Boston Tea Party

Boston Tea Party

- To protest the British taxes on tea in 1773, American women in Boston, Hartford, and other New England cities vowed to drink teas from indigenous weeds instead of imported teas. The brews they came up with were called Liberty Tea. VICTORIA ZAK, 20,000 SECRETS OF TEA

- The Boston Tea Party hastened the approach of the American War of Independence.

- In April of 1773, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act to grant the East India Company a monopoly on the American tea trade. This ignited frustrations among Americans and eventually led to the Boston Tea Party.

- In the early evening of December 16, 1773, a band of men, some disguised as Mohawk American Indians, assembled on a hill near the wharf. Whooping Indian-style war cries, they marched to the wharf, where they boarded the ships one after another, hoisted the tea on board deck, split open the chests- 342 in total-and threw all the tea into the sea. The whole affair took about three hours, and it was not a violent protest-the ships’ crews attested that nothing had been damaged or destroyed except the tea-and the protesters swept the decks clean afterwards.
UNITED KINGDOM TEA COUNCIL, LONDON

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Boston Tea Party Time Line

1765-1773
The British Parliament bypasses colonial assemblies and imposes several internal and external taxes on the outraged colonists.

Dec. 16, 1773
The colonial response to taxation without representation culminates in the Boston Tea Party. The Sons of Liberty dump 342 chests of tea into Boston harbor.

Sept. 5, 1774
Delegates begin meeting for the First Continental Congress and agree to send grievances to King George III.

April 19, 1775
Armed conflict between the colonists and British redcoats begins in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.

May 10, 1775
A Second Continental Congress begins meeting in Philadelphia.

June 11, 1776
The Continental Congress appoints a five-man committee, including Thomas Jefferson, to draft a declaration of independence.

June 28, 1776
The committee presents the declaration for debate and revision.

July 4, 1776
The Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence without dissent.