Boston Tea Party Issues - Research Paper Example

Boston Tea Party Boston Tea Party Introduction On the day of 16th December during the year of 1773 a group of people belonging to the region of Boston masked themselves as people belonging to the group of Native Americans embarked on ship named Dartmouth along with two vessels that were accompanying the ship from a harbor located in Boston (Allison, 2007). The disguised individuals had a single objective in their mind and that was to destroy the entire cargo containing tea. These men ended up destroying a huge quantity of chests that contained tea and this action resulted in a huge monetary loss to the merchants of East India Company. This one single act is still quite clear in the minds of many Americans and is continuously taught in the educational institutes. This single event was regarded as the Boston Tea Party and is recognized as one of the main events that finally led to American Revolution that took place during the period of 1775 (Ayers, 2009). Body Causes Of The Event The event of Boston Tea Party can be said to be one of the responses to the war that took place during 1754 to 1763 and the war occurred between the French and the Indians. Several wars had taken place between the nation of France and England, but the war between the French and the Indians was the most expensive of all (Allison, 2007). The English government was of the idea that since they were at war to safeguard the colonists of America from their Native as well as Canadian French friends, the colonists should reimburse the expenses. They even believed that more money will be spent in order to protect the Western frontier and they planned to pay all these expenses by heavily taxing the colonists. But the colonists believed that it was a waste to pay for all these expenses. Heavy Taxation Since the English government wanted the natives to pay for the cost of protecting the frontier and to relieve themselves from the national debt, they passed several acts and levied several taxes on the colonists during the era of 1760s (Volvo, 2012). These acts included the Stamp Act that was passed during 1765 and as a result of this act taxes were levied on any form of paper that was used by the natives (Volvo, 2012). These taxes were never accepted by the colonists and to stop the government from obtaining these taxes, they started threatening those who collected taxes and even held various protests with huge amount of people. These protests and acts to make the British government stop taxing the colonists were quite well organized and constant pursuit provided them fruitful results as the English government had to back away. Due to these protests, the Stamp Act was completely removed along with other taxes during the period of 1766 (Volvo, 2012). But the English government had to try new ways of obtaining money from the colonists and due to this they enacted the Townshend Duties Act during the period of 1767 (Volvo, 2012). This time they used much subtle manner to collect money from the colonists and instead of using the method of direct taxation on the purchase and sale of goods; they increased the prices of several goods that were used by the colonists. One of the everyday good that experienced a price hike was tea. In response to the hiked rates, the colonists stopped purchasing tea and agreements to stop imports were reached within the colonists. Different members of the society of colonists stopped drinking tea or accessed it from the black market in which the tea was being exported by the Dutch colonies. Once again the government could not withstand the protest of the colonists and they removed the Townshend Duties act during the period of 1770. But they continued to increase the hike in price of tea to exhibit their power and this is one of the main reasons due to which the incident of Boston Tea Party took place (Volvo, 2012). The purpose of taxing the tea was to avoid bankruptcy of the East India Company which used to make huge sums of money through its tea export to the American colonists. In prior years the tea had to pass through the wholesalers of England and then the American wholesaler and then the tea used to finally reach the colonists. Due to the avoidance of the colonists to purchase tea exported by East India Company, the company was experiencing huge losses and in order to protect the company, the English Prime Minister was able to persuade his parliamentarians in enacting the Tea Act during the period of 1773 and this led to the removal of the wholesalers (Volvo, 2012). With no wholesalers in the middle, the company was able to sell its tea directly to the agents in the region of colonial America and this lead to the huge amount of profits being earned by the company. Another stipulation of the Act was that it permitted the company to identify its own agents who would supply tea to the colonists, the wholesalers and the agents lost their business. Such a move made by the English made the citizens as well as the politicians of colonial America feel that the government was taxing them without taking them into confidence. The Dutch exporters such as John Hancock even experienced losses due to decline in the demand for his tea (Volo, 2012). He along with other exporters were important individuals who influenced the colonists to riot against the English government. This was because Hancock as well as other exporters of tea from the Dutch area faced huge losses and closure of their business. While some colonists such as the Governor of Massachusetts and his sons benefited as his sons were able to become the agents. The colonists were not angry because of the taxes, but they feared that they will lose control over the officers operating in the colonies and this would lead to the infringement of the rights of the colonists. The Main Event During the period of 1773 a consignment of 600,000 pounds of tea which was stored in a total of 2000 chests was being exported to the colonies by the company, but the shipment was welcomed with hostilities at different harbors (Ayers, 2009). Before the shipment was departed from the host harbors, the colonists started threatening the exporters that their ships will be destroyed to make them stop from sending the consignment. The angry mob at the ports tried to force the local officers to make the shipment return to England. In different parts of colonial America, shipments were burned or they were set to fire in their warehouses. In certain regions such as New York City as well as Philadelphia, the mob was able to persuade the shipments to return even though certain amount of revolt was even shown by the ship captains. The governor of Boston was even able to persuade the consignees from returning back and those who did not returned back included his own sons. As soon as the shipment reached the harbor of Boston, a meeting was called upon by Adams on November 29th. It is said that Adams did not explicitly state that the people of Boston should revolt, but it is believed that when he said that the meeting have failed to stop the governor and the consignees, the people of Boston perceived that it was a green signal to protest. The meeting unanimously accepted that they would not allow the consignees to offload the tea at the harbor. In the region of Boston where demonstration was taking place under the leadership of Samuel Adams, the Royal Navy tried to stop the mob from protesting so the tea was not returned to England. This was because the governor of Boston was aware that if the shipment would have spent a time period of 20 days at the port, then it would have to be legally unloaded at the port. On the 20th day Adams tried to convince the governor to allow the consignment to return but the governor did not agree (Allison, 2007). So on December 16th a group of people belonging to Boston attacked the shipment while trying to ensure that tea was the only thing that was destroyed and no one else would be hurt or no one else could benefit from the event. Reaction To The Event The aggressive protest at the Boston harbor by the locals was not welcomed by the East India Company and as a response to those actions, the English parliament enacted several laws under the Act of Coercive Act during the period of 1774 (Volvo, 2012). According to this Act the locals were required to pay for the losses, the port was completely shut the authority of the governor was increased and several rules made it difficult to convict the officers of the Royal for committing any crimes. Land was even seized and this land comprised of areas that were properties of the colonists when they came into existence. As a response to the British parliament’s actions led to the formation the very first Continental Congress to respond the English government (Volvo, 2012). References Allison, R. (2007). The Boston Tea Party (1st ed.). Beverly, Mass.: Commonwealth Editions. Ayers, E. (2009). American passages (1st ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. Volo, J. (2012). The Boston Tea Party (1st ed.). Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger. Read More