Boston Tea Party Stamp Act

In the American history, a topic talked about in today's history would be the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party is when 92,600 pounds of tea were dumped into the Boston Harbor by Boston rebellions that decided to dress up as Mohawk Indians also known as the Sons of Liberty. The tea belonging to the British East India Company, this company has been one of the wealthiest companies in history since 1600-1858. In 1773, the Tea Act was involved and gave the East India Company a monopoly, which is the exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service, so they can sell to the American colonies. The Tea Act became involved before the rebellions of Boston whom decided to dump the tea over into the Boston Harbor.

Also, when the Tea Act was passed, American colonies did not get any taxes enforced on them. Before the Tea Act ever happened, the East India Company could only sell tea at in auction in London, this was a required because they could only pay a tax per pound of tea being sold, but this also added to their problems they were having with money. British markets would have tea available for colonists to purchase, this was before the Tea Act was passed or colonists would smuggle tea from markets illegally. Once stuff like this happened, they would transport the ships back for resale. This all happened before the actual dumping of the tea, in which it got its name the Boston Tea Party.

One of the people that were involved in the Boston Tea Party was, Thomas Hutchinson who is the governor of Massachusetts and he was also known as the Chief Justice. He was known for having the ships stay in the Boston Harbor until the issue got resolved. Meanwhile, they had people offload the tea from the ships. Hutchinson was a man who devoted most of his time to business related things, such as joining the family shipping business, before beginning his career. He went to school at the Harvard College and graduated from there in 1727 where his career involved in local politics. Later on, Hutchinson got recognized by a lot by people following the war of King George which happened from 1740-1748. Other important people involved in the Boston Tea Party were John Hancock, a very wealthy man who lived in New England. As well as Sam Adams, a lawyer. Hancock was a man that ran a very successful import and export business that was located in Boston. When he was having people giving him threats about his business, he immediately joined the Son of Liberty as well as other groups.

In the year of 1765, Hancock got elected to be selectman, a member of the local government board of a New England town. Interesting fact about all the tea being dumped over it took about three hours for about 100 people to dump out all the tea into the Boston Harbor because the chests had more than 45 tons of tea in them which today would cost about a million dollars. In 1774, the Coercive Act was passed which was also known as the Intolerable Acts. The act did several things such as close the Boston Harbor because they were waiting for all the tea that was destroyed to be paid for, Massachusetts Constitution ended, and so did the free elections of town officials, British judges and judicial authority were moved to Britain, which was because they were creating the martial law in Massachusetts. The martial law is a military government involving the suspension of ordinary law, colonists were required quarter British troops and if they needed, they'd use their private homes if they needed to. Most people don't know what quartering is but it's a punishment in England used for men found guilty of high treason. Men were either hanged, drawn and/or quartered. The other cruel punishment these men had to go through would be the full punishment which was having the victim dragged by a horse on a wooden frame to the place where he was to be publicly put to death.

Protestant colonists were angered because under British rule, they extended freedom of worship to French-Canadian Catholics. For most people that learn about the Boston Tea Party would think that it happened once, but it didn't there was a second Boston Tea Party. On March 1774, 30 chests of tea were dumped into the Boston Harbor by 60 of the Bostonians. When this happened for the second time, it encouraged other tea-dumping. Some of the places it was taking place was South Carolina, Maryland and New York. Stamp Act Following the Boston Tea Party, there was another important event, the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act was a new tax saying that all Americans had to pay taxes for every paper that they use. What types of papers? Papers such as newspapers, licenses, etc. Playing cards were also taxed. The money collected went to all the troops that were guarding the American Frontier. There were 10,000 men guarding near the Appalachian Mountains were the American Frontier was located at. Americans didn't like the standards it was setting. Colonists looked at the acted differently, they didn't think that it was right that the act was being used to raise money, they thought that it was supposed to be used to regulate commerce. Later on, Patrick Henry, an influential speaker was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1765.

After being admitted, the news of the Stamp Act shortly was announced after Henry's arrival. Henry was one of the people that spoke against it. He was curious to know the reasons behind why Great Britain was taxing American colonists. Eventually came up with the Virginia Resolves, in which entitled Virginia citizens to the same rights as Great Britain. Also, said that an elected representative could collect the taxes and in Parliament, the colonists needed a representative and unfortunately did not have one. Henry concluded with having the House of Burgesses be the ones to collect taxes from the Virginia colonists. The House of Burgesses did all the resolving when there was a problem, but Henry was the persuasive speaker. Printed and distributed to the colonies and Great Britain were the resolutions. One of those resolutions were no taxation without representation. Many of the American colonists liked that idea.

Forming the Stamp Act Congress, delegates from nine of the 13 colonies met in New York. Surprisingly, this was the first effort they made to coordinate and make an effort to protest how unfair management was by Great Britain. Some concern grew in the colonies because of the situation. So, to bring colonists together, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to discuss their concerns with during the year of 1774. Speaking at the Second Virginia Convention was Patrick Henry where he said some of his famous words on March 23,1775. Henry was a very good speaker motivated men to take action. Henry was the man that never held a major national office during the war. He was one of many that was very doubtful for the efforts trying to create a strong federal government. Also, Thomas Jefferson, who served in the Virginia legislature and the Continental Congress and who, also was governor of Virginia disliked Patrick Henry, but even though he disliked him he said that he was the greatest skilled public speaker that had ever lived.

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