Joseph Cummins’ 2012 book. In Philadelphia,
just nine days after Boston’s event, no tea was destroyed, but the captain of a
ship carrying a significant shipment of East India Company tea was threatened
with tarring and feathering unless he returned the tea to England, which he
ultimately did. Similarly, in Charleston, South Carolina, a ship arrived with
tea in November 1774, and although the captain claimed to be unaware of the
controversial cargo, angry residents held local merchants responsible and
compelled them to dispose of the tea in the harbor themselves.
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The Boston Tea
Party’s Legacy in U.S. History:
After the Boston Tea
Party in 1773, many Americans, including John Adams, considered tea drinking
unpatriotic. This led to a decline in tea consumption, with coffee becoming the
preferred hot drink during and after the Revolution.
In the U.S., activists
from different political perspectives have raised the Tea Party as a symbol of
protest. In 1973, on its 200th anniversary, protesters at Faneuil Hall called
for President Richard Milhous Nixon’s impeachment
and protested oil companies. In 1998, conservative Congressmen symbolically
dumped the federal tax code into the harbor.
The Tea Party legacy
continued in modern politics. In 2006, a libertarian political party named the
“Boston Tea Party” was founded. In 2007, the Ron Paul “Tea
Party” money bomb broke fundraising records, leading to the rise of the
Tea Party movement that dominated conservative American politics, culminating
in the Republicans’ significant victory in the 2010 elections.
Conclusion:
The Boston Tea Party was a protest in 1773 by colonists who
objected to British taxation without representation. They demonstrated their
discontent by dumping British tea, taken from docked ships, into the harbor.
This event was among the initial actions that ultimately led to the United
States Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution, which paved the
way for American independence. The Boston Tea Party, upon historical analysis,
emerges as a political and mercantile protest that set the stage for the
unfolding of a decisive destiny.
