Boston Tea Party Research Paper

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In October 1773, seven ships carrying East India Company tea were sent to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. Americans learned the details of the Tea Act while the ships were on the route to these colonies and people began to get furious at the details. The Sons of Liberty began a movement to raise cognizance and to convince or compel the consignees to resign. The movement that climaxed with the Boston Tea Party was not a disagreement about high taxes. In fact, the price of legally transported tea was actually reduced by the Tea Act of 1773. The protestors were concerned with the whole “No taxation without representation" argument, along with the belief that the Parliament had too much power. Samuel Adams contemplated the British …show more content…
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.” At this time, many people began to become extremely belligerent, looking for ways to take action into their own hands. Protestors dressed up as Mohawk Indians boarded the three ships and proceeded to dump an unfathomable 342 chests of tea into the harbor. It took nearly three hours for more than 100 colonists to empty the tea into Boston Harbor. The chests held more than 90,000 pounds of tea, which would be valued at about $1,700,000 dollars today. After this event occurred, the Parliament was absolutely outranged by the destruction of the British

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