Tea Act

BRITAIN'S ACTIONS

After the Boston Massacre, British troops were removed from Boston. The Townshend Acts were repealed, except for the tax on tea. The colonists got around the tea tax by buying cheaper Dutch tea smuggled, or brought it illegally, from the Netherlands. Between 1770 and 1773, the colonies were peaceful.

Then, in 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act. That Act actually lowered the tea tax and made British tea less expensive, but it also let just one British company control the sale of all tea in the colonies. This regulation angered colonial tea merchants, who would be driven out of business by the law.

COLONISTS' REACTIONS

The colonists began to protest again. When ships carrying British tea arrived in colonial ports, colonists refused to unload them.

In December 1773, three tea ships arrived in Boston. On the night of December 16, colonists dressed as Native Americans raided the ships, smashed tea chests and dumped tea overboard. Their protest became known as the Boston Tea Party. Colonial merchants, some of them smugglers, played a significant role in the protests. Because the Tea Act made legally imported tea cheaper, it threatened to put smugglers out of business.

Colonists' views on the Boston Tea Party were mixed. John Adams, one of the Founding Fathers, wrote in his diary on December 17, 1773 that the Boston Tea Party proved a historical moment in the American Revolution, writing:

"This is the most magnificent Movement of all. There is a Dignity, a Majesty, a Sublimity, in this last Effort of the Patriots, that I greatly admire. The People should never rise, without doing something to be remembered—something notable And striking. This Destruction of the Tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important Consequences, and so lasting, that I can't but consider it as an Epocha in History."

While some important colonist leaders such as John Adams were thrilled to learn Boston Harbor was covered in tea leaves, others were not.

In June of 1774, George Washington wrote voiced strong disapproval of “their conduct in destroying the Tea” and claimed Bostonians “were mad.” Washington, like many other elites, held private property to be sacred. Even Benjamin Franklin insisted the British East India Company be reimbursed for the lost tea and offered to pay for it himself.

Predictably, Britain was furious. They passed the Coercive Acts in retribution (revenge).

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