Boston Tea Party Essay, Research Paper

Boston Tea Party & # 8211 ; by m.ems

The Boston Tea Party is considered to be the boiling point in a series of events taking up to the radical war against the British. When a group of devout settlers, boarded British tea ships and unloaded their lading into the Boston seaport, America would be changed everlastingly. What was, at first, seen as an act of arch rebellion, turned out to be one of the most influential events in America s radical history. It non merely crippled the already fighting British tea industry, but besides, and more significantly, united the American people against British revenue enhancement and overall subjugation. When the British increased revenue enhancements in America, the settlers responded with rebellious rage, most notably, the Boston Tea Party, but when Britain lashed back with even more force, it opened the eyes of Americans likewise to the subjugation they lived under.

For old ages, the American people opted to purchase bootleg tea from Holland alternatively of paying the excess money on a taxed British tea. Not merely was tea cheaper from Holland but many Americans did non desire to pay the revenue enhancement and lend to British regulation. When British Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773, it allowed them to supply tea to America for cheaper than the bootleg tea. American tea merchandisers, unable to vie with this new low monetary value, were put out of concern. ( Jones ) This Act infuriated the colonial citizens who felt it unjust to prefer their British tea traders over American 1s. In revenge, Samuel Adams led a group of 150 or so work forces disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded three British tea ships and proceeded to dump 343 thoraxs of British tea into the ocean. ( Cornell ) When Bostonians refused to pay for the destroyed belongings, King George III and Parliament passed the alleged Intolerable Acts. One consequence was the shutting of the port of Boston and forbid public meetings in Massachusetts. Basically, the Intolerable Acts shut down the Massachusetts authorities wholly. These Acts of the Apostless of subjugation sparked the desire for alteration in American people and were a major cause for the first Continental Congress, which took stairss towards revolution and finally liberated the United States.

During the radical procedure, propaganda was cardinal in distributing radical thoughts across America and one of the taking propagandists, and applied scientist of rebellion ( Carruth, 86 ) , was Samuel Adams. Adams devotedness to naming attending of the people to British subjugation earned him the rubric of scribe of the revolution. He organized the first commission of correspondence in Boston, which paved the manner for similar commissions to organize in all of Massachusetts and finally other settlements. The commissions chief intent was to dispersed propaganda through booklets and presentations. Through distributing propaganda, they reached people eager to fall in in the rebellion. British merchandisers or other protagonists were tarred and feathered often in protest of Britain subjugation. The Boston Tea Party, the flood tide of the propaganda motion, showed the settlers that they could do things difficult for Britain. Because of the Boston Tea

Party, a major milepost in the revolution was reached. For the first clip, America practiced a full boycott of British goods. ( Jannsen ) A complete boycott was an of import measure because it showed the common American citizen every bit good as British authorization that America could stand on its ain without aid from the female parent state.

With the extremely successful onslaughts on the British tea trade industry in ports up and down the seashore, the American citizen gained power. Americans received word of the rebellion and how much harm it really did. The East India tea Company had made its tea cheaper in a last effort to avoid bankruptcy and when Americans refused to purchase British tea and dumped what tea they could acquire their custodies on, the company fizzled into about nil. ( McGranahan ) The East India Company was one of England s top gross manufacturers and when it went down England felt it. This, nevertheless, was non plenty. In order to force the British into either dividing from America or abdicating the oppressive limitations, more support was necessary. With the Boston Tea Party, Americans saw what they could make with a hundred and 50 or so work forces and were confident that if united, they could perchance take stairss towards revolution. One job remained, they were non united, but divided, and it would take a singular event to carry through the tremendous undertaking.

Britain s shutting of Boston s port coupled with the Quebec Act, which gave desired land West of the Appalachians to the Gallic, non to advert the remainder of the Intolerable Acts, pushed American citizens into a craze. The agony of Massachusetts and Boston in specific was received with a great understanding by the southern settlements. They were so sympathetic, they summoned a Continental Congress which met in Philadelphia. ( PBS Online ) The most influential member of the Congress was John Adams. He persuaded the fellow members to narrowly go through a proposal for a species of American place regulation under British way. ( Carruth, 88 ) Yet more important, the Continental Congress created the Association which called for a complete boycott of all British goods. This measure pushed Britain over the border. They realized that they could no longer command America and moved closer towards war. The Americans did non desire a revolution, merely a respite from oppressive statute law but as clip went on they could besides feel an inevitable struggle and continued their attempts in unifying their state by distributing propaganda and cooking their reserves.

The Boston Tea Party was one of the most effectual pieces of political theater of all time staged. It did so many things for America s independency ; most significantly, the event gave Americans a sense of power and showed them that they could contend back and do a difference. The Tea Party served as the springboard to more radical stairss that finally led to our independency. John Adams said about the event, There is a self-respect, a stateliness, a sublimity, in this last attempt of the nationalists that I greatly admire. It was a bold, hazardous, yet necessary action that lawfully established America as its ain state long earlier independency was achieved.