The Boston Tea Party in short

What was the Boston Tea Party all about?

The Boston Tea Party was a political protest at Griffin’s Wharf in 1773, American colonists were angry at the British for imposing greater taxation on the colony.

A protest group called “the sons of liberty” dumped 342 chests of the king’s tea into the harbour as an act of defiance to the British, well that’s the popular story but it was a bit more involved.

In the 1760’s, Britain was in a lot of debt so taxes were imposed, a series of taxes on the colonists to help pay this debt.

The Stamp Act of 1765 taxed colonists on virtually every piece of printed paper they used, from playing cards and business licenses to newspapers and legal documents. The Townsend Acts of 1767 went a step further, taxing essentials such as paint, paper, glass, lead and of cause tea.

The British felt taxing to be fair as they fought wars on the colonist’s behalf but this angered the colonist more as they felt they needed a representative in the British parliament.

Then in 1770 (that’s when Captain Cook discovered Australia) a street brawl broke out in Boston between British soldiers and the colonists, which started when frustrated colonist pegged snowballs at British guards, reinforcements were called and the British open fire on the unruly mob killing five and wounding 6, this was later called the Boston Massacre.

Later the British repealed the taxes except for the tax on tea as they were not going to give up $1.2 million a year in taxes the colonist drank.

In protest the colonist boycotted tea from the British East India Company which now faced becoming bankrupt with all there surplus tea, the British eased the tax by introducing duty free tea to combat smuggling.

The son of liberty was a group of merchants and tradesmen founded to protest the Stamp Act and other forms of taxation. The group of revolutionists included prominent patriots such as Benedict Arnold, Patrick Henry and Paul Revere, as well as Adams and Hancock.

Which now leads to ten facts about the Boston Tea Party you may not have known.

1.       Colonists weren’t protesting a higher tax on tea it was over cheap stale tea and smuggling.

2.       The attacked ships were American and the tea wasn’t the King’s.

3.       The tea was Chinese, not Indian, and lots of it was green.

4.       The Tea Party, itself, didn’t incite revolution.

5.       Yes, Tea Party protestors dressed as ‘indians,’ but not convincingly.

6.       No one called it the ‘Boston Tea Party.’

7.       After Boston, there were other ‘tea parties.’

8.       Although not involved Ben Franklin paid for the tea dumped in the harbor.

9.       At the time of the protest 90% of tea sold in the colonies was smuggled.

10.   Tea was taxed at 25% which made smuggling profitable.

There are a lot of documents that really goes into depth about the Boston Tea Party but this is just a quick look, now you know the difference between the Boston Tea Party and the Mad Hatters Tea Party.