in response to the many boycotts and protests of the new taxes, Troops were sent to boston to protect customs officials. as a result, The colonists felt even more bullied by britain.
Port cities such as Boston and New York were centers of protests. Britain sent two regiments to Boston to protect customs officers from local citizens. To many Bostonians, the soldiers were a daily reminder that Britain was trying to bully them into paying unjust taxes. When British soldiers walked along the streets of Boston, they risked insults or even beatings. On the night of March 5, 1770, a crowd gathered outside the Boston customs house. Colonists shouted insults at the "lobster backs" as they called the red coated British soldiers who guarded the building. Then the Boston crowd threw snowballs, oystershells and chunks of ice at the soldiers. The soldiers panicked, and they fired into the crowd killing five colonists.
The tea act of 1773
This act actually LOWERED the price of tea! Yet the colonists were STILL MAD! This Act was NOT to make the colonists pay for the French and Indian war debt. It gave a monopoly on tea sales to the East India Company. In other words, American colonists could buy no tea unless it came from that company. Why? Well, the East Indian Company wasn't doing so well, and the British wanted to give it some more business. The Tea Act lowered the price on this East India tea so much that it was way below tea from other suppliers. But the American colonists saw this law as yet another way of Britain making laws and not including them because it meant that they couldn't buy tea from anyone else (including other colonial merchants) without spending a lot more money. Their response was to refuse to unload the tea from the ships. This was the situation in Boston that led to the Boston Tea Party.
The boston tea party
American colonists destroy british property
(the tea) as an act of rebellion.
Angry and frustrated at a new tax on tea, American colonists calling themselves the Sons of Liberty and disguised as Mohawk Native Americans boarded three British ships (the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver) and dumped 342 whole crates of British tea into Boston harbor on December 16, 1773. Similar incidents occurred in Maryland, New York, and New Jersey in the next few months, and tea was eventually boycotted throughout the colonies.
"Boston harbor is a teapot tonight!
The mohawks are come!"
as a consequence of the boston tea party, britain passes the intolerable acts in 1774.
This Act had four parts.
1. It shut down Boston Harbor so that no ships could enter or leave.
2. It forbade town meetings without British permission.
3. It moved trials for customs officials and other British officials to be tried in Britain.
4. Parliament passed the Quartering Act which meant soldier could sleep in the house of colonists.
Click here for more info on the Intolerable Acts.
1. It shut down Boston Harbor so that no ships could enter or leave.
2. It forbade town meetings without British permission.
3. It moved trials for customs officials and other British officials to be tried in Britain.
4. Parliament passed the Quartering Act which meant soldier could sleep in the house of colonists.
Click here for more info on the Intolerable Acts.