FROM PROTEST TO REVOLUTION

Mr. Stetler8th Grade Social Studies

Davidson, James W. “From Protest to Revolution.” The American Nation. Prentice Hall. Needham, Mass. 155-157.

A Dispute Over Tea Tea was tremendously popular in the colonies.

By 1770, at least one million Americans brewed tea twice a day.

People would rather go without their dinners than without a dish of tea.

Most of the tea in the colonies was brought by the British East India Company. The company got the tea in southern Asia, shipped it to the colonies, and sold it to colonial tea merchants.

The merchants then sold the tea to the colonists. To make a profit, the merchants sold the tea at a higher price than they had paid for it.

In the 1770’s, the British East India Company found itself in deep financial trouble. The British Parliament already had a small tax on tea that was upsetting the colonists, as a result 15 million pounds of tea sat unsold in British warehouses.

Parliament tried to help the BEIC by passing the Tea Act of 1773. The act let the company bypass the tea merchants and sell directly to the colonists.

As a result, the tea would still be taxed by the Empire, but it will be cheaper than ever before.

Americans were upset because they were cut out of the tea trade, the BEIC had violated the right to conduct free enterprise.

The colonists believed this was a British trick to make them accept Parliament’s right to tax the colonies.

A New Boycott Colonists stopped buying the BEIC tea. The

Daughters of Liberty served coffee or made “Liberty Tea” from raspberry leaves.

Modern Example? The Sons of Liberty enforced the boycott by

keeping the BEIC from unloading cargoes of tea.

Boston Tea Party

Three ships loaded with tea reached Boston harbor in late November 1773.

Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty met on December 16 and a group of men in Indian disguises burst from the meetinghouse and headed for the harbor.

Under a nearly full moon, the men boarded the ships, split open the tea chests, and dumped the tea into the harbor.

By 10 P.M., the Boston Tea Party was over. The contents of 342 chests of tea floated in

Boston harbor.

Political Cartoon Following the Boston Tea Party the Boston

Globe ran this headline:“High Tea in Boston harbor”

After reading the headline of the Boston Gazette above you will create a political cartoon for this event. Political cartoonists demonstrate a particular point of view in their cartoons. You may create their cartoons from the perspective of one of the colonists, King George III, or a fish in the Boston Harbor!

The Tea Trebuchet: How American

Independence was won