1 British Place Unfair Taxes on Colonists Since the early 1600s Great Britain had ruled the several colonies along Indian War 1754 1763 the British and the French fought to expand their territory in North America the east coast of North America France controlled large parts of After the French and Indian War North America known as New France This area spanned from ended the British needed money to support their army They decided to tax American colonists to raise Louisiana through the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes to Canada During the French and funds One of the first taxes was the Stamp Act It was passed on March 22 1765 It taxed all printed matter This included newspapers pamphlets marriage licenses playing cards and wills British agents stamped the items to prove the tax was paid Many colonists opposed the Stamp Act They complained about the British taxing them without their consent The colonies had no direct representation in the British government In protest many Americans called for This map shows the 13 original American colonies a boycott on British goods A group called 4
Angry protestors burned stamped papers in the streets the Sons of Liberty kept British agents from applying the tax They attacked them and destroyed their stamps and records They also attacked anyone who did not observe the boycott Finally the British government repealed the act Tea was a popular drink in the colonies Perhaps the tax most hated by American colonists was the tax on tea Great Britain passed the Tea Act in 1773 The East India 13 Company was a major British tea seller But it had money problems Through the Tea Act Great Britain said the East India Company no longer had to pay taxes on tea Number of American colonies headed to the American colonies But other tea importers still had to pay a tax on tea The act gave the East India Company a monopoly on tea sales Tea prices dropped The British taxed American colonists to raise money to pay for the French and Indian War The Stamp Act taxed all printed matter The Sons of Liberty tried to stop stamp agents Great Britain passed the Tea Act The British gave the East India Company a monopoly on tea sales but colonists were unhappy They were tired of the British government making decisions for them Colonists wanted to have a voice in the government Approximately 1 000 people gathered at a meeting in Boston to protest 5
2 Colonists Protest with Boston Tea Party In 1773 the East India Company the Beaver the Dartmouth and loaded its ships with tea and set the Eleanor arrived in Boston and out for the colonies When the ships docked in the harbor arrived in the colonies the tea was to be sold by local merchants British law said cargo on the ships had to be unloaded within 20 days of their arrival Colonists refused to But the Sons of Liberty decided to protest They wanted to keep merchants from buying the tea They tried to prevent the ships from docking or being unloaded let them unload The 20 day waiting period was up on December 16 That night the Sons of Liberty decided to protest The men wrapped The ships bound for Philadelphia and New York turned back to Great Britain Three other ships themselves in blankets They dressed in costumes trying to look like Mohawk Indians They slipped aboard the ships as thousands of people watched from Colonists were upset about the tea tax because they went through about 1.2 million pounds 544,310 kg of tea each year 6
the shore The The tea dumped in the ocean during the Boston Tea Party was worth approximately 1.7 million in today's money men used axes to smash open 342 tea chests Then they dumped the tea into the ocean DUMPING THE TEA Dumping the tea into Boston Harbor was a hard job A tea chest weighed approximately 400 pounds 181 kg Sometimes tea chests were stored under other cargo This cargo had to be moved to get to the tea Each chest had to be hauled up on deck Then the men had to remove a canvas 92,586 Weight in pounds 41,996 kg of tea dumped into Boston Harbor cover before they could split the chest open with an axe All the tea in the water caused a terrible smell THINK ABOUT IT Were the Sons of Liberty right to dump the tea into Boston Harbor Why or why not was there another way they could have protested the taxes Colonists protested the tea tax The Sons of Liberty sneaked onto three British ships loaded with tea They dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor The harbor was shut down until the colonists paid for the tea 7
