The Boston Tea Party
The Seven Years War was fought in Europe, North America, and India from 1756 to 1763. When it ended, England and Prussia, the largest German state, had defeated France and Austria in Europe. In North America, where the battles became known as the French and Indian War, England forced France to leave Canada.
The war left England heavily in debt and Parliament raised taxes throughout the Empire. In order to finance the army in America, the Sugar Act was passed in 1764.
This increased American taxes on everything from sugar and coffee to indigo and whale fins shipped from foreign countries, including England. Many colonial merchants were furious; this was the first time Parliament had levied a tax on the American colony purely to raise revenue for the British government. This coincided with claims by the colonists for self representation in their own taxation.
In protest, some colonists refused to buy English goods. Parliament continued to legislate on American taxation. One of the most unpopular was the Stamp Act of 1765. The colonists would have to buy official stamps or seals to put on their newspapers, pamphlets, and other documents. Sold by agents of the government, the stamps were just like another tax. It was the first time Parliament had taxed American-made items.
Groups of colonists began to meet secretly. They called themselves the Sons of Liberty and tried to get the stamp agents to quit their jobs. The Stamp Act was withdrawn in March 1766, but in June 1767, the Townsend Acts placed taxes on lead, glass, paper, paint, and tea entering America. Boycotts of English goods spread across the colony.
English troops had arrived in Boston in October 1768 to protect the tax officials. On March 5, 1770, a scuffle with the soldiers broke out on King Street. Colonists hurled insults, calling the soldiers "lobsters" and "bloody backs" because of their red uniforms. The soldiers fired their guns, killing five. The incident became known as the Boston Massacre.
In reaction to the Protests the the Townsend Acts were repealed in April 1770, except for a small tax on tea of three pence per pound.This compromise led to many colonists buying English products again. The taxation on tea led to widespread smuggling of tax free tea from Holland.
The British East India Company was accumulating a surplus of tea in their warehouses. In May 1773, Parliament removed the tax East India Company tea to encourage demand. The East India Company tea would be sold by specialist agents. By August, tea agents had been chosen for Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Charleston, South Carolina. By early October, seven tea ships were on their way to America.
This proved unpopular amongst many colonists. Merchant leaders in New York and Philadelphia held mass meetings to get the tea agents to resign and the tea returned to England.
In Boston the protests were led by Sam Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere. They were known as the Long Room Club after their meeting room above Benjamin Edes' print shop. Edes was the co-publisher of the Boston Gazette, the most radical Boston newspaper.
The Long Room Club members decided that the tea should be sent back to England and the agents should go with it to explain why. On Monday 18 October, the Boston Gazette published details of the East India Company's plan to sell cheaper tea to the colonist, labelling the plan as "destructive to the happiness of every well-wisher to his country."
After two weeks of agitation, the Long Room Club sent notices to the Company’s tea agents demanding they resign. On 2 November, at around one in the morning, Boston tea agent Richard Clarke was the first to receive the notice. Two men thrust it in his face. The paper told him to report to the Liberty Tree in Hanover Square at noon that day to resign. Before dawn, the four other tea agents received the same notice.
Later that morning, the agitators passed out handbills announcing that not only would the tea agents resign, they would ship the tea back to London. By noon, around 500 people had gathered at the old elm in Hanover Square. Wisely, the tea agents didn't show up to face the mob, although a search party found them hiding at the Clarke warehouse on Long Wharf.
Two town meetings were held at Faneuil Hall, which tried unsuccessfully to force the tea agents to resign. On 18 November, the agents asked the governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, to take charge of the tea. Eleven days later, his advisors refused to allow it.
At the governor's suggestion, several of the agents moved for greater safety to a fort called Castle William. The fort was situated on an island two miles south of Boston Harbour.
On Sunday 28 November, the Dartmouth, the first of the English tea ships, anchored off Long Wharf. If the ship's owner did not pay the tax that was due within twenty days, customs officers would seize the tea.
Sam Adams and his self appointed ‘committee of correspondence’ organised a mass meeting at Faneuil Hall on the morning of 29 November. 5000 attended and the meeting was moved to the Old South Meeting House. Calls were made for the cheaper tea to be returned to England and no tax paid.
In the afternoon, Francis Rotch, the 23 year old son of the Dartmouth's owner, appeared at the church with James Hall, the ship's captain. Rotch was told not to unload the tea. Hall was ordered to bring the Dartmouth to Rowe's Wharf, where a guard of 25 agitators would make sure the tea remained on board. The next day they ordered the ship moved to Griffin's Wharf.
Sam Adams' committee met with representatives from the five neighbouring towns. The committee knew the tax on the tea had to be paid by midnight on 16 December. They convinced the meeting that if the tea was not on its way back to England before then, a group of colonists would destroy it.
By 2 December, the agents in Philadelphia, New York, and Charleston had resigned. Nevertheless, on that day, the ship Eleanor reached Griffin's Wharf with more tea. On the 7th, the brig Beaver arrived as well.
At a mass meeting the next morning, the colonists told Francis Rotch to apply for documents that would allow the Dartmouth to return to England. Because a ship had to be unloaded before it could leave port legally, he was refused. On the morning of the 16th, he was told to apply to Governor Hutchinson for an exit permit. He rode the seven miles to Milton in the rain, but a permit could he granted only if a ship had been cleared by the port. The governor refused.
Meanwhile, a core of agitators were preparing for an unusual protest at Griffin's Wharf. They wore tattered clothes and Indian blankets and smeared their faces with lampblack and grease, soot and red ochre.
Francis Rotch returned to the Old South Meeting House in the dark by 5.45 and explained that the permit to leave had been refused by the Governor. Sam Adams stirred up the crowd, climbed to the pulpit and declared, "This meeting can do nothing more to save the country!" Men dressed as Indians were already at the meeting house. War whoops rang out, along with shouts -"Boston Harbor a tea pot tonight!", "The Mohawks are come!"
The rioters followed down Milk Street into Hutchinson and southeast past Fort Hill to Griffin's Wharf. There they hoisted the 342 tea chests on deck, smashed them open, and heaved over the side. The low tide meant the tea piled up like stacks of hay in the two feet of water. When the tide turned later that night, a fringe of tea could he found all along the edge of the harbour.
In the spring of 1774, Parliament, supported by King George III, passed the Coercive Acts. Boston Harbour would be closed to shipping until the East India Company had been indemnified for the loss of the tea. The governor or the king would take over the appointment of many colonial officials. Town meetings could not be held without permission.
The Coercive Acts did not have their desired effect. In September, men from all of the thirteen colonies except Georgia met at the first Continental Congress in Philadelphia in opposition to the Coercive Acts. The following April, the war for American revolt began.