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Boston Tea Party
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The Boston Tea Party is an important event in United States history as it marked the first show of violence by the colonists and cast the first cries for independence in the Boston area. England had already repealed many of the import taxes on the colonists, but it retained the tea tax to let the colonists know they were still subject to British rule. After the Tea party, England demanded that the Boston government pay for the tea, but the locals refused. As a result, British forces closed the Boston harbor for a period of time, further inciting cries for independence.
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The Boston Tea Party was the inspiration for a number of similar events that occurred throughout the American colonies. Some colonists were very angry. One broadside poem describing the original tea party ended with the charge that all good sons of Boston should "sink all Tyrants in their GUILTY BLOOD!" Why all this rebellious fervor about tea? Did Britain's Tea Act and the resulting controversy in the colonies lead to the American Revolution?
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The Boston Tea Party has its roots in the Tea Act of 1773, which gave the British East India Company, which was struggling financially, the right to sell tea to the American colonies without paying taxes to the British government. American colonial merchants, who did have to pay taxes on tea arriving in their ports, were furious at the unfair protection given the East India Company, especially when they had no representation in the British government (... the famous rallying cry: No taxation without representation!)
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When the news of the Boston Tea Party reached Britain, an outraged Parliament demanded compensation for the tea. After the colonists refused, Parliament passed a series of laws to punish Boston and to make British control over Massachusetts more effective. Known as the Intolerable Acts, the laws closed the port of Boston to trade; curtailed the powers of the Massachusetts assembly and local town meetings; provided for the housing of troops in private houses; and exempted British officials from trial in Massachusetts. These acts further alienated the American colonists and hastened the start of the American Revolution.
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The Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773. The Townshend Acts, first passed in 1767, were a tax that was placed on goods such as glass, lead, metals, paint, and tea. The tax on the tea really angered the colonists.
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"Now people can experience the Boston Tea Party on their iPod," said Rob Pyles, a 27-year old Bostonian and Executive Producer of The Boston Audissey. "For more adventurous travelers, it lets you re-live the city's greatest events in an intimate way."
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