Boston Tea Party We Often

Boston Tea Party

We often associate the Boston Tea Party with the phrase "no taxation without representation" and this is a fair association but it dos not cover all of the aspects going on with the colonists at this time. The Boston Tea Party was an event destined to occur because pressure from Britain was always attempt to reach the colonists one way or another. The nature of the colonists was one of rebellion and they had already accomplished something great by breaking from British soil. Their temperament was not one to take many things without speaking out and the Boston Tea party represents the end of British encroachment. It is worth knowing what else as going on to bring circumstances to such an event, considering that vent marks what many consider the first step of the American Revolution. Other incidents lead up to the dumping of the tea involved taxation and Parliament or, more appropriately, Parliament's role in matters such as taxation. Issues of local merchants and concerns of the monopoly of the East India Company were also legitimate concerns. The future is unknown; however, we can discern from current events, which way the future will turn and we can intervene to affect change. This is what the colonists did in 1773. The Boston Tea Party was an attempt to keep the hope of America alive.

The Tea Party begins with the Tea Act, which Parliament passed earlier in 1773. Not popular with the colonists, the Tea Act violated their right to be taxed by elected representatives and only these representatives. In areas surrounding Boston, those in opposition to the act successfully avoided receiving any tea. However, Boston's Governor did not want any tea refused or returned to Britain. His mistake was assuming the colonists would simply let his decision go without some sort of backlash. The backlash was fierce because the last thing he expected was destruction of the tea. The struggle associated with the Boston Tea Party did not end with dumping of the tea, as Britain demanded to be reimbursed for the cost of the dumped tea. This bill was "not paid" (Brinkley); instead, a "firestorm of protest exploded in the colonies" (Brinkley). Indeed, the event opened to door for many on both sides of the issue to emerge and voice their opinions. The event, borne of frustration and anger, triggered the Coercive Acts, which attempted to repay the East India Company for its lost tea. From those acts, came what we now know as the first meeting of the Continental Congress, which requested a repeal of the acts. The even triggered a series of evens that eventually led the colonists to what it was they were searching for: freedom.

The importance of tea is often overlooked in this age but it is worth considering when looking back at what the colonists were attempting to say when they dumped tea into the harbor. Tea was more than something to drink -- it was a valuable, so valuable, says McGill that some "deemed it a 'second currency'" (McGill). It was also valuable socially. Norton maintains that tea was an important aspect of social life, with the elite socializing and holding tea parties. The colonists wanted not just to prove a point but a valuable one when they dumped the tea overboard. When Samuel Adams and others dumped the entire shipment into the harbor, they were telling Britain that one of their most prized imports was not worth anything to them if it meant giving up some of the freedoms the colonists left Britain for in the first place. Norton claims the total cost of the tea dumped into the harbor was around $14,000. The British concern might have been monetary, but the meaning was already deeper than that for the colonists and thei ability to rise up and strike out was the very thing that saved them.