Historical Systems Of Power Essay

The Tea Act of 1773 was a tax passed by the British Parliament, which lowered the tax on tea, meaning Parliament could sell their tea cheaper than the American merchants. The Tea Act angered the American colonists because the act gave Parliament a monopoly over tea sales in the colonies. In response to the Tea Act, many colonists dressed up like Indians and dumped tea into the Boston Harbor to protest against the Tea Act. George Hughes stated on December 16, 1773, “ … We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks…” (Doc. 1). Hughes go into detail explaining how he and the other colonists executed orders to dump the tea into the Boston Harbor because they

Massacres in the streets, abuse from English Parliament, and acts oppressing colonists; All of these were evident in events leading up to the American Revolution. The Revolutionary War was a display of colonist patriotism, and the reason for American independence today. Leading up to it, Britain tightened their hold on the colonies by restricting them and passing unfair laws and taxes. The American Revolution began after the colonists sent the Declaration of Independence to King George III in July, 1775, in which the colonies claimed independence from Britain. After the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, General Charles Cornwallis of the British army surrendered to the colonists, and they had officially gained independence. Though, were the colonists right to wage war and gain independence from Britain? Yes, they were justified in revolting against England because the acts were unfair, the British occupation in colonists territory, and the violation of rights taking place.

The founding of Jamestown was brought about in June of 1606 when King James I, granted a charter to the Virginia Company of London. The Virginia Company of London was a joint stock company established during this time with the purpose of growing settlements in North America. This group of London entrepreneurs had hopes of profit in building a secure settlement on Jamestown Island, and with the help of three ships and 100 colonists, The London Company became the first English Settlers in North America.

The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that took place on December 16, 1773 in Boston Harbor in Boston, Massachusetts. The Sons of Liberty led by Samuel Adams, dressed as Mohawk Indians destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent from the East India Company by throwing chests full of tea into the Boston Harbor. George Hewe’s, an eyewitness of the event writes in his journal, “In about three hours from the time we went on board, we had thus broken and thrown overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship, while those in the other ships were disposing of the tea in the same way, at the same time.” (Hewes). The Sons of Liberty, a secret group formed by the 13 colonies to protect the rights of the colonists, protested in opposition of the Tea Act implemented on May 10, 1773. The Tea Act was an act placed by the British Parliament in order to raise revenue for Great Britain that required tax on

Once again, the colonists were angry that they were being taxed on basic needs. This anger only grew through the Boston Massacre incident, where five colonists were killed, and the Boston Tea Party, where enraged colonists dumped tea into the Boston Harbor. The last straw for the colonists seemed to be the passing of the Coercive Acts, otherwise known as the Intolerable Acts. These acts were created to regulate and basically restrict the colonists to make them realize that Parliament was in control. Colonists did not agree with this act, specifically the Quartering Act which required them to house British soldiers, as well as feed and clothe them. These acts and taxations, along with the violent incidents that occurred in Boston, and a lack of colonial representation in the Parliament caused the colonists to

The Virginia colony was founded by John Smith a english explorer and some other colonist in the year 1607. The colony was one of the first 13 colonies that was located on the atlantic coast of North america . The colony was named after Queen Elizabeth l. John Smith was also a solider, map maker and a trader. He was captured and taken in december of 1607 by a Powhatan hunting party. Later he was saved by chief powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas by coming in between him and a blow from her father.

After months of protests Parliament realized their mistake and repealed the tax, but the damage had already been done and the Colonists would start a revolution to separate themselves from the British. On December 16, 1773 the Sons of Liberty, a group of Patriots led by Samuel Adams cut open 340 chests of British East India Company tea, weighing over 92,000 pounds (roughly 46 tons), onboard the Beaver, Dartmouth, and Eleanor and then dumped it into Boston Harbor; a total loss of $1,700,000 dollars in today’s money. Weeks after the ordeal the harbor still had the smell of tea. Until the 340 chest of British Eat India Company tea were paid for the British completely closed off Boston Harbor. The Intolerable act which was meant to punish the actions of the Sons of Liberty. This did not help Colonists’ approval of the British government. The harsh punishments unified the American colonists even more against British rule. The effect the Boston Tea Party had was noteworthy and ultimately sparked the American Revolution which started only two years later in Massachusetts on April 19,

Each side, one being the Loyalists and the other being the Patriots had irreconcilable differences. After the Boston Massacre, surveillance and tightened security ensued. To preserve the spirits of the colonist and regain hope, members of the Sons of Liberty, including Samuel Adams himself, raided the ships attired as Mohawk Indians, dumped a number of 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbour. Because the king renege on “asserting laws that bind the colonies in whatsoever,” the colonies had a legitimate reason to revolt against Britain. (“Declaratory Act” Document 7)

On March 5, 1770 two crowds form, the citizens of Boston, Massachusetts and the British troops stationed there. Conflict breaks out and the troops fire at the unarmed citizens several were dead and wounded (document 4). Three years pass by and another event takes place, The Boston Tea Party. Divided into three parties for the three ships docked at Griffin's Wharf . All of the ships contained tea that was going to be sold to the colonist with tax.

The name, the Boston Tea Party, didn’t come along until the 1820s, so its original name was “the destruction of tea”. During the night of December 16, 1773 the Sons of Liberty organized a protest. The protests’ location was Griffin’s Wharf which is on the Boston Harbor. There were over 100 colonists who participated in this protest. The colonists were upset about the Tea Act and strongly believed in the phrase, “no taxation without representation”. To not be punished, the colonists dressed up as Mohawk Indians. George Robert Twelves Hewes was part of the protest said, “To prevent discovery we agreed to wear ragged clothes and disfigure ourselves, dressing to resemble Indians as much as possible, smearing our faces with grease and lamp black or soot, and should not have known each other except by our voices…I immediately dressed myself in the costume of an Indian, equipped with a small hatchet…after having painted my face and hands with coal dust in the shop of a blacksmith.” Those who participated threw 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. The chests held more than 90,000 pounds of tea which caused this event to take about three hours. In today’s money, the cost of the damage was $1,000,000, but in 1773 currency it cost £9,659. The three ships that the tea were on were the Dartmouth, Beaver, and the Eleanor. The next day, colonists who were in boats saw chests of tea that were still floating in the water,

As our discussion post provided this week, the colonists responded with rebellion because of the new acts that were imposed upon them by the British (Schultz, K., 2013). Their attempt to reform the American colonies contributed to the growth of the Revolutionary movement because the British tried to enforce stricter policies and laws (Schultz, K. M., 2013). The British wanted to tighten the policies over the colonial officials so that it would reduce the corruption, the British wanted control over the area of land that the settlers occupied, and they wanted to raise revenue by taxing goods. Although the British were adamant about their purpose, the colonist believed that rebelling against them would help in receiving their independence.

Tea is for those against Liberty The Boston Tea Party was ultimately an American act defying taxation. The British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773 inhibited the colonists from paying normal prices for not only tea, but also stamps and sugar. Both sides, the British and the colonists, were affected in paramount effect. The colonists didn’t feel that they deserved the unjust taxes placed upon them while the British had a major debt after the war that they attempted to diminish. The combination of these two sides resulted in a dismantling aftermath.

The colonists declared “No taxation without representation” and many refused to buy the imported British goods. The Parliament ended up repealing all of the taxes because of this except one, a tax on tea. Colonists were already very angered by this time and tragedy struck in 1770 when an angry crowd began to taunt a group of British soldiers, causing them to open fire and kill five people. This event became known as the Boston Massacre. Three years later, colonists disguised themselves as Indians and destroyed hundreds of crates of tea on a ship in the Boston Harbor, this event became known as the Boston Tea Party. Colonists began to organize themselves into militias to resist the British troops and in April 1775, British soldiers and colonial militia fired on each other near Lexington and Concord causing the American Revolution to began. The Continental Congress, representatives sent to Philadelphia to make decisions as a group, established a Continental Army to defend the colonies against British troops. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson. After the Battle of Saratoga, the French were convinced that the Americans could defeat the British and entered into alliance with the new United States. After eight years of war, a peace treaty acknowledging the independence of the United States of America was signed in 1783. In the Spring of 1789, the United

The 1773 Tea Act did cause the American Revolution in that it sparked huge opposition amongst the colonists. It was the third time that the British had tried to tax the Americans — both the 1765 Stamp Act and the 1767 Townshend Duties had been repealed due to such opposition. The Tea Act was the final straw for many colonists — the Sons of Liberty organised a huge protest in which they boarded the ships carrying the East India Company’s tea, and threw £10,000 worth of tea into the sea in defiance. This was known as the Boston Tea Party and demonstrated to the British that the Americans were not willing to accept British taxation. The slogan ‘no taxation without representation’ was frequently used, showing how the Americans felt the British, in trying to tax them, were attempting to impose a tyrannical rule. The Boston Tea Party provoked outrage in Britain, with many of the politically conscious calling for the Americans to be punished. This then led to the Coercive Acts in 1774, which aimed at isolating Boston — although it only resulted in increasing the tension between the

The irregular and disorganized British rule of the American colonies in the previous years led to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. Most Americans did not originally want to separate from mother England. They wanted to stay loyal to the crown. England’s unwillingness to compromise, mismanagement of the colonies, heavy taxation of the colonists that violated their rights, the distractions of foreign affairs and politics in England and the strict trading policies that England tried to enforce together made the revolution inevitable. The British were definitely expected to win the dispute because they significantly over powered the Colonists in most areas. They had more money, weapons, people, etc. However the American’s prevailed with