History Brief: The Boston Tea Party

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In this History Brief, we examine the causes and impact of the Boston Tea Party.

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Transcript:

In order to alleviate tension in the American colonies, Parliament repealed most of the Townshend Acts. Yet, King George III had been determined to keep the tax on tea. Colonial demand for tea was high, but American merchants were smuggling in tea in order to avoid paying duties on it. How did Parliament respond?

In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act of 1773. The law was designed to help the British East India Tea Company by giving it a monopoly on tea imported into the colonies. The company had a huge surplus of tea that was cheaper than smuggled Dutch tea, even with the tax on it. The company petitioned Parliament to allow them to sell to the colonists directly, arguing that it would help both the British East India Tea Company and the British Empire. Cheaper tea, they argued, should encourage the colonists to stop smuggling Dutch tea, and less smuggling should result in more tax revenue for the empire.

Colonists still saw the law as a direct and involuntary tax as the American duty on the tea had not been dropped. In addition, much of the colonial economy revolved around the illegal activity of smuggling, and many merchants feared for their business as a great deal of their profits depended on the smuggled tea.

Americans loved tea just about as much as the English, and Parliament saw the Tea Act as an opportunity to bring English tea back into the colonies. The colonists’ Townshend boycotts had devastated the British economy. 320,000 pounds of East India tea was brought into the colonies the year the law went into effect. By 1772, that number had dropped to 530 pounds a year! Smuggling had caused so much damage that the British East India Tea Company was in danger of bankruptcy.

Soon, three ships loaded with British tea sailed into Boston Harbor. The Sons of Liberty refused to allow the tea to be unloaded, igniting a 19-day face off with customs officials. If the vessels set for 20 days, it became illegal for the ships to return to England with the cargo. Customs officials could then seize the shipment and do with it as they saw fit… customs officials who worked for the Crown.

On the nineteenth night, the Sons of Liberty asked one final time for the ships to return to England. Governor Hutchinson refused. That night, hundreds of Bostonians gathered in the Old South Church. “I do not see what more Bostonians can do to save their country,” Sam Adams shouted.

War hoops pierced the air and men burst in, hatchets in hand and faces painted in a poor attempt to look like Indians. “The Mohawks are a come!” one man shouted. “Tonight Boston Harbor becomes a giant tea pot!”

About 50 in number, the Sons of Liberty marched for the harbor by torch-light with a crowd of several hundred curious citizens in tow. A small group of customs officials were standing guard and they were assaulted and thrown to the dock. Given the option to leave their post or suffer the consequences, they abandoned the cargo.

Moonlight reflected in a golden tone off the Atlantic as the Sons of Liberty seized 342 chests of tea, split them open, and tossed them into the harbor. The cargo was worth more than 10,000 pounds (nearly 2 million dollars in today’s money).

Citizens awoke the following morning to an amazing sight. Hundreds of busted, wooden boxes littered the shoreline. The water still had a light tan tint to it. John Adams wrote, “The destruction of the tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, so intrepid and inflexible, it must have important consequences.”

And it did. Revenge and justice were on King George III’s mind, and Britain’s heavy-handed response would fuel resistance in all 13 colonies. That is exactly what Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty hoped for!