Tyler Lowder 

Mr. White 

English IV 

19 January 2018 

Boston Tea Party 

It took a lot of angry protesters dressed up as indians for the british to give up the high 

taxation on tea. The Boston Tea Party served as a climax for Revolutionary War. It occured on 

the evening of December 16, 1773, When Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three 

ships in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard. 

A series of events that lead to the Boston Tea party started ten years prior to the event. 

This began when the English won the french and indian war. The king of britain passed a tax on 

the colonies to make up for the loss of money in the war, which was called the Stamp Act. This 

was a tax placed on newspapers and business papers. The colonist were not to happy with this 

tax so the colonist rebelled in protest, making the british parliament repeal the taxes within 5 

months. Since this tax was repelled, not making up for the war debt the government passed a tax. 

The tax was placed on lead, paint, paper, and tea. This lead to many frustrations within the 

people, turning people away from English imported goods. With this mass decrease in money the 

government stopped all taxes expected the tax on tea. The colonist believed they didn't have the 

right to tax them because the american colonist did not have the right to tax them because the 

american colonist were not represented in parliament.   

 In 1773 parliament passed a tea act designed to aid the east india company, they were 

granted one monopoly on all tea exported to the colonies, an exemption on export tax, and draw 

back on duties owed on certain surplus quantity of tea in its possession (britannica). This form 

was used for smuggling the tea in to sell the tea at a lesser price. This lead to an alliance with 

samuel adams and his Sons of liberty. This lead to Boston tea party. 

On the night of December 16 1773 over 100 men dressed in indian clothing such as 

ponchos that soldiers wore during the French and Indian War. They armed themselves with 

hatchets, axes, and pistols sneaking onto the ships. The tea from three different ships was now in 

the Boston harbor. The men had been ordered to destroy the tea, but not to harm anyone and they 

followed their orders. The only damage that recorded was on broken padlock. The ships and all 

the crew were left unharmed.  

Many of the men that took over the ships, filled there pockets with tea bags in hopes to 

take them back to there familys. Many got away with up to 50 tea bags. This ships were carrying 

almost 100,000 pounds of tea, worth 9,000 pounds of sterling. Today that is close to 1.5 million 

dollars. 

 
"​Boston Tea Party (1773).​" ​Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History​. . ​Encyclopedia.com. 

28 Nov. 2017 <​http://www.encyclopedia.com​>. 

"Boston Tea Party." ​Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition​, Mar. 2017, p. 1. 

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