The Boston Tea Party Analysis Through Primary and Secondary Sources

The Boston Tea Party Analysis Through Primary and Secondary Sources

Victory in the French and Indian War was costly for the British. At the war'sconclusion in 1763, King George III and his government looked to taxing the American colonies as a way of recovering their war costs. They were also looking for ways to reestablish control over the colonial governments that had become increasingly independent while the Crown was distracted by the war. A series of actions including the Stamp Act (1765), the Townsend Acts (1767) and the Boston Massacre (1770) angered the colonists, straining relations with the mother country. But it was the Crown's attempt to tax tea that spurred the colonists to action and laid the groundwork for the American Revolution.

Colonists attack,
tar and feather
anill-fated tax collector

The colonies refused to pay the levies (taxes) required by the Townsend Acts claiming they had no obligation to pay taxes imposed by a Parliament in which they had no representation. In response, Parliament repealed the taxes with the exception of a duty on tea - a demonstration of Parliament's ability and right to tax the colonies. In May of 1773 Parliament created a clever plan. They gave the struggling East India Company a monopoly on the importation of tea to America. Additionally, Parliament reduced the duty the colonies would have to pay for the imported tea. The Americans would now get their tea at a cheaper price than ever before. However, if the colonies paid the duty tax on the imported tea they would be acknowledging Parliament's right to tax them. Tea was a staple of colonial life - it was assumed that the colonists would rather pay the tax than deny themselves the pleasure of an inexpensive cup of tea.

The colonists were not fooled by Parliament's ploy and protest to the Tea Act was not limited to Boston. When the East India Company sent shipments of tea to Philadelphia and New York the ships were not allowed to land. In Charleston, South Carolina the tea-filled ships were permitted to dock but their cargo was taken to a warehouse where it remained for three years until it was sold by patriots in order to help finance the revolution.

In Boston, the arrival of three tea ships ignited a furious reaction. The crisis came to a head on December 16, 1773 when as many as 7,000 agitated locals milled about the wharf where the ships were docked. A mass meeting at the Old South Meeting House that morning resolved that the tea ships should leave the harbor without payment of any duty. A committee was selected to take this message to the Customs House to force release of the ships out of the harbor. The Collector of Customs refused to allow the ships to leave without payment of the duty. The committee reported back to the mass meeting and a howl erupted from the meeting hall. It was now early evening and a group of about 200 men assembled on a near-by hill. Whopping war chants, the crowd marched two-by-two to the wharf, descended upon the three ships and dumped their offending cargos of tea into the harbor waters.

Most colonists applauded the action while the reaction in London was swift and forceful. In March 1774 Parliament passed the Intolerable (Coercive) Acts that effectively limited the freedoms of Bostonians. The Acts closed the Port of Boston to all commerce (business). The Massachusetts government was transferred to the British government, effectively ending self-government. All town meetings were made illegal. Trials including British officials would no longer take place in the colonies, a move that many colonists perceived as a violation of the judicial process. The fuse that led directly to the explosion of American independence was lit.

Account of the Tea Party by JOHN ANDREWS

An eyewitness to the Boston Tea Party, John Andrews, a merchant, described the events to a Philadelphia merchant William Barrell in a December 18, 1773 letter.

THE house was so crowded that I could get no further than the porch. I found the moderator was just declaring the meeting to be dissolved. This caused another general shout out-doors and inside, and three cheers. What with that and the consequent noise of breaking up the meeting, you'd have thought the inhabitants of the infernal regions had broken loose.

For my part I went contentedly home and finished my tea, but was soon informed what was going forward. As I could not believe it without seeing for myself, I went out and was satisfied. The Indians mustered, I'm told, upon Fort Hill, to the number of about two hundred, and proceeded, two by two, to Griffin's wharf, where Hall, Bruce, and Coffin's vessels lay. Coffin's ship had arrived at the wharf only the day before, and was freighted [loaded] with a large quantity of other goods, which they took the greatest care not to injure in the least. Before nine o'clock in the evening every chest on board the three vessels was knocked to pieces and flung over the sides. They say the actors were Indians from Narragansett. Whether they were or not, to a transient observer [onlooker] they appeared such. They were clothed in blankets, with their heads muffled and copper colored faces. Each was armed with a hatchet or axe or pair of pistols. Nor was their dialect different from what I imagine the real Indians to speak, as their jargon was nonsense to all but themselves.

Not the least insult was offered to any person, except to Captain Connor, a livery-stable keeper in this place, who came across the ocean not many years since. He ripped up the lining of his coat and waistcoat under the arms, and, watching his opportunity, he nearly filled them with tea. When detected he was handled pretty roughly. The people not only stripped him of his clothes, but gave him a coat of mud, with a severe bruising into the bargain. Nothing but their utter aversion to making any disturbance prevented his being tarred and feathered.

Account of the Boston Tea Party by GEORGE HEWES

Account of Tea Party by George Hewes published in the book A retrospect of the Boston tea-party in 1834. He was a member of the band of "Indians" that boarded the tea ships that evening.

"It was now evening, and I immediately dressed myself in the costume of an Indian, equipped with a small hatchet, which I and my associates denominated the tomahawk, with which, and a club, after having painted my face and hands with coal dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin's wharf, where the ships lay that contained the tea. When I first appeared in the street after being thus disguised, I fell in with many who were dressed, equipped and painted as I was, and who fell in with me and marched in order to the place of our destination.

When we arrived at the wharf, there were three of our number who assumed an authority to direct our operations, to which we readily submitted. They divided us into three parties, for the purpose of boarding the three ships which contained the tea at the same time. The name of him who commanded the division to which I was assigned was Leonard Pitt. The names of the other commanders I never knew. We were immediately ordered by the respective commanders to board all the ships at the same time, which we promptly obeyed. The commander of the division to which I belonged, as soon as we were on board the ship, appointed me boatswain [supervisor], and ordered me to go to the captain and demand of him the keys to the hatches and a dozen candles. I made the demand accordingly, and the captain promptly replied, and delivered the articles; but requested me at the same time to do no damage to the ship or rigging. We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of the water.

In about three hours from the time we went on board, we had thus broken and thrown overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship, while those in the other ships were disposing of the tea in the same way, at the same time. We were surrounded by British armed ships, but no attempt was made to resist us.

...The next morning, after we had cleared the ships of the tea, it was discovered that very considerable quantities of it were floating upon the surface of the water; and to prevent the possibility of any of its being saved for use, a number of small boats were manned by sailors and citizens, who rowed them into those parts of the harbor wherever the tea was visible, and by beating it with oars and paddles so thoroughly drenched it as to render its entire destruction inevitable."

This iconic 1846 lithograph byNathaniel Currierwas entitled "The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor"; the phrase "Boston Tea Party" had not yet become standard. Contrary to Currier's depiction, few of the men dumping the tea were actually disguised as Indians.

Directions: Answer the questions fully and in complete sentence to receive credit.Name:

The Boston Tea Party

1. What were two reasons Parliament enacted a series of taxes after 1763?

2. Why did colonists refuse to pay taxes to the English government?

3. Describe the Tea Act. Why did Parliament think colonists would accept the Tea Act?

4. Describe the Boston Tea Party.

Who:

What:

When:

Where:

Why:

John Andrew’s Account of the Boston Tea Party

(5 Sentence Minimum) Describe John Andrews’s account of the Boston Tea Party in your own words.

(Who, What, When, Where, Why)

6. Did John Andrews support the actions of the participants of the Boston Tea Party? How do you know?

George Hewes’s Account of the Boston Tea Party

(5 Sentence Minimum)Describe George Hewes’s account of the Boston Tea Party in your own words.

(Who, What, When, Where, Why)

8. Did George Hewe’s support the actions of the participant of the Boston Tea Party? How do you know?

9. (Opinion)Why do you think the participants in the Boston Tea Party dressed like Indians?

Compare and Contrast Primary Sources

10. Compare John Andrews and George Hewes account of the Boston Tea Party. How are they similar and how are they different?