The Importance Of The Boston Tea Party

4 Pages 978 Words

Alfred Young describes the Boston Tea Party as “the most revolutionary act of the decade.” Indeed it was a very revolutionary act of the decade and it is considered to be one of the most revolutionary acts ever. To some people, however, the Boston Tea Party was not “the most revolutionary act of the decade.” This paper will analyze the Boston Tea Party and compare the opinions of Alfred Young and the author of this paper.
The Boston Tea Party is a popular name for what took place on December 16, 1773. On the evening of December 16, a group of Boston citizens, led by Samuel Adams and many of them disguised as Indians, boarded the ships that brought the tea from Britain and emptied the tea into Boston Harbor. Although most provisions of the Townshend Acts, taxing imports to the colonies, were repealed by Parliament, the duty on tea was retained to demonstrate the power of Parliament to tax the colonies. The citizens of Boston would not permit the unloading of three British ships that arrived in Boston Harbor loaded with tea. The royal governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, however, would not let the tea ships return to England until the taxes had been paid. When the government of Boston refused to pay for the tea, the British closed the port.
British parliament had passed the Boston Port Act in March 1774, in order to punish Boston for the dumping of the tea in Boston Harbor. The Boston Port Act is one of many of the Intolerable Acts. Provisions of the bill included the closing of Boston Harbor to all other business until the tax was paid and stripping the power of the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from Boston to Salem and replacing the leader with a crown appointed governor. British soldiers occupied Boston to enforce the new laws, and the harbor was blockaded. The surrounding New England towns also suffered from this because they heavily relied on Boston’s port for their goods and supplies. Towns in New ...