Boston Hurbar Case Study

Improved Essays
HIGH TEA IN BOSTON HARBOUR
Band of “Mohawk Indians” Dump 342 Chests of Darjeeling off Griffin’s Wharf
On December 16, 1773, The Sons of Liberty dressed as Mohawk Indians, boarded three merchant ships carrying Darjeeling tea and dumped 343 chests into Boston Harbour. It is reported that nothing was stolen or looted and there was no damage to the ships or crew. This protest is a result of 13 years of ever increasing British oppression through taxation. Hardliners in the British government used this event as a reason to clamp down on the Bay colony.
The destruction of private property and deliberate flouting of royal authority has chafed King George and Parliament. Therefore, acknowledging the ramifications associated with the Boston Tea Party, King George and Parliament have acted decisively by closing the city port. Four British regiments were deployed to Boston; additionally, the much reviled, Lieutenant Governor and Chief Justice of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson will be replaced by General Thomas Gage. General Gage is expected to parlay even sterner penalties on the Colonists as directed by the British government.
The Captains’ of the Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver upon arrival in England, were summoned to testify before the Privy Counsel. The Captains being unable to identify the
…show more content…
Franklin was received and treated abominably. Franklin being an affable and generous man offered to pay offered to pay for the loss of the Darjeeling Tea on the condition that Boston Harbour be re-opened. Franklin’s offer was rejected. Scottish Barrister Alexander Wedderburn, berated Franklin for his part in publications which were damaging to Governor Thomas Hutchinson. Franklin maintained a stoic stance during the interrogation and reprimand. It is reported that Franklin uttered, “I shall make your King a little man for this,” to Wedderburn at the end of the day (Best,

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Thomas Gage was a British general who successfully commanded all British forces in North America, but failed to slow the rising colonial rebellion as military governor of Massachusetts at the outbreak of the American Revolution. Instead of putting an end to conflict, Gage’s policies rapidly increased it. Gage's actions were the most immediate causes of the Revolutionary War. Resistance turned violent at the Boston Tea Party, where Gage was very influential in constructing Parliament’s retaliatory Intolerable (Coercive) Acts, by which the port of Boston was closed until the destroyed tea was paid for.…

    • 322 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    General Thomas Gage, who was the commander of the British forces, (due to the riots, protests, and dispute between the British and the colonists in Boston) was also granted the position of Governor of Massachusetts under the desires of King George. Word spread to General Gage that the colonists had stored arsenals of gunpowder and weapons. General Gage premeditated a secretive plan to destroy the patriots' weaponry. Paul Revere foresaw the British's attempt to attack the military stockpiles and, alongside William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, planned to warn the colonists. The three took separate paths from Boston, and met back in Lexington, where they informed Captain John Parker.…

    • 228 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    British law required the Dartmouth to unload and pay the duties within twenty days or officials would indeed confiscate the cargo. Governor Hutchinson refused to give approval for the Dartmouth to leave without paying their dues. Two more ships, the Eleanor and the Beaver, entered Boston Harbor soon after and the colonists began to demand that the tea would be returned to England. On December 16, the last day of the Dartmouth's deadline to pay its dues, approximately 7,000 individuals gathered around the Old South Meeting House. After gaining intel that Governor Hutchinson had again refused to let the ships leave, Adams told everybody that "This meeting can do nothing further to save the country.”…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Danzer, 209] After the colonists figured out the King’s ruse with the tea taxes, there was another event in history that would change everything; The Boston Tea Party. December 17th, 1773, a group of rebels in Boston took to the streets wearing Native American disguises and paraded down to the docks. There, they snuck onto Britain ships and dumped millions of dollars worth of tea into the harbor. King George could not seem to have a break from the Massachusetts colony, so, he decided it would be best to punish them. Britain punished Boston by putting forward the Intolerable Acts and the Martial…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    • December 17, 1773- men dressed as Mohawk Indians dumped a lot of tea from East India, 342 chests of it to be exact. • The parliament decided to chastise the colonists, pacifying the residents of Boston and Massachusetts. • The Parliament decides to agree on a set of acts that changed Boston’s laws. They ended up closing the port of Boston on June 1, 1774 • Two additional Intolerable acts are passed, and The Massachusetts act, alongside the Admission of Justice act take place May of 1774.…

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the early 1775, General Thomas Gage sent his troops to seize the ammunitions that were hidden in Concord, Massachusetts. The troops were also ordered to detain the “political traitors” Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were staying in Lexington; however,…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Excerpts 6.3, “Thomas Hutchinson, Excerpts from Letters to Great Britain Describing Popular Unrest (1768, 1769)” and 6.4, “John Dickinson, “The Liberty Song” (1768)” were both written about Boston at the same time. The first excerpt, 6.3, was a letter that Hutchinson wrote explaining the riots and the reason why he fled. He also explains why there should be acts in a community. Thomas Hutchinson wrote this letter to describe his actions that caused something bigger.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many revolts and acts of rebellion took place during the 1700’s. One of these acts was the Boston Tea Party. This occurred on December 16th, 1773 and consisted of over a hundred Sons of Liberty, dressed as Native Americans, who dumped 342 chests (92,000lbs) worth of tea into the Boston harbor. This resulted in Parliament’s passing of the five Intolerable Acts. These Intolerable Acts were unjustified because there were much better and more fair ways to have dealt with the Boston Tea Party at the time.…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Salutary Neglect

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This lead to a refusal and cancellation of consignments by merchants in response to the very unpopular act. The Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts tried to force the people to allow three ships to offload their cargo at the Boston harbour and that the necessary payments for the goods should be made. “On the night of December 16,1773, while the ships lingered in the harbour, sixty men boarded the ships, disguised as Native Americans, and dumped the entire shipment of tea into the harbour. That event is now famously known as the Boston…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    American Revolution Dbq

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The bravery and courage these men showed in so blatantly revolting against the British was extremely evident. They wanted to dress up as Mohawk Indians to show that they considered themselves as actual Americans and no longer considered themselves as British subjects. If they were caught dumping the tea into the Harbor, they would have been in serious trouble, and most likely tried and imprisoned. The fact that they were so fed up and knew that a change needed to occur, is why America is the way it is today. To Parliament, the Boston Tea Party confirmed Massachusetts’s role as the center of resistance to British rule.…

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Adrenaline rushed through my tensed body as though I inched toward the edge of a cliff ready to jump off. Governor Hutchinson just rejected our plea to send the Dartmouth back to England, and everyone in Boston couldn’t take much more of England’s petty games of taxation and their seemingly unlimited power over the colonies. Once the governor’s answer came to everyone at the Old South Meetinghouse, I think we all felt something needed to be done to send a message to England that we had enough (Brooks). Being a part of the Sons of Liberty, I knew a plan was being devised no matter the outcome of the Dartmouth situation. We could hear the Dartmouth bellow while coming in to dock, and far off in the distance could be heard the Beaver and the Eleanor.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Committees are appointed to inspect into the character and conduct of every tradesman, to prevent them selling tea or buying British manufacturers. Some have been tarred and feathered, others had their property burned and destroyed by the populace” (Cresswell 4). This explains that the Americans continued to disrespect the British, some were tarred and feathered and others had belongings burned just because they weren’t an American Colonists. Dumping the tea into the water added to the long list of problem with the Americans and British. Not only was destroying British property criminal, but they attempted to bypass their own harsh actions by stating, it was either fight back or surrender to…

    • 1087 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Boston Tea Party Analysis

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This meeting was to decide what would be done about the tea tax and it was held on December 16th 1773 at the Old South Meeting House. Francis Rotch along with Samuel Adams and thousands of people from Boston and the surrounding areas gathered in hopes of gaining the permission for the Dartmouth to leave Boston without unloading the East India Company tea cargo. Hutchinson denied their request and the peoples demands were not met. This caused and outrage among the American Colonist, words resonated throughout the meeting house for the Sons of Liberty to carry out their rebellious plan of attack. “They muster 'd 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 lay, each with 114 chests of the ill fated article on board…” Andrews describes here the amount of participants gathering on Fort hill and marching down like soldiers ready to attack the ships which he refers to by the captain’s last names.…

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The British tried to fight back by closing the harbor until the money lost from the tea was repaid, but they were unsuccessful causing protest. The Continental Congress met and requested the British commander strike at the New England rebels. (Brinkley, p33-34) Thus the start of bloodshed and the American Revolution.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Boston Tea Party is the most important turning point in American history because it marked the first of a series of subsequent events—from British colonies to independent states and from independent states to a united nation -- that led to the formation of the United States of America. First and foremost, The Boston Tea Party led to the Revolutionary War and consequently to the Civil War, which in turn, ended the institution of slavery and redefined the political and social configuration of the American territory and the rights of its people. In addition, the Boston Tea Party marked the beginning of a series of events that led to the Declaration of American Rights, the First Continental Congress, the Continental Association (1774) and, in turn, to the Articles of Confederation and to the Declaration of Independence (1776). In other words, The Boston Tea Party represents the beginning of the American journey toward common nationality. Without the “Destruction of the tea,” as Samuel Adams called the Boston Tea Party in his…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays