by Jeanie Pitner

Created on: August 09, 2007   Last Updated: December 09, 2008

One might think that the Boston Tea Party was about tea, but that is not exactly the case. The Boston Tea Party was about taxes, a tax called the Tea Act. This act put the tea trades under control of a single British Company. Much like the way we pay taxes to our government today many products we buy have taxes built into their prices such as gasoline or cigarettes just to name a few.

The difference for the colonist was that their tax was hidden within the price of the tea. Even though the price paid for tea was cheaper, but because the tax was hidden and done without their consent they felt like they were being cheated. During those days, coffee was not the main choice of beverage, it was tea and many colonists would drink tea throughout the day.

Like our harbors today, we have many products shipped to us from all over the world and the colonists supplies arrived by harbor too. Boston's tea was shipped from Britain on huge ships.

Because the British King and the Parliament (lawmaking body) had to repeal the Stamp Act of 1765 which was just another type of tax forced on the colonists on goods they made, in 1773 the Parliament came up with a new tax called the Tea Act. Besides revenue the main objective of the Tea Act was to gain control of the American tea trade. Soon after the Tea Act was passed when ships came into harbors throughout the colonies, they were met with angry crowds and many had to turn back unable to sell their goods.

In response to the Tea Act, the Sons of Liberty were born. The Sons of Liberty were a group of colonist who got together in form of retaliation against the British. This particular set of colonist was extremely hostile and felt that they were being tricked by Great Britain.

The Sons of Liberty decided that on December 16th, 1773 that they would dress up like Indians on the warpath and destroy the tea. On that particular night, they snuck down to the water front and without detection climbed aboard the three British ships fastened in the main harbor. They broke open all of the tea chests by using tomahawks about three hundred chests in all and threw all the tea into the harbor, therefore being called the Boston Tea Party.

When word of the tea party got back to Britain's King George III and other Parliament members they devised a way to get even with the colonists. They decided to send British warships with soldiers and a new Governor to prevent the colonist from conducting trades. This caused a shortage of all goods. By the use of

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