Protest in the Boston Tea Party

British troops had been stationed in Boston since 1768 and gangs of local workers and sailors often clashed with British soldiers quartered in Boston. The Boston Tea Party occurred December 16, 1773. The Boston Tea Party was a certain protest by American colonists in Boston which went against the Tea Tax that was imposed by the British government. This protest happened when the colonists started boarding three trade ships at the Boston Harbor and started throwing all the tea that the ships had overboard into the ocean. The protesters in the Boston Tea Party showed their anger towards the Tea Tax by boarding the ships and throwing all the British East India Company’s cargo of tea overboard. They threw 342 chests which was 92,000 pounds of tea dumped into the Boston Harbour by the American Patriots. This protest showed Great Britain that Americans wouldn’t take taxation and tyranny without a fight. The Boston Tea Party resulted in the British shutting down the Boston Harbor until all of the 340 chests of British East India Company tea were paid for.

This was the start of the 1774 Intolerable Acts which is known as the Boston Port Act. These intolerable acts are described as, “four punitive measures enacted by the British Parliament in retaliation for acts of colonial defiance”. Parliament passed a Tea Act designed to aid the financially troubled East India Company by granting it a monopoly on all tea exported to the colonies, an exemption on the export tax, and a refund on duties owed on certain surplus quantities of tea in its possession. Civil Disobedience is the refusal to obey certain laws or governmental demands for the purpose of influencing legislation or government policy. The Boston Tea Party was an example of civil disobedience because when the colonists threw over the ship's tea, this was looked at as vandalism which is illegal, but the colonist believed that this was what had to be done in order to get their point accross.

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