How Did King George's Feelings Toward The Colonies Change After The Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Political party was a political protest that occurred on Dec 16, 1773, at Griffin's Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing "taxation without representation," dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the harbor. The event was the beginning major human action of defiance to British rule over the colonists. It showed Great Britain that Americans wouldn't take taxation and tyranny sitting down, and rallied American patriots across the 13 colonies to fight for independence.

Why Did the Boston Tea Political party Happen?

In the 1760s, U.k. was deep in debt, so British Parliament imposed a series of taxes on American colonists to assistance pay those debts.

The Postage 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 Townshend Acts of 1767 went a step further, taxing essentials such as pigment, paper, glass, lead and tea.

The British government felt the taxes were fair since much of its debt was earned fighting wars on the colonists' behalf. The colonists, however, disagreed. They were furious at being taxed without having whatever representation in Parliament, and felt information technology was wrong for Britain to impose taxes on them to gain revenue.

READ MORE: 7 Events That Enraged Colonists and Led to the American Revolution

Boston Massacre Enrages Colonists

On March v, 1770, a street brawl happened in Boston between American colonists and British soldiers.

Later known equally the Boston Massacre, the fight began later on an unruly group of colonists—frustrated with the presence of British soldiers in their streets—flung snowballs, ice and oyster shells at a British sentinel guarding the Boston Customs House.

Reinforcements arrived and opened fire on the mob, killing five colonists and wounding vi. The Boston Massacre and its fallout further incited the colonists' rage towards Britain.

Tea Act Imposed

Britain eventually repealed the taxes information technology had imposed on the colonists except the tea tax. Information technology wasn't about to give up tax revenue on the nigh 1.two million pounds of tea the colonists drank each twelvemonth.

In protest, the colonists boycotted tea sold by British Eastward India Company and smuggled in Dutch tea, leaving British Due east India Company with millions of pounds of surplus tea and facing defalcation.

In May 1773, British Parliament passed the Tea Act which allowed British East India Company to sell tea to the colonies duty-gratuitous and much cheaper than other tea companies—but still tax the tea when it reached colonial ports.

Tea smuggling in the colonies increased, although the cost of the smuggled tea soon surpassed that of tea from British E Bharat Company with the added tea tax.

Still, with the help of prominent tea smugglers such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams —who protested taxation without representation just also wanted to protect their tea smuggling operations—colonists continued to runway against the tea tax and United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland'southward command over their interests.

Sons of Liberty

The Sons of Liberty were a group of colonial 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, likewise as Adams and Hancock.

Led by Adams, the Sons of Freedom held meetings rallying against British Parliament and protested the Griffin's Wharf arrival of Dartmouth, a British Eastward Bharat Company ship conveying tea. By December xvi, 1773, Dartmouth had been joined by her sister ships, Beaver and Eleanor; all iii ships loaded with tea from People's republic of china.

That morning, equally thousands of colonists convened at the wharf and its surrounding streets, a meeting was held at the Onetime Due south Meeting Firm where a big group of colonists voted to refuse to pay taxes on the tea or allow the tea to be unloaded, stored, sold or used. (Ironically, the ships were built in America and owned past Americans.)

Governor Thomas Hutchison refused to allow the ships to return to United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and ordered the tea tariff be paid and the tea unloaded. The colonists refused, and Hutchison never offered a satisfactory compromise.

READ More than: Who Were the Sons of Liberty?

What Happened at the Boston Tea Political party?

Gyre to Continue

That night, a large grouping of men—many reportedly members of the Sons of Liberty— disguised themselves in Native American garb, boarded the docked ships and threw 342 chests of tea into the h2o.

Said participant George Hewes, "We and so were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and have out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, outset cut and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of the water."

Hewes too noted that "Nosotros were surrounded by British armed ships, merely no endeavor was made to resist usa."

Boston Tea Party Aftermath

While some important colonist leaders such as John Adams were thrilled to learn Boston Harbor was covered in tea leaves, others were not.

In June of 1774, George Washington wrote: "the cause of Boston…ever will be considered as the cause of America." But his personal views of the event were far different. He voiced strong disapproval of "their conduct in destroying the Tea" and claimed Bostonians "were mad." Washington, like many other elites, held private property to be sacrosanct.

Benjamin Franklin insisted the British East India Visitor be reimbursed for the lost tea and even offered to pay for it himself.

No one was injure, and aside from the destruction of the tea and a padlock, no belongings was damaged or looted during the Boston Tea Party. The participants reportedly swept the ships' decks clean before they left.

Who Organized the Boston Tea Political party?

Though led by Samuel Adams and his Sons of Liberty and organized by John Hancock, the names of many of those involved in the Boston Tea Party remain unknown. Cheers to their Native American costumes, simply ane of the tea political party culprits, Francis Akeley, was arrested and imprisoned.

Even afterwards American independence, participants refused to reveal their identities, fearing they could still face civil and criminal charges as well as condemnation from elites for the destruction of individual belongings. Most participants in the Boston Tea Party were under the age of 40 and 16 of them were teenagers.

Coercive Acts

But despite the lack of violence, the Boston Tea Party didn't go unanswered by King George III and British Parliament.

In retribution, they passed the Coercive Acts (later known as the Intolerable Acts) which:

closed Boston Harbor until the tea lost in the Boston Tea Party was paid for
ended the Massachusetts Constitution and concluded free elections of town officials
moved judicial say-so to Britain and British judges, basically creating martial law in Massachusetts
required colonists to quarter British troops on need
extended liberty of worship to French-Canadian Catholics under British rule, which angered the mostly Protestant colonists

Britain hoped the Coercive Acts would squelch rebellion in New England and keep the remaining colonies from uniting, but the contrary happened: All the colonies viewed the castigating laws as further evidence of Uk's tyranny and rallied to Massachusetts' assist, sending supplies and plotting further resistance.

2nd Boston Tea Party

A second Boston Tea Political party took place in March 1774, when effectually 60 Bostonians boarded the transport Fortune and dumped nearly 30 chests of tea into the harbor.

The issue didn't earn most equally much notoriety every bit the first Boston Tea Party, merely information technology did encourage other tea-dumping demonstrations in Maryland, New York and South Carolina.

Start Continental Congress Is Convened

Many colonists felt United kingdom's Coercive Acts went too far. On September 5, 1774, elected delegates from all xiii American colonies except Georgia met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress to figure out how to resist British oppression.

The delegates were divided on how to move forward but the Boston Tea Party had united them in their fervor to gain independence. Past the fourth dimension they adjourned in October 1774, they'd written The Announcement and Resolves which:

censured Britain for passing the Coercive Acts and chosen for their repeal
established a boycott of British goods
declared the colonies had the correct to govern independently
rallied colonists to form and train a colonial militia

United kingdom didn't capitulate and inside months, the "shot heard round the world," rang out in Concord, Massachusetts, sparking the outset of the American Revolutionary War.

Sources

A Tea Party Timeline: 1773-1775. One-time South Meeting House.
The Boston Tea Party. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
The Boston Tea Party. Massachusetts Historical Society.
The Boston Tea Party, 1773. EyewitnesstoHistory.com.
The Intolerable Acts. U.S.History.org.