TEA ACT/ THE BOSTON TEA PARTY

Welcome back .

So today we are looking at the period after the Townshend Duties.

After the Townshend Duties, the American Colony as whole had become so angry that there was element of protest. By 1770, the rivalry between the two parties intensified and this led to violence and also introduction of another tax which was named the Tea Act .This Act resulted to The Boston Tea party.

The Boston Tea party was a direct action led by Samuel Adams and others in the colony of Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts against the British government and the monopolistic East India company that controlled all Tea imported into the colonies .On December16, 1773, after officials in Boston refuse to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain.

The Boston Tea Party added more fervor to the revolutionary Trend in the colonies looking at the event that unfolded when a group of people boarded the ship dressed as Indians and destroy the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of the American history.

Also the Boston Tea party was a key event in the growth of the American Revolution as parliament responded in 1774 with the coercive Act which among other provision, closed Boston commerce until the British East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed goods.

After this the British imposed coercive Acts which led to more protests and also convening of the colonist meeting which became the first continental congress. In this congress petitions were made that the Monarch repeal the Acts, when this was not answered, the congress began to coordinate colonies resistance. The crisis escalated and the American Revolution war began near Boston which led to the declaration of the independence.

REFERENCE

Brogan, H., The Penguin History of the United State, Penguin, 1990.

Brogan, H., Longman History of the United State, 2^nd edition Longman, 1999

Leonard C. woods, etal, The American Nation: Beginning Through Reconstruction,   HBJ pub 1986.

Richard,N.C et al, American History: A survey. New York,1983.

Several Lecture on American History By Dr. E. Ibiloye, 2011/2012