American Dissent and the Boston Tea Party

The French and Indian War began in 1756, with many of the battles fought in the northern colonies and Canada, including the famous battle of Ticonderoga in New York. There, Gen. William Braddock fell, and George Washington was incapacitated. After several more strikes into Canada, the coalition of British and colonist forces would be victorious and British interests in the Americas were upheld.

After the signing of the Treaty of Paris, in 1763, the British empire secured more land from Spain and France in both the great lakes region and Florida. The war was not without its costs, however, although the total number is disputed, the British incurred significant debt from the war, borrowing from both British and Dutch banks.

Immediately following the victory against the French, King George and the British parliament felt that since they defended the colonists, that it was only right for those colonists to share in the debt. They passed the first of several taxes on the colonies, the Stamp Act, in 1765. The Stamp Act was an additional tax on all printed and legal documents. This was essentially a tax on communication and possibly even fun, as the tax extended to playing cards, dice, newspapers and pamphlets.

For the Americans, this was the first time they experienced taxation levied exclusively upon them. They had experienced taxes in the forms of duties (tariffs on goods imported or exported) that were rather relaxed in their enforcement, and smuggling was common among the populace. But this tax was a step too far for the colonists, as they felt the only ones who could pass taxes upon the colonies were…well colonists. As such, they were outraged. It wasn’t just the taxes, however, that angered the colonists.

In the state of New York alone, the colonists committed a tremendous amount of capital and manpower to the cause during the French and Indian War. This excerpt from John Sanderson’s Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence volume three states the following sacrifices by New York, “An interesting account of the personal investment made by the members of the colony to provide their own security during the French-Indian War of the 1760s,

‘The province cooperated with great zeal in a project to raise 20,000 men as the quota for the purpose for subduing Canada. The legislature agreed to furnish 2680 men as the quota of New York. One hundred thousand pounds were appropriated for levying, paying, and clothing the troops, and an advance of 150,000 pounds was made to the British commissariat, whose funds were exhausted. In consequence of similar spirited measures on the part of the sister colonies and the mother country, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Niagara, and Quebec were captured, and the subsequent year witnessed the subjugation of all Canada’” (pg. 175-176).

At this point, one can see the anger stewing in the American populace. They were being directly taxed by those who were not among their peers, but across an ocean. Furthermore, they had directly invested in the defense of their interests. As such, they began to push back against the tax collectors with public demonstrations, burning stamp distributors in effigy and in some cases ransacking the homes of those they believed to be the enforcers of the King’s tyranny.

The resistance to the Stamp Act was so high that parliament repealed it in 1766, but they weren’t going to let the colonies off so easily. The following year they passed the Townshend Acts, which placed taxes on imports to America such as paper, glass, sugar, etc. To ensure the enforcement of these duties, Charles Townshend, for whom the acts are named, saw the revenue raised by the taxes as means to pay the colonial governors’ salaries. Unfortunately for him, he would die before he would see his vision enacted in 1767.

Once again, the Americans did not take too kindly to the enforcement of such taxes. Disgruntled, they once more boycotted any British goods they could to lessen the ability for the British to profit off the import duties and continued to protest the taxes publicly. This time the British were not taking any chances and moved to quell any unrest by sending 2,000 troops to the town of Boston (pop. 16,000 at the time).

Why Boston?

Well, Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty were operating mostly in the New England area and most of the towns boycotting were in and around that major port. The British regulars and the colonists would not have a genial coexistence, however, and the protests and clashes would continue to escalate until they finally reached a climax on March 5, 1770.

That bitter cold and snowy night, Private Hugh White is guarding the customs house in Boston on King Street. Seeing the object of their oppression, the colonists descended down upon the lone soldier and began to berate him with slurs, threatening violence. In a peremptory move, White lunged out and struck a colonist with his bayonet.

Wrong move.

The outnumbered White began to be immediately pelted with snowballs, ice, and stones. With colonists now pouring out into the streets and commotion building, Private White, recognizing the serious danger, began calling out for help. Captain Thomas Preston and several soldiers arrived and took up a defensive position in front of the custom house.

Captain Preston does everything in his ability to maintain discipline of his soldiers and keep them from both breaking/retreating or firing into the crowd. As Preston and his men literally have their backs against the wall, they hear both the pleas of colonists begging not to shoot, and the egging on of others daring them to.

Suddenly a shot is fired, from whom the accounts are disputed, but many believe to be from a soldier either firing accidentally or from hearing someone say “Fire!” Here the soldiers’ discipline falls. In a panic, the rest open fire into the crowd and five Americans are dead, six are wounded. Among the deceased are: Crispus Attucks a dockworker of mixed race, Samuel Gray, a ropemaker who was left with a fist-sized hole in his head, James Caldwell, a sailor who was hit twice, Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr, who both suffered mortal wounds.

In the wake of the tragedy that came to be known as the Boston Massacre, both sides took to the papers to spread their renditions of what took place on King street. Captain Preston and his soldiers would be arrested and put on trial where two signers of the declaration of independence would be at the center of the trial.

Prosecuting on behalf of the crown and the citizens of Boston would be future delegate of Massachusetts, Robert Treat Paine. The lawyer heading the defense of the soldiers would be future president of the United States, John Adams. Adams’ defense would prove to be exceptional as he was able to show reasonable doubt in the accusations of Thomas Preston and show that many of the men acted in self-defense.

Two soldiers Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy would be convicted of manslaughter and punished according to English law as first-time offenders. The tragedy on King Street in 1770 proved to be a key blow to the enforcement of the Townshend Acts and parliament would relent disposing of all duties except that of tea in April 1770.

This small victory was not the end of unrest in the new world as a new act would become the subject of the colonist’s ire in 1773. That year, Parliament made the move to save one of their biggest companies from bankruptcy. By passing the Tea Act, Parliament allowed the British East India Trading Co. to sell their tea directly to the colonies without having to stop in England. This act would lessen the price of British tea and would allow the East India Co. to unload their massive amounts of tea inventory.

Sounds like a great idea! After all, East India Co. will be saved and will help keep the British economy from floundering while also delivering tea to the biggest consumers outside of the isles at lower prices. At this time, Americans did not stop drinking tea. Rather, they resorted to buying smuggled Dutch tea at a lower price than English. The Tea Act was envisioned as a way to get Americans to buy British, but the direct sales to America would cut out colonial merchants. These influential merchants would stoke the fires within the colonies by encouraging the boycotts.

On December 16, 1773, those fires would reach peak intensity. That morning, thousands of colonists were out protesting the importation of the goods on the three ships in Griffin’s Wharf. As the governor urged the unloading, the colonists held an assembly at the Old South Church and voted to boycott. Governor Thomas Hutchison decided he was through with the populace and ordered the tea be unloaded and the tariff paid.

On that night, more than 100 colonists dressed in not-so-convincing Native American garb boarded the three ships, the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver and began smashing the crates and tossing them overboard into the harbor. It took three hours to toss 342 crates, 45 tons of tea, overboard resulting in over $1 million (in today’s money) in losses for the East India Trading Co. Despite British military presence, they stood by and did nothing, only one man of the hundred would be arrested, Francis Akeley. A second Boston Tea Party would take place a few months later in March of 1774, where 60 Bostonians tossed 30 crates overboard. Maryland, New York, and South Carolina would also join the festivities, to far less degrees in their own tea parties.

These actions would be the last straw for dear old King George.

With these forceful acts of protest, parliament passed the Coercive Acts aka the Intolerable Acts after receiving word of the unrest in Boston. From that moment on, resentment would continue to grow and eventually shots would be fired, war would be declared, and after six years of fighting, the United States of America would secure her future security and gain victory over the British.