Boston Tea Party

The colonists loved their tea. But, in 1767 the British government passed the Townshend Acts which placed a tax on British tea shipped to the American colonies. 

The British East India Company bought tea from China and stored it in warehouses in London. The tea was then auctioned to British merchants, who had to pay the Townshend Act tea tax ($). Those merchants raised their prices to cover the cost of the tax ($). The tea was then shipped across the sea to the colonists by importers (who also added a markup $), and finally sold by colonial merchants to shopkeepers or local citizens, each time adding a little more to the price.

With the tax and so many middle-men British tea became more expensive, but, the bigger issue was the tax itself. Colonists believed Parliament had no right to tax them, since they had no representation. In protest, many refused to buy British tea at all.

But the colonists still loved their tea—so much that they started smuggling cheaper Dutch tea into the colonies. Smuggled tea skipped all the taxes and extra costs, so it was much cheaper than the British tea.

Then, on May 10, 1773, parliament passed the Tea Act. This law let the British East India Company sell directly to the colonists, skipping the middle-men. Even though the Townshend tea tax was still included, the tea was now much cheaper—cheaper even than the smuggled Dutch tea.

But many colonists still refused to buy it. To them, the problem wasn’t the price—it was the principle. They believed taxation without representation was unjust, and they had no voice in British Parliament. Even cheap tea, if it carried a tax, was still wrong in their eyes.

After months of protesting the tax, a group called the Sons of Liberty decided to take action. On the night of December 16, 1773, they dressed themselves as Mohawk Indians, boarded the British ship, Dartmouth, and dumped 342 chest of tea into the Boston Harbor. This became known as the Boston Tea Party.

The British government saw it as an act of rebellion, and they responded with harsh punishment.

A little over a week later, another British tea ship was headed to Philadelphia. But the colonists stopped it too—they refused to let the tea be unloaded and forced the ship to return back to England.