Boston Tea Party
- 8.4(A) analyze causes of the American Revolution, including the Proclamation of 1763, the Intolerable Acts, the Stamp Act, mercantilism, lack of representation in Parliament, and British economic policies following the French and Indian War
- 8.20(C) analyze reasons for and the impact of selected examples of civil disobedience in U.S. history such as the Boston Tea Party and Henry David Thoreau's refusal to pay a tax
During what became known as the Boston Tea Party, American patriots boarded ships and threw 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company into Boston Harbor. The Americans were protesting taxation without representation and a monopoly by the East India Company.
Primary Source - From the Boston Tea Party
"It was now evening, and I immediately dressed myself in the costume of [a Native American], equipped with a small hatchet . . . [A]fter having painted my face and hands with coal dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin's wharf, where the ships lay that contained the tea. . . . I fell in with many who were dressed, equipped and painted as I was. . . .
When we arrived at the wharf, there were three . . . who assumed an authority to direct our operations. . . . They divided us into three parties. . . .
We then were ordered . . . to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as . . . to expose them to the effects of the water.
In about three hours . . . we had . . . broken and thrown overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship."
—from George Hewes account of the Boston Tea Party,
by George Hewes
When we arrived at the wharf, there were three . . . who assumed an authority to direct our operations. . . . They divided us into three parties. . . .
We then were ordered . . . to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as . . . to expose them to the effects of the water.
In about three hours . . . we had . . . broken and thrown overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship."
—from George Hewes account of the Boston Tea Party,
by George Hewes
Credits to Ted Ed Youtube Channel,