The Tea Act Of Colonial America

In 1761 the British began to reinforce writs of assistance, laws that granted customs officials the authority to conduct random searches of property to seek out goods on which required duties had not been paid, not only in public establishments but in private homes. The next step was the Sugar Act of 1764, and it quickly became apparent that the purpose of the act was to extract revenue from America.  The Molasses Act of 1733 had placed a tax of six pence per gallon on sugar and molasses imported into the colonies.  In 1764 the British lowered the tax to three pence but now eventually decided to enforce it.  In addition, taxes were to be placed on other items such as wines, coffee, and textile products, and other restrictions were applied, this upset the colonists.  Madaras L, SoRelle J (2011) & Wood S. G. (2003)

Exasperated Americans saw that they had no sort of representation in England. No person of leadership was asked to sit in Parliament and voice any colonial concerns. The colonies did not have any sort of representation within the British Parliament. Without representation, the colonies were being taxed without any sort of consideration for the people. The Patriotic slogan for this particular upset was “No Taxation Without Representation”. Samual Adams used this phrase to gain more followers and to build a force against Britain. Adams was ready for a war, he wanted separation from England before others even thought

According to "Report of the Boston Tea Party, Boston Gazette", the pre-Boston Tea Party time was one of great tensions between not only the colonists and the citizens and crown back in Britain, but also with the loyalists who resided in the colonies and wanted to remain loyal to the monarchy. Those who wanted to break away showed extreme loathing towards loyalists and in many cases caused physical and emotional harm to them and loved ones, such as the case of Ann Hulton whose brother was tarred and feathered not just once, but twice, the second time in front of his parents. In a mezzotint attributed to Philip Dawe, the image depicts the Bostonians forcing scalding tea down the throat of John Malcolm, a customs official in retaliation against the taxes imposed by the British government, the liberty tree, and the Boston Tea Party taking place in the background. Officials representing the British Monarchy in any form were loathed and often were the targets of what the British viewed as terrorist attacks but, in the eyes of the colonists, were mere displays of their willingness to retaliate. The outbursts of aggression only served to further divide them and fed the fire that led to war. The colonists explored their own levels of revolution and rebellion against Britain and its followers. The concept of freedom from a king and crown was a new one to

The colonists believed they had a right to be represented in Parliament before being taxed or at least vote for the taxing officials. The phrase “no taxation without representation” began to become popular within the colonies.

The American colonies had good reason to suspect some other motives were at play in Britain and with their fears came more taxes. With their ever-growing belief that in some way Britain was devising a plan to seize their liberties, colonists started to boycott British luxury goods so Britain would have to stop the taxes since they would not be making revenue. However, this did not stop Parliament from adding new taxes to the list. In 1767, the Townshend Revenue Acts were imposed and set a new series of taxes on the colonists to offset the costs of administering and protecting the American colonies. Items taxed include imports such as paper, tea, glass, lead and paints. The restrictions Britain

King George took a stance with the government to improve their economic status to gain more power, harming his own people in the long run. He imposed and put resistance in his set of laws but the colonists objected his sudden orders due to the unjust taxation on random products. The Sugar Act, Declaratory Act, Tea Act, Townshend act, and Intolerable Act repress the colonist’s freedom. These acts guaranteed the rights of Parliament and taxed many important items such as tea, sugar and wine. “No Taxation without representation,” (a term the patriots adapted to their revolutionary movement) refers to a situation that involves the government imposing taxes, in this case the British, on a particular group of citizens (American colonists.) The colonies in America were forced to pay a large amount of money without having representation in the British Parliament. This whole situation backfired on the Parliament with rebellions and violent acts such as the Boston Tea Party and the Boston

Some sources report the participation of around 200 participants, while others estimate around 120 young men. These Patriots, led by Samuel Adams approached the ships somewhere between 7:00 and 10:00 on December 16, with as many as 7,000 bystanders who had gathered on a nearby hill to watch the event. The Sons of Liberty boarded the three ships dressed as Mohawk and Narragansett Indians, equipped with hatchets and clubs. The patriots spread out across the three ships, The Beaver, Dartmouth, and Eleanor, which were docked at Griffin's Wharf in Boston. They destroyed and tossed overboard around 340 crates of tea, weighing over 92,000 pounds and worth nearly $10,000, worth around 1,000,000 now. All the crates of tea were dumped overboard, yet the Sons of Liberty were very careful not to do any damage to other property on the ships, the only thing broken; a single padlock which the patriots replaced the next day; additionally, nobody was hurt and only one man, Francis Akeley, was caught and imprisoned for his

Franklin even warned the British that they would suffer loss with this operation since all the countrymen wanted it to be sent back. Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to send the ships back , which then caused for Patriot leader Samuel Adams to plan the Boston Tea Party using around sixty members of the Sons of Liberty . They dressed up as Mohawk Indians and boarded the ships. The Indian clothing that they wore was just to represent that they were not English men anymore, that they were American, they didn't mean to blame it on them or make fun of them. They were able to dump about 18,000 dollars’ worth of tea to the ocean on the night of December 16 . The Sons of Liberty wanted to keep the looters from salvaging, so they went out for next few days in boats and hit the boxes of tea so they would actually sunk in the ocean.

The passing of a series of laws regulating trade and tax, most notably the Sugar Act (1764), the Stamp Act (1765), and the Tea Act (1773) increased tension between Great Britain and its colonies in the period 1763-1776. Near the end of the French and Indian War, Great Britain was in desperate need of money to pay for their war debts. The British Parliament believed that they had a right to tax their colonies. Their legislations placed duties on certain imports that had never been taxed before. By the end of 1764, tensions heightened between colonists and imperial officials as they were disagreeing more and more about how the colonies should be taxed and governed. These feelings of dissatisfaction would soon swell into rebellion, leading to the American Revolution.

Andrews wrote a firsthand account of the Boston tea party recording that about ten thousand pounds worth of silver in tea was dumped into the Boston harbor. The people were angered by the tea tax that Britain put on the colonies and the people reacted in a violent way. John Andrews had many notable observations. One of these such observations was when the colonists voted unanimously to dump all the tea into the harbor. Another was how they only wanted to damage the tea, no other cargo was touched. When talking about the participants he viewed them highly as brave men. During the Boston tea party, certain people tried to sneak some of the tea for themselves instead of throwing it overboard. In George Hewes account of the Boston tea party, the people who took tea were shown to be punished. In his account, he talks about catching a captain who stuffed tea in the pockets of his coat. When trying to escape the captain's coat

The colonists were debating whether or not to retaliate. They decided that the British treatment was too aggressive, and that they wouldn't put up with it any longer.

Consequently, the British Parliament imposed taxation on the colonists in the 1760’s. The colonists resented this intrusion, for they felt they were not truly represented in the British government. Taxation without representation became the rallying cry of the colonists.

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 Tea Act of 1773 was a tax on tea but, the British lowered the cost of tea significantly enough that even with the tax, British tea was cheaper than Dutch tea. Also to keep the price down, the British East India Co. got rid of the middleman in the colonies and opened up their own shops. If the colonists bought this tea, they would be accepting the fact that the British could tax without representation. On Dec. 16th 1773 the ships docked at the Boston ports. The Sons of Liberty dressed up as Indians and threw 324 chests of tea into the water. England responded to the Boston Tea Party by the Coercive Act of 1774.

Furthermore, Great Britain had commanded new payment methods which created a ruckus with the Americans causeing great anger. Rebellion and discontent were rampant. The colonies started rebelling against ‘Mother England’ because of taxes issued to the colonies, in as much, England’s power did not allow them to have representation. The Revenue Act of 1764 made the Constitutional issue of whether or not the king had the right to tax the people who are living in his kingdom or the thirteen colonies. Eventually, this "became an entering wedge in the great dispute that was finally to wrest the American colonies from England" (Carey 48). "It was the phrase "taxation without representation" (Montgomery 138) that was to draw many to the cause of the American patriots against the mother country. That has royal authority to be able to term public opinions into a revolutionary battle.