The Boston Tea Party - Research Paper Example

The Boston Tea Party Before the United s of America came to be known as such throughout the world, it was first known as the British Americas. As implied by the first word in the name of the country, America is a former colony of the British empire. As such, it was governed by British laws and taxes. It was because of this satellite governance of the nation that the seeds of the civil war got planted in the minds of the Americans. Though they were not truly represented in British government, the citizens of the country were expected to pay taxes to the British government. The historical belief is that the Boston Tea Party was set into motion in 1765 by the Tea Act of the British parliament that was meant to aid the British East India Company that held a massive surplus of tea in its warehouses. The British decided to sell the tea to its colonies at undercut prices in order to help save the failing tea company. However, purchasing the tea would have fallen under the Townshend Duties which was not supposed to apply to the colonies. The colonies recognized the usurpation of power that was taking place due to the entry of the tea into the American market, causing the colony to resist purchasing the tea. The Boston Tea Party was the result of a near decade of indirect war between the colony and Britain. The actions of the British parliament in relation to the entry of the taxed British tea into the colony eventually led to the independence of America in 1776. It is interesting to note however, that the aforementioned history of the Boston Tea Party is but one of the many versions / reasons that has come out over time to explain the events leading up to the eventual independence of America from colonial rule. The most commonly accepted version of the Tea Party history is that it was an event that occurred in 1773 as a showdown between the “Friends of Government” represented by Governor Thomas Hutchinson, and the “Sons of Liberty” represented by Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren. When the ship The Darthmouth docked on American shores on November 28, 1773 it was unable to offload its cargo of tea. The colony refused to let the the ship go back to England and yet they refused to receive the tea as well. Both sides had 20 days to clear customs and resolve the issue. However, resolving the problem of the taxed tea proved to be futile. At this point, British warships, expecting trouble, stood guard in the nearby harbor. When all efforts are negotiation failed, The “Body of the People” that had gathered at the Old South Meeting House numbered at least 5000 (Young Alfred “Revolution 1773: The “Body of the People” at Old South Meeting House”) and were led by 20 Americans dressed as Native Americans to the waterfront were the ships, now including the new arrival The Eleanor and the Beaver, were boarded and their cargo, the precious tea, were thrown overboard (Kenny, Michael “Rebellion in Boston Harbor”). In retaliation of the actions in Boston, the British parliament calls for a Privy Council, but with the ships captains unable to give an accurate identification of the people who threw out the tea, no arrests can be made. So the decision is made by the parliament to shut down the Boston Port until the British East India Company could be reimbursed by Boston for its losses (“The Boston Tea Party”). This version of the story clearly shows that the British Americans did not consider themselves a part of Great Britain as they were not amply represented in parliament and yet they were being forced to follow the rules of their occupier country. Just like any other nation that was occupied, the residents did not always agree with the policies of their occupiers so they always did what they could to let their disgust be known. But in the case of the British Americas, their disgust for their colonizers had been brewing for over a decade and only needed a spark to ignite the flames of rebellion. The second version, that is little known to the public about the Boston Tea Party is that the actions on that day were not the result of a tax hike but rather a tax cut. After Britain had run up a huge debt fighting the 7 Year War, Britain thought that the colonies that they protected during the war should do their part in nation rebuilding by paying new taxes. An idea that the colonies rejected outright. An objection that they voiced out when they opposed the Stamp Tax that would levy taxes on trade rather than regulate revenue. Then the Townshend Duties passed as law, dictating taxes on good imported by the colonies which included paper, paint, lead, and tea. After organized protests made Britain back down, they worked around the resistant to taxes being collected by passing the Tea Act which allowed Britain to collect tax on tea but repealed the tax law on tea imported to Britain for reshipment to colonies. Although this resulted in lower cost of tea for the colony, it was opposed because it allowed Britain to collect taxes where they should have not (Thorndike, Joseph “Four Things You Should Know About the Boston Tea Party”). Here lies the problem by which the Boston Tea Party is remembered by the public, the history books, and the revisionist historians. One of the truths about the Boston Tea Party is that it was prompted by an early history version of the modern corporate bailout. The cheap tea came about as the result of Great Britain bailing out the British East India Company who were unable to sell their tea, resulting in a massive pile up of tea in their warehouses. Since the colonizers were having a problem with smuggled tea in the colonies, they believed that they could solve two problems with one strike by lowering the importation tax on the tea, thus making the tea more affordable and undercutting the smuggled tea trade in the Americas. However, the prospect of cheap tea did not sit well with the colony because: The colonists, however, were unswayed by the prospect of legal, affordable tea. Instead they invoked the specter of monopoly, insisting that the East India Company would soon grow too powerful to resist. Colonial merchants would be ruined, the company would tighten its grip on the marketplace, and average consumers would be left at the mercy of a mercantile leviathan (Thorndike, Joseph “Four Things You Should Know About the Boston Tea Party”). Thus the opposition based upon the ideology of free enterprise entered the picture, resulting in the unrest of the public and their unwillingness to purchase tea that was meant to increase the power of the colonizer over the British Americas. Civil disobedience was the word of the year and the lower class Bostonians made sure that it was well known. Speaking of lower class Bostonians, they were the true participants of the Boston Tea Party and not the upper class segment of Bostonian society. No, those people deemed the action of throwing out perfectly good tea to be barbaric, raucous, and uncontrolled for them to have taken part in. However, when the history of the “destruction of the tea” was being written, The Conservatives decided to claim the act as their own in order to thwart any Labor activist claim to the rebellion. Thus the “Boston Tea Party” was born as the fancier way to tell the story of throwing out tea that nobody in the lower class of society wanted (Thorndike, Joseph “Four Things You Should Know About the Boston Tea Party”). Sadly, the essence of the Boston Tea Party or the “Throwing out of the Tea” as it should actually be called has been lost due to the misinterpretations and historical inaccuracies that have come to abound from its history. Without the people who actually participated in it around to dispel the misinformation, the generations of people today and tomorrow will continue to rewrite its history, depending upon their own needs. These days, the Millenials have come to understand the Boston Tea Party as a “No to taxes” story. However, the story of the Boston Tea Party was not built around an opposition to taxes. Rather it was ”... a protest against a) taxation without representation, and b) taxes levied simply to fund government, with no benefits accruing to the people being taxed. No one wants to pay taxes that go only to fund the office of tax collection. “ (“The Boston Tea Party: What Does It Mean Today?”). We the new generation of Americans need to come to an accurate understanding of its history in order for us to accurately use its ideology in fighting modern day oppression from our government. It is important to remember the essence of the Boston Tea Party as being an action that, if successful, result in the birth of a more just society where violence and taxation do not play a major role in the representation of freedom and justice. Surely the next century will find a new version of the Boston Tea Party being hawked by the historians who will have come of age after the Boston Tea Party events of the 21st century. These two events, although sharing the same name, does not share the same vision for the nation and as such, must be studied apart for its meaning and ideology. For it is sure that another version of the history of the Boston Tea Party will be forthcoming in the future. Works Cited Kenny, Michael. “Rebellion in the Boston Harbor”. boston.com. boston.com. 16 Nov 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. Massachusetts Historical Society. “The Boston Tea Party”. masshist.org. masshist.org. n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2014. “The Boston Tea Party: What Does It Mean Today?”. thehistoricpresent.wordpress.com. thehistoricpresent.wordpress.com. n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. Thorndike, Joseph. “Four Things You Should Know About the Boston Tea Party”. taxhistory.org. taxhistory.org. 8 Apr. 2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. Young, Alfred. “ Revolution 1773: The “Body of the People” at Old South Meeting House. oldsuthmeetinghouse.org. oldsouthmeetinghouse.org. 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. Read More