10 Interesting Facts about the Boston Tea Party

These following facts about the Boston Tea Party might probably give you you much information about this “party”. Actually, the Boston Tea Party was apolitical protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. The demonstrators, some disguised as American Indians, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company, in defiance of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor, ruining the tea. For further information, you might want to know more of facts about the Boston Tea Party below.

Facts about the Boston Tea Party 1: Iconic Event

The British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into the American Revolution. The Tea Party became an iconic event of American history, and other political protests such as the Tea Party movement after 2010 explicitly refer to it.

Facts about the Boston Tea Party 2: Culmination of Resistance

The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act because they believed that it violated their rights as Englishmen to “No taxation without representation”, that is, be taxed only by their own elected representatives and not by a British parliament in which they were not represented.

Facts about the Boston Tea Party - Boston Tea Party

Facts about the Boston Tea Party – Boston Tea Party

Facts about the Boston Tea Party 3: Key Event

The Boston Tea Party was a key event in the growth of the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, or Intolerable Acts, which, among other provisions, ended local self-government in Massachusetts and closed Boston’s commerce.

Facts about the Boston Tea Party 4: Background

The Boston Tea Party arose from two issues confronting the British Empire in 1765: the financial problems of the British East India Company, and an ongoing dispute about the extent of Parliament’s authority, if any, over the British American colonies without seating any elected representation.

Facts about the Boston Tea Party - Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor

Facts about the Boston Tea Party – Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor

Facts about the Boston Tea Party 5: Destruction

That evening, a group of 30 to 130 men, some dressed in the Mohawk warrior disguises, boarded the three vessels and, over the course of three hours, dumped all 342 chests of tea into the water. The precise location of the Griffin’s Wharf site of the Tea Party has been subject to prolonged uncertainty; a comprehensive studyplaces it near the foot of Hutchinson Street

Facts about the Boston Tea Party 6: Reaction

By “constitution” he referred to the idea that all governments have a constitution, written or not, and that the constitution of Great Britain could be interpreted as banning the levying of taxes without representation. For example, the Bill of Rights of 1689 established that long-term taxes could not be levied without Parliament, and other precedents said that Parliament must actually represent the people it ruled over, in order to “count”.

Facts about the Boston Tea Party - Edenton Tea Party

Facts about the Boston Tea Party – Edenton Tea Party

Facts about the Boston Tea Party 7: Conciliatory Resolution

In February 1775, Britain passed the Conciliatory Resolution, which ended taxation for any colony that satisfactorily provided for the imperial defense and the upkeep of imperial officers. The tax on tea was repealed with the Taxation of Colonies Act 1778, part of another Parliamentary attempt at conciliation that failed.

Facts about the Boston Tea Party 8: Boston Tea Party

According to historian Alfred Young, the term “Boston Tea Party” did not appear in print until 1834. Before that time, the event was usually referred to as the “destruction of the tea”. According to Young, American writers were for many years apparently reluctant to celebrate the destruction of property, and so the event was usually ignored in histories of the American Revolution.

Facts about the Boston Tea Party - Engraving

Facts about the Boston Tea Party – Engraving

Facts about the Boston Tea Party 9: Political Protest

The Boston Tea Party has often been referenced in other political protests. When Mohandas K. Gandhi led a mass burning of Indian registration cards in South Africa in 1908, a British newspaper compared the event to the Boston Tea Party.

Facts about the Boston Tea Party 10: Symbol of Protest

American activists from a variety of political viewpoints have invoked the Tea Party as a symbol of protest. In 1973, on the 200th anniversary of the Tea Party, a mass meeting at Faneuil Hall called for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon and protested oil companies in the ongoing oil crisis. Afterwards, protesters boarded a replica ship in Boston Harbor, hanged Nixon in effigy, and dumped several empty oil drums into the harbor.

Facts about the Boston Tea Party - Notice

Facts about the Boston Tea Party – Notice

Hope you would find those Boston Tea Party facts really interesting, useful and helpful for your additional reading.

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