Boston Tea Party: Its Origin and Consequences - Literature review Example

The Boston Tea Party: Its Origin and Consequences Date of Submission: Abstract The scene is that of a harbor and ships can be seen to have docked. One thing is for certain about the ships in the photograph: Those inside the ships appear to be throwing objects which look like wooden boxes into the water. Those jettisoning the ‘boxes’ seems to be cheered by a crowd standing on what appears to be a jetty or wharf at the harbor. A closer look at the photo reveals that those inside the ships have a similar dressing code and their hair styled Mohawk. It is undoubtedly true that the artist tried, by use of images, to describe in brief the tell tales of the events of the day at the Boston tea party. The boxes overboard refer to the chests of tea and the sons of Liberty dressed in Indian costumes are throwing the chests of tea into water. On looking is a crowd gathered to witness this unusual adventure. Contrary to what one may expect of a party and a tea party for that matter, in the Boston tea party there was neither merry nor partaking of the tea in question but protests, destruction and faces marred with resentment characterized the occasion. What then was the Boston tea party? This paper attempts to underscore, though limited to the scope of the discussion, the insights and intrigues of the event through a keener look at the origin, course and the aftermath of this significant event in the colonial history. The origin of the Boston tea party may be traced to the years preceding 1775 and more particularly to the events precipitated by the French and the Indian war (Fradin, 2007) .Although the war came to an end in 1763, in favor of the British and its American colonies against the French and its American Indian friends, the aftermath impacted negatively on the colonies. In a bid to ease its burden from the above war, Britain enacted and imposed the Stamp Act on the thirteen American colonies. This move sparked animosity and defiance in the land against the British imperial rules. The secret groups in Boston known as Sons of Liberty, started by Adams who was to later rise to the top seat of the land, directly attacked stamp agents and destroyed the stamps records (Lanning ,2009 ). These groups, observes Peacock, 2002, other than attacking tax collectors, encouraged noisy demonstrations and engaged the British infantry or Redcoats as they were known, in street fights. It is the anti-British campaigns undertaken by this group that did build up tension between the colonists and their master in Boston. The Boston Tea Party, an incident dubbed so after members of the Sons of Liberty dumped 90,000 pounds of tea belonging to the East India Company into water on the night of 16th December 1773, laid a stronger foundation for the development of the American revolution.(Draper, 2000).This was a protest against the British policies on tea of 1773.The Tea acts were enacted by the British Parliament with the main aim of saving the East India Company which was on the brinks of financial collapse(American history,2014) . The legislations aimed at lowering the company’s tax on tea and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade (Alison, 2007) .This move was welcomed with open defiance by colonies such that when the East India Company sent shipments of tea to New York, Philadelphia and Charleston they were denied to docking. Thus protesters had successfully prevented the unloading of tea in the above colonies. In Boston when the three tea-laden ships: the Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver docked at the Boston harbor, their arrival ignited a furious reaction from the patriots who demanded that the tea be returned to England(Alison, 2007) The merchants in Boston however refused to heed to the pressure from the patriots to reject the shipments. Thomas Hutchinson, the then Massachusetts governor refused the re-shipment of the cargo, a decision that prompted Samuel Adams and his members of the sons of Liberty to organize the ‘Boston Tea Party’ (Burgan, 2000). Peacock, 2002, succinctly describes how the infamous Boston Tea Party was executed. 50 members of the Sons of Liberty, having been inspired by Samuel Adams, disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians. They then boarded the three British ships in the Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water, one which Campbell quantifies as 90,000 tones of tea. The value of tea destroyed at the Boston harbor on the 16th of December 1773 was valued at over three quarters of a million dollars in modern day estimates (American history, 2014). It is this unfortunate event which severed the already strained relations between Britain and the colonists. In her response to this, Britain employed a harsh punishment on Boston by shutting down Boston’s harbor, a move which was detrimental to Boston’s economy. More so, more Redcoats were deployed in the region to quell any acts of aggression and General Thomas Gage relinquished his former position as commander of the British troops in colonies to become the governor of Massachusetts replacing the embattled Hutchinson (Peacock, 2002). In a bid to make the Bostonians tore the line and to further send chilling waves to all the colonists who would think of rebelling against her and her policies, the British parliament passed four punitive laws: the Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act and the Quartering Act. These Acts, writes Campbell, were collectively referred to as Coercive Acts in Britain, perhaps, because of their punitive nature, while the colonists dubbed them as Intolerable Acts. These pieces of legislation enacted by the British Parliament to punish the colonies did fan the already glowing flame of resistance and escalated the spirit of rebellion among the Americans. The colonists were required to pay for the destroyed tea, a Governors Council was replaced with a body appointed by the king, the powers of the king were extended to include appointing judges and other officials and penultimate, the Acts limited the authority of town meetings. Town meetings, observes Campbell, had been in existence for more than 100 years. In addition, the acts allowed all the governors to house troops in vacant buildings without permission. The colonists were however not threatened by these unpopular legislations and contrary to the British expectations, the colonists rallied behind the Bostonians in the course towards independence (Campbell, 2008) Waldman, 2003, notes, as does other writers in this topic, that the 13 American colonies were unhappy with being subjects to King George 111and his laws. The colonists desired to make their own laws and at the Continental Congress meeting, a decision was made in support of a war fare against the British to achieve their goal. The question of when however, remained unclear. The colonists thus sought to gather weapons and food in readiness to defend themselves from the British. The British acts of espionage on the colonists seemed to have paid off as they were informed of the stockpile of armaments taking place in Massachusetts. On April 14th 1775, orders were sent to General Gage to act against the rebels. Implementing this order, General Gage crafted a plan and the 19th of April 1775 was the date of its execution. Unfortunately for Gage, his plans leaked and his prime targets Samuel Adams and John Hancock escaped. The news about the coming of the British diffused in the air and the entire countryside was alerted of the British presence. In a show of solidarity against a common enemy, the militias from these towns came to fight alongside their brothers in Lexington and Concord. The Minutemen, a selected section of the militia, justified their course by responding to the call and marshalling 70 of them at Lexington Green awaiting the enemy. The Minutemen were named so because they could spring into action in a minute’s time. During this time of call for duty, the Minutemen were ready to face off the Regulars without much preparedness led by militiaman Captain John Parker. Lanning, 2009, records what transpired before the first shot went into the air. The British major John Pitcairn rode forward his forces and before the Minutemen, he demanded that they disperse. Parker in his response to Pitcairn is reported to have ordered his forces to stand their ground. Most historians concur that a shot was heard, one which sparked off the war. The question as to who did it however is not agreeable. Campbell, 2008, writes that participants on the American side would assert that the first shot came from the British Musket, whereas the British would claim that the Americans fired first. Lanning records a loss of eight militiamen, including Parker and ten of them wounded as opposed to the British one man loss during this encounter. Whoever fired the first shot may not be important per se, but the significance of the shot itself marked a turning point in the American history as it witnessed for the first time an armed struggle between the American militia men and the British troops. This ushered in the American Revolutionary epoch, a period which would end and see the Americans free of British control. As a matter of fact, the war at Lexington laid the foundation for the American Revolution and gave impetus to the successive revolts which eventually paid off. With 700 British soldiers under Colonel Francis Smith and Pitcairn against Parker’s team of 70 militia men, it is by no doubt the Americans were numerically challenged in this duel. Peacock, 2002, observes that General Gage did not want to fight the colonists but instead, intended to frighten them with the power of the British army through a show of force. His core aim was to curb acts of resistance from the colonists. But with the shot at Lexington and the return of fire that ensued, the periods that followed witnessed more and more revolts from the colonists. Though seen as a minor episode in the American Revolution, the Boston tea party not only marked the beginning of an open defiance to colonial oppressive laws but also influenced the American revolutionary wars. It is the courage taken by the townsmen of Massachusetts to stand against the well trained British soldiers that inspired the course of the Revolution. It is this courage demonstrated by the Sons of Liberty at the Boston Tea Party that inspired the patriots in Massachusetts in dismantling royal authority (Campbell, 2008).The royal authority, he observes, is one which was revered and faithfully observed for the otherwise was unthinkable. The colonists continued to keep a stockpile of weapons, tax revenues were directed to the illegal Provincial Congress and organized resistance against the royal authority. All these coupled with the war episodes culminated into the disregard of and open defiance to the royal authority. These acts of hostilities united the Americans in the course of the fight for freedom which eventually led to the American independence (Campbell, 2008) In conclusion, the Boston Tea Party was not in itself decisive in the sense that they did not pronounce immediate independence to the Americans. However, it played a significant role in opening up of the armed engagements of the American Revolution. ‘The shot heard around the world’ on the 19th of April 1775 marked the beginning of a war that would change the world. The cause of the Revolutionary war finds its roots from the colonial period. With their oppressive policies, the British got nothing but discontent from the American patriots who were determined to gain their independence. Thus the relations between the colonies and their master were strained. However, tensions grew higher after the French and the Indian War. It should be noted that the Americans were ripe for independence and were ready to fight for it. This is evident in the wars that were fought and gave them victory such as the battle of Lexington and Concord, the Boston Siege, the Battle at Saratoga and the final victory at Yorktown. References Alison Robert. (2007), The Boston Tea Party, New York: Applehood books. Boston Tea Party Historical Society, (2014) , The Boston Tea Party, Retrieved on 22nd April 2014 from http://www.boston-tea-party.org/ Burgan Michael. (2000), The Boston Tea Party, New York: capstone Publishers. Campbell B.C. (2008) Disasters, Accidents and Crises in American History: A Reference Guide to the Nation’s Most Catastrophic Events. New York: InfoBase Publishing Dolan Edward. (2002)The Boston Tea Party, New York: Marshall Cavendish Publishers. Draper Allison.(2000) ,The Boston Tea Party: Angry Colonists Dump British Tea, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. Fradin Dennis. (2007), The Boston Tea Party, New York: Marshall Cavendish Publishers Lanning L.M. (2009)The American Revolution 100: The People, Battles and Events of the American War for Independence, Ranked by their Significance. Naperville, IL: Sourcebook Inc. Massachusetts Historical Society (2014), The Boston Tea Party, Retrieved on 22nd April 2014 from http://www.masshist.org/revolution/teaparty.php Mortensen Lori. (2010) ,The Boston Tea Party, New York: capstone Digital Publishers. Peacock J. (2002), the Battles of Lexington and Concord. New York: Capstone. Twin Cities PubliTelevision.(2004 ), The Boston Tea Party, Retrieved on 22nd April 2014 from http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/chronicle_boston1774.html Ushistory.org , The Tea Act And The Tea Parties, Retrieved on 22nd April 2014 from http://www.ushistory.org/us/11c.asp Waldman S.P. (2003), The Battles of Lexington and Concord,New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. Read More