The Destruction of the Tea
On December 16, 1773, British-American colonists boarded ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor to protest British tax policies. This act, later called the “Boston Tea Party,” inspired other colonists to resist British infringements on their rights, which ultimately led to American independence.
The incident later called the “Boston Tea Party” stemmed from the monopoly on tea that Parliament had granted to the East India Company. Along with this monopoly came various taxes, which colonists protested because they had no direct representation in Parliament.
There were many other grievances, but most of them derived from these two principal issues. Destroying the tea demonstrated colonists’ frustration with British policies, and Britain’s response would only provoke further acts of defiance leading to an all-out war of secession from Great Britain.
The East India Company
Tea was the most prevalent drink for British subjects, and the East India Company was granted a near monopoly on importing tea to Great Britain in 1698. In 1721, the British Parliament required the American colonies to import their tea only from England, which allowed the East India Company to virtually corner the colonial tea market. The company delivered tea to England, where it was sold at auction and then exported to the colonies, where it was resold to colonial merchants.
By the early 1770s, the East India Company was on the verge of bankruptcy, primarily because it was required to pay taxes on all tea imported to England and exported to the colonies. This caused the price of tea to rise in the colonies. In response, colonists began buying cheaper, smuggled tea from Holland since that tea was not taxed by the Dutch government. East India representatives lobbied Parliament for help.
Parliament bailed out East India by lowering the importation tax to England and removing the export tax to the colonies. Partly to recover lost revenue from the tax decreases, Parliament enacted the Townshend Act, which introduced many colonial taxes, including a tax to import the East India tea. These new provisions were intended to stop the Dutch smuggling problem, but they only exacerbated another issue.
Taxation Without Representation
The Townshend Act was bitterly protested in the American colonies, as colonists argued that, as British subjects, they could not be taxed without the consent of their elected representatives. The colonists were not permitted to elect their own members to the British Parliament, and as such they maintained that only their colonial representatives had the power to tax them. Parliament responded by enacting the Declaratory Act, which asserted the right to legislate for the colonies “in all cases whatsoever,” including taxes.
The protests, boycotts and smuggling continued until Parliament finally removed all Townshend importation taxes except for the tax on tea. British Prime Minister Lord North insisted on maintaining the tea tax to assert “the right of taxing the Americans.” Since all other taxes were removed, the colonists were temporarily satisfied.
But the tea tax harmed the East India Company, causing prices to rise and sales to drop. Again East India representatives lobbied Parliament for help, but the North ministry was reluctant to remove the tea tax because it would signal a victory for the colonists on the taxation issue. Moreover, the tax was used to pay colonial officials in an effort to keep them dependent on Britain rather than their constituents.
The Tea Act
Parliament rescued the East India Company again by enacting the Tea Act in May 1773. This saved the company from bankruptcy by removing the export tax to the colonies altogether. At the same time, the import tax on the colonies was maintained. In addition, East India was permitted to sell directly to the colonies without moving the tea through Britain first. Parliament appointed colonial merchants to receive the tea on consignment and then sell it to the colonists for a commission.
British officials thought this act would be celebrated in the colonies because tea would be cheaper despite maintaining the import tax. However the law carried unintended consequences that prompted colonial outrage.
By allowing East India to directly sell its tea to colonial consignees, nearly all other tea-related business was undercut. Merchants buying cheaper, smuggled tea faced financial ruin under this new law. Also, merchants not politically connected enough to be appointed as consignees also faced ruin. And even worse, many feared that if this system could be imposed for tea, it could be extended to other goods as well. This helped resurrect the old dispute over whether or not members of Parliament had the power to tax colonists who did not elect them.
Many colonists argued that retaining the importation tax was an unnecessary provocation. The North ministry countered that the tax was necessary to pay colonial officials’ salaries. In addition, retaining the tax was a symbolic gesture demonstrating the power of the British government over the colonies. This symbol, more than the tax itself, prompted outrage in America. Colonists assembled to discuss not only boycotting the tea but preventing it from being delivered altogether.
Colonial Retaliation
As news of the Tea Act spread, protest groups such as the Sons of Liberty began forcing consignees to resign. In Philadelphia, a mass protest ousted the city’s consignees and compelled the tea ship to return to Britain without unloading its cargo. The tea ship in New York City was forced to turn back without delivering its tea, and the consignees resigned as well. But Boston was a different story.
In Massachusetts, the only colony in which the tea import tax was fully enforced, Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson declared that tea ships would not be permitted to return to Britain until the tea was unloaded and the import taxes were paid. Hutchinson persuaded Boston’s consignees, two of whom were his sons, to hold firm.
When the tea ship Dartmouth arrived in Boston Harbor in November 1773, Sons of Liberty member Samuel Adams called for a meeting at the Old South Church. About 8,000 people heard Adams inform them of Governor Hutchinson’s policy regarding tea ships. A resolution was adopted urging the Dartmouth captain to return the ship to Britain without collecting the import tax. Men were assigned to watch the ship and prevent the tea from being unloaded.
But Hutchinson remained adamant, and soon two more tea ships arrived in Boston Harbor. On December 16, about 7,000 people gathered at the Old South Church for another meeting. As Adams tried maintaining order among the outraged citizens, people poured out of the church and headed for the harbor to protest. Later that evening, about 130 men led by Lendall Pitts disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded the tea ships. Over the next three hours, they dumped all 342 chests of tea into the water.
British Response
While many Boston authorities supported the tea’s destruction, British officials in London were enraged. Governor Hutchinson urged Parliament to suppress the Sons of Liberty. Prime Minister North said, “Whatever may be the consequence, we must risk something; if we do not, all is over.” Consequently, a series of acts were passed, including:
The closure of Boston Harbor to all commerce until the East India Company was reimbursed for the lost tea
Denying citizens of Massachusetts the right to elect their own colonial representatives
Allowing trials for colonial officials accused of harming colonists to be moved to Britain
Extending Quebec and allowing Catholicism to spread there (causing fear among the primarily Protestant colonists)
These and other laws passed to keep the colonies obedient to Britain came to be known in America as the “Intolerable Acts.”
Moving Toward Secession
Samuel Adams publicized and defended the destruction of tea in Boston Harbor. Others denounced the action, including Benjamin Franklin, who declared that the East India Company must be repaid for its loss. Similar incidents occurred in other colonies, though they did not receive as much publicity as the action in Boston.
As Britain attempted to tighten its grip on the colonies, the colonists increased their protests and resistance to the “Intolerable Acts.” Many colonists living outside Massachusetts feared that the punitive measures being administered to that colony could someday be extended to them, and as such they joined the protests. Boycotts were coordinated and colonists began talking of suspending trade with Britain altogether.
The responses and counter-responses to grievances between the American colonies and Great Britain ultimately led to the First Continental Congress being formed in 1775. The Congress petitioned King George III to repeal the “Intolerable Acts,” and when the petition was denied, the colonists engaged in open rebellion against the Crown. This led to the War for Independence and the creation of the United States of America.
The “Tea Party” Name
The term “Boston Tea Party” was not coined in print until 1834. Prior to that, the event was most often called the “Destruction of the Tea.” Since the Tea Party, U.S. activists from various political viewpoints have invoked the name as a symbol of protest. The current “Tea Party” movement in the U.S. has urged a return to the country’s founding principles of limited government, individual freedom and responsibility, and reduced taxation.
