by Jerry Curtis

Created on: February 12, 2010

On December 16, 1773, a group estimated to be between 30 and 130 men, some crudely disguised as Mohawk Indians, headed towards Boston Harbor. As agitated Boston citizens skulked around the docks where three ships laden with tea cargo were moored, the "Mohawks" boarded ships and in the course of three hours (without resistance by the ships' captains), dumped over 300 chests (valued at about $2 million in today's money) of tea into the harbor. 

The causes...

The Boston Tea Party, then, was a demonstration and act of mob vandalism to protest the British Tea Act of 1773. The Tea Act was a government bailout for the cash-strapped East India Company. Ironically, the act actually resulted in lower tea prices to the colonial consumer. Under the Act, the East India Company could sell its tea in American ports (without shipping through Great Britain), and the Company was exempt from British tea import taxes. The British miscalculated, though. Giving a tax break to the giant East India Company hurt local Boston tea merchants, who had public support. The East India Company already had a monopoly on tea imports. Adding a tax exemption cut out the middle men in the colonies, who made their living selling to local consumers.

Samuel Adams' role....

Although it is doubtful that Samuel Adams (cousin of John Adams, future second President of the United States) participated directly in the dumping of the tea, he was definitely an instigator and later apologist for the deed. Here is what he said on the day of the Boston Tea Party:
 
"Fellow countrymen, we cannot afford to give a single inch! If we retreat now, everything we have done becomes useless! If (Governor) Hutchinson will not send tea back to England, perhaps we can brew a pot of it especially for him!"

How the British reacted...

Outraged and determined not to let what they considered an act of rebellion and vandalism go unpunished, the British Government decided to get tough. The Parliament (even members who considered themselves friends of the colonists) united and passed a series of four laws that targeted the Bostonians. Known as the “Coercive Acts” (or “Intolerable Acts” by the colonists) these acts:
 
♦ Closed the Port of Boston until such time as the destroyed tea was paid for.
 
♦ Revoked the Massachusetts colony charter and restricted public assembly.
 
♦ Forced colonial civilians to house British soldiers.
 
♦ Allowed British officials accused of capital crimes to be tried outside the colonies.
 
♦ Placed Massachusetts under rigid British military control.

The Coercive Acts contributed to the growing division between the British and the American colonists. The revolution was in large part caused by British taxation that, in turn, led to resistance continuing and united resistance against Great Britain. The Boston Tea Party, then, brought the colonies a step closer to open revolt against British rule.

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