Samuel Adams put up posters describing the Boston Massacre as a slaughter of innocent Americans by bloodthirsty redcoats!
EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT! Samuel Adams revived the Boston committee of correspondence, an organization that circulated writings about colonists grievances against Britain. Grievance= COMPLAINT!
By this time, Americans considered the British colonial policies a conspiracy against liberty(freedom). The British government s actions in 1773 confirmed this view. The British East India Company was on the verge of bankruptcy, so parliament passed the Tea Act of 1773 to help them out.
Prior to the Tea Act, the British East India Company Tea was required to exclusively sell its tea at auction in London. This required the British East India Company to pay a tax per pound of tea sold which added to the company s financial burdens. The Tea Act aborted this restriction and granted the British East India Company license to export their tea to the American colonies. This opened up the British East India Company s markets to the lucrative American colonies. Additionally, under the Tea Act, duties Britain charged on tea shipped to the American colonies would be waived or refunded upon sale.
In 1773 Americans used 6.5 million pounds of tea (there were less than 3 million people in America at that time.) Tea from the British East India Company cost 3 shillings per pound. Tea from the Dutch West India Company cost 2 shillings per pound.
In other words, American colonists could buy no tea unless it came from that company. Why? Well, the British East India Tea 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 means of "taxation without representation" because it meant that they couldn't buy tea from anyone else (including other colonial merchants) without spending a lot more money.
Colonial merchants immediately called for a new boycott of British goods. Samuel Adams wanted to get rid of this TEA MONOPOLY of Great Britain.
90% of all the tea in America was smuggled illegally. 342 chests of tea were dumped into Boston Harbor worth 10,000 pounds sterling. The value of the tea in today's dollars would be $1,425,473.68.
At large public meetings in Boston and Philadelphia, colonists vowed to stop the East India Company s ships from unloading. Parliament ignored these warnings and sent even more ships with tea. The East India Co. shipped tea to Philadelphia, NY, Boston, and Charleston. The colonists forced the ships sent to NY and Philadelphia to turn back.
The tea sent to Charleston, South Carolina was seized and stored in a warehouse by colonists. In Boston, a showdown was brewing.
December 16, 1773 3 tea ships arrive in Boston Harbor The royal governor (whose house had been destroyed by Stamp Act protestors) refused to let the ships turn back. When he ordered the tea unloaded, Adams and the Boston Sons of Liberty acted swiftly.
That night, the Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and armed with hatchets marched to the dock. At midnight they boarded the tea ships and threw 342 chests of tea overboard into the harbor. The Sons of Liberty basically destroyed over 92,000 pounds of British East India Company tea. This event became known as the Boston Tea Party. The amount of tea dumped into the Boston Harbor is estimated as costing around $1 million in today s money
The amount of tea dumped into the Boston Harbor is estimated as costing around $1 million in today s money.
Word of the act of defiance spread quickly throughout the colonies. Men and women gathered in the streets to celebrate the bravery of the Sons of Liberty.
KGIII responded with a new set of laws. They were called the Coercive Acts, but the colonists called them the Intolerable Acts.
Redcoats Quartering Act
Weekly Agenda for Week of October 2-5 Copy in your planner and get signed. DUE TOMORROW!!- 7 th grade Monday s Homework: Get your planner signed, DENIED police reports/invitations are due WEDNESDAY, &Finish Join or Die Poli Cartoon due tomorrow! Tuesday s Homework: Finish Histagram assignment due tomorrow! Wednesday s HOMEWORK: Finish any unfinished classwork! Thursday: Meet in Room 606; Study cubes due Monday 10/9/17; you will receive an exam study guide! **********NOTE: NO test this week- all info from now until the end of the next week will be on your 9 weeks exam!
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