LYCOS RETRIEVER
Boston Tea Party: Boston Tea Party Ship
built 236 days ago
History often produces an often inexact record and the Boston Tea Party is an excellent example. Unlike the Declaration of Independence, which had signers, the Boston Tea Party was veiled in secrecy. In fact it was not called the "Tea Party," until many years later. It was called "Destruction of the Tea in Boston Harbor."1 Participants swore themselves to secrecy and some did not acknowledge each other even when boarding the ships, breaking open the chests and dumping the tea. Some never talked about it except among close family members. Lists were produced, but were incomplete.
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The Boston Tea Party was an act of direct action by the American colonists against Great Britain in which they destroyed many crates of tea bricks on ships in Boston Harbor. The incident, which took place on Thursday, December 16, 1773, has been seen as helping to spark the American Revolution.
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Boston Tea Party - The colonists knew that if the tea remained on board ship more than 20 days, by law, the tea would be sold at [A]uction. Then the taxes would be paid from the sale of the auctioned tea. The Tea Party was held on December 16, the night before the 20-day period expired. This prevented the tea tax from being paid by auctioning the tea.
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During the Boston Tea Party, patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians, heaved 342 chests of tea overboard from three British ships. Although the lithograph shows the tea party taking place during the day, it actually occurred at night. The tide was out and the water was so shallow that tea piled up in mounds higher than the boat decks.
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The first of many ships which arrived at the Boston harbor carrying the East India Company tea was Dartmouth arriving in late November 1773. A standoff ensued between the port authorities and the Sons of Liberty. Samuel Adams whipped up the growing crowd by demanding a series of protest meetings. Coming from both the city and outlying areas, thousands attended these meetings; every meeting larger than the one before. The crowds shouted defiance not only at the British Parliament, the East India Company, and Dartmouth but at Governor Thomas Hutchinson as well, who was still struggling to have the tea landed. On the night of December 16, the protest meeting, held at Boston's Old South Meeting House, was the largest yet seen.
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The tax on tea, which was considered so odious and led to the act on which A Ballad of the Boston Tea Party is founded, was but a small matter, only twopence in the pound. But it involved a principle of taxation, to which the Colonies would not submit. Their objection was not to the amount, but the claim. The East India Company... sent out a number of tea-ships to different American ports, three of them to Boston.
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