The Boston Tea Party

The splash of three hundred and forty two crates of tea echoed in the harbor as sixty men dressed as indians threw them over board. The Boston Tea party was one of the most influential acts of patriotism in our history. This historical event had nothing to do with colonists going out to a costume party and causing trouble by throwing a bunch of tea into the harbor.

One of the mow-hawked dressed indians was a patriot by the name of George Hewes. He himself like many other patriots were against the tax's that had been placed on the items they bought. The Stamp act and Townshend acts angered many colonists because they where being taxed without representation.

"'On the day preceding the seventeenth, there was a meeting of the citizens of the county of Suffolk, convened at one of the churches in Boston, for the purpose of consulting on what measures might be considered expedient to prevent the landing of the tea, or secure the people from the collection of the duty. At that meeting a committee was appointed to wait on Governor Hutchinson, and request him to inform them whether he would take any measures to satisfy the people on the object of the meeting.' Hewes had written in his diary."

The governor said he would give the committee an answer by the next day at five o clock but when he did not show up, some committee members went to his house but he was not there and found out that he had gone about six miles away. When the members came back they informed the crowd of people that governor had left. A commotion began in the crowd and everyone went there separate ways. George Hewes went and dressed himself as an Indian and took part in the Boston Tea Party by boarding the three boats and destroying the crates, then throwing them over board.

George Hewes did this to show how he felt about the tax's that had been put on the items he bought everyday and court document.

King George the third obviously did not like how the colonists rebelled so he decided to punish them and restrain them by putting into affect the Intolerable Acts in January of 1774.

The Boston Port Act made the Boston port close temporarily until the tea that was thrown over was repaid in full to the government.

The Massachusetts Governing Act said that a town couldn't have a meeting unless the Governor announced they could have one. At anytime they could ask for a meeting. But if he said no than they would only have one that year.

The Impartial Administration of Justice Act said that customs officers and British officials, who would be charged with a major crime such as murder, would go to court in England instead of America. In England there was no evidence against them so they would mostly be found innocent.

The Quartering Act was a law that meant British troops could force colonists to take care of troops in their homes whether they wanted to or not. These laws where out into place between March and June of 1774.

Monday march 5, 1770 shots and yelling voices rocked Boston Massachusetts. Boston citizens gathered in the streets throwing snow balls, ice, and anything they could get there hands on. Boston citizens where tired of having british soldiers in there homes and cities and having to feed them.

The fight had gone from a few citizens to a physical argument against half the town. It became eight soldiers and one Captain name Thomas Preston against an angry mob.

Paul Revere a patriot watched threw his window apartment as the soldiers began shooting. Revere engraved a picture of what he had seen that very day threw his window in an engraving he drew that was later printed. The pictures depicted soldiers killing innocent citizens for no cause what so ever.

Captain Thomas Preston ordered the soldiers, "Don't fire!" A soldier named Hugh Montgomery after being struck stood up and yelled "Fire, damn you!" and fired into the crowd.

Captain Thomas Preston was a loyalist to the British crown and did not believe that the citizens had the right to be cursing at the soldiers and revolting against the British empire.

He did not want to hurt or kill any colonists when they started attacking him and his troops. Thomas Preston even ordered in the heat of the controversy not to fire into the mob of colonists but the soldiers finally fired at will in self defense of there lives.

The colonists after the event made it seem as if the British soldiers had acted alone and killed innocent colonist bystanders when really the colonists where the ones who had started the riot.

The colonists had to do some drastic things to get the British's attention like in the Boston Tea Party but in other cases the Colonists started things that where pointless like the Boston Massacre and many innocent colonists and soldiers lost there lives leading up to the Declaration of Independence and the revolution.