The city of Boston is known for many of its wonderful and traditional events, and one of them is the famous Boston Tea Party. This historic event is one of the city’s oldest and most beloved celebrations, and has been an important part of Boston’s culture and history for more than 240 years.
The Boston Tea Party is an annual commemoration of the legendary «tea party» that took place in 1773, when Boston colonists, in protest against high taxes imposed by the British Crown, dumped thousands of crates of tea into the harbor. of the city in an act of defiance and rebellion. This event was an important precursor to the American Revolution and a crucial milestone in the fight for American independence.
Today, the Boston Tea Party is an opportunity for city residents and visitors to come together and celebrate Boston’s history and culture. The event takes place in the historic Boston Harbor, where participants can enjoy a variety of activities, from live music and dance performances, to cultural exhibits and a wide variety of traditional food and drink.
But the Boston Tea Party isn’t just an event to have fun and enjoy food and drink. It is also an opportunity to learn about the history and culture of Boston, and to reflect on the importance of the fight for freedom and independence that has defined this great city throughout the centuries.
What is the Boston Tea Party? (1773)
boston tea party It is at nine o’clock on the night of December 16, 1773, a band of Bostonians disguised as Native Americans boarded the British merchant ship Dartmouth and two company ships anchored at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston Harbor.
The Americans, who numbered about 70, shared a common objective: to destroy the tea shipment of the British East India Company.
Many years later, George Hewes, a 31-year-old shoemaker and participant, recalled: «Our commander ordered us to open the hatches, take out all the tea chests and throw them overboard. And we immediately proceeded to carry out his orders, first by cutting and splitting chests with our tomahawks, to expose them to the effects of water».
Encouraged by a crowd of city entertainers, costumed Bostonians destroyed 342 crates of tea estimated to be worth between £10,000 and £18,000.
His actions, which became known as the Boston Tea Party, set events in motion that led directly to the American Revolution (1775-83).
The Boston Tea Party was one of a long series of conflicts between the American colonies and the English government after the British victory in the French and Indian War (1754-1753).
The French-Indian War was the last and costliest of nearly a century of colonial wars between France and England.
Since much of this money was spent to protect the American colonists from the French Canadians and their Native American allies, the British government felt that the Americans should help pay for the war.
They also wanted the colonists to pay part of the future costs of stationing soldiers in the scattered forts on the new western frontier.
The Americans, for their part, saw little point in sending money to England to pay for troops needed much closer to home.
During the 1760s, Parliament passed a series of laws intended to reduce the British national debt and finance the costs of maintaining regular soldiers on the American frontier.
The most notorious of these was the Stamp Act (1765), which imposed a tax on almost all pieces of public paper in the colonies, including newspapers, pamphlets, diplomas, licenses, decks of cards, almanacs, and dice.
Colonists fiercely resisted these taxes, staging public protests and intimidating tax collectors.
The resistance to the Stamp Act was the most widespread and best organized intercolonial protest before the tea crunch of the 1770s.
Faced with such widespread opposition, the British Parliament backed down. He repealed the Stamp Act and accompanying taxes in 1766.
The following year Parliament tried another means of raising money, through the Town Duties or Revenue Acts (1767), named after Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles «Champagne Charlie» Townshend.
Instead of imposing a direct tax on the materials that the colonists bought and sold, these acts made certain important items such as lead, glass, paint, paper, and tea more expensive.
The settlers responded by refusing to buy these products. Non-importation agreements were signed in all the American colonies. Citizens at all levels of society refused to drink tea or bought black market varieties from the Dutch colonies.
Faced with widespread opposition from the United States, the British government backed down. Townshend’s rights were revoked on 5 March 1770, with the exception of a three pence tax on tea, which was kept to prove that Parliament had the right to tax the colonies.
However, while this bill is credited with the cause of the Boston Tea Party, it has nothing to do with the American colonies.
The tea duty imposed by the Townshend Duties Act was intended to save the former British East India Company from bankruptcy.
Until Townshend’s rights were first approved, the Company had made much of its money transporting tea from India to England, where it was sold first to English wholesalers and then to American wholesalers before being sold to the colonial public.
The American boycott of British tea, combined with intensive smuggling of Dutch tea, reduced the company’s profits.
In an attempt to revive the East India Company, Prime Minister Lord Charles North (1770-1782) persuaded Parliament to pass the Tea Act (1773).
This legislation effectively eliminated wholesalers and allowed the East India Company to sell tea directly to agents in the United States. He gave the Company a monopoly on the sale of tea in the colonies.
The monopoly hurt colonists at all levels of society. Because the Tea Act allowed the East India Company to appoint its own sales agents to distribute the tea in American ports, business from local merchants and middlemen declined.
The law offended politicians and patriots, who saw it as an attempt by Parliament to tax them without their consent.
Even smugglers – who included wealthy merchants such as John Hancock (1737-1793) – were hurt because it made East Indian tea competitive or cheaper than Dutch tea.
Other Americans tried to take advantage of the law. Governor Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts (1771-74), for example, used his influence to have his sons Thomas and Elisha appointed sales agents for the East India Company.
In September 1773 the East India Company prepared 600,000 pounds of tea in 2,000 boxes for shipment to the colonies.
The cargoes arrived at the main colonial ports a month and a half later and were met with hostile receptions. In New York and Philadelphia angry mobs forced local officials to send the tea boats
Back to England without unloading their loads. In Annapolis, Maryland, protesters burned a ship of tea, and in New Jersey, arsonists torched a warehouse where unloaded tea was stored.
In Massachusetts, however, Governor Hutchinson decided to confront the protesters.
When the citizens of Boston, led by the patriot Samuel Adams (1722-1803), refused to allow the tea ships to be unloaded, Hutchinson asked the Royal Navy to blockade Boston Harbor so that the ships could not leave the port. port.
He knew that British law required a ship to discharge its cargo after 20 days in port, and he planned to use this law to elude Adams and his patriotic supporters.
The 20-day waiting period ended for Dartmouth on December 16. That day, Sam Adams and his party tried to contact Governor Hutchinson to convince him to let the ships out of the port.
Hutchinson refused, and at five o’clock in the afternoon the Boston citizens’ meeting broke up. Some of them followed the example of George Hewes, disguising themselves as Native Americans.
Carrying tomahawks and clubs, they marched to Griffin’s Wharf. Hewes and his companions went to great lengths to ensure that nothing but the tea was destroyed and that no one benefited from the destruction.
«A Captain O’Connor, whom I knew well, came aboard[para robar un poco de té]and when he figured he wasn’t noticed, he stuffed his pockets and the lining of his coat as well,» Hewes recalled. «But I had spotted him and had given the captain information what he was doing.
They ordered us to stop him, and just as he was coming down from the boat, I seized him by the skirt of his coat, and trying to pull him back, tore him off; but, springing forward with a swift effort, he ran away.»
The Boston Tea Party led almost directly to the American Revolution. To punish the city of Boston for its role in the destruction of so much East India Company property, the British Parliament passed a series of laws known collectively as the Coercive Acts (1774).
These laws closed Boston Harbor until the citizens paid for the destroyed tea, dismantled Massachusetts’ colonial charter, expanded the powers of the king’s governor, and made it more difficult to convict royal officials of crimes.
In the Quebec Act (1774), Parliament also took away land that had been claimed by the American colonies since their founding.
In response, the Americans formed the First Continental Congress to organize and coordinate their response. Sixteen months after the tea finally sank in Boston Harbor, the first shots of the American Revolution were fired.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Boston Tea Party is much more than just a celebratory event. It is a reminder of Boston’s rich history and culture, and of the bravery and determination of the colonists who fought for independence from the United States.
Through this holiday, the city of Boston continues to pay homage to its past and to the fight for freedom and independence that has defined its identity.
In addition, the Boston Tea Party is also an opportunity for the city’s community and visitors from around the world to come together and celebrate together, enjoying music, food and drink…