Tea Act – May 1773

+The calm of the early 1770s ended with Parliament’s adoption of a Tea Act in May 1773, intended to help the East India Company, near bankruptcy, recover financially by selling in America the 17 million pounds of tea it had. According to this Act (not a tax), the East India Company was issued a refund of taxes paid on all tea which was sold in the colonies, which would have resulted in a lower price for their tea. The tax already place on tea was a leftover from the Townshend Acts. The Act allowed the English merchants to sell the tea directly to the colonists as opposed to colonial middlemen who inflated the price to make a profit. The one last tax on tea in the colonies (from the Townshend Duties) remained in effect as the one remaining assertion of English dominance over the colonies. It was a double edged sword for the colonists – cheaper tea, but to purchase the English tea meant to admit that England could tax the colonies, as well as threatening the livelihoods of colonial merchants not tied to English tea.

In September 1773 the East India Company shipped a half million pounds of tea to several colonial harbors. In all of the harbors, except Boston, the opponents of the Tea Act successfully persuaded the captains of the tea ships to return their cargoes full of tea to England (In Charleston, South Carolina the tea ship captains sat in the harbor for the maximum 20 days allowed to pay the tax, at which time their tea was confiscated by customs officers and the tax went unpaid). In Boston, the tea ships (The Dartmouth) slipped into the harbor and the captain and ship mates fled to the protection of British guns. Bostonians tried for 20 days to find a way to get that ship back to England without the tax being paid. The British Customs agents and Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to clear the ship to return (the harbor was guarded by British ships). It was clear to the Boston rebels that when the 20 days was up, the captain would certainly pay the tax.

Finally, on the evening of December 16, 1773 (on the 19th day) Samuel Adams rallied a crowd of rebels at a town meeting to disguise themselves as natives and throw about 90,000 pounds of East India Company tea into Boston Harbor. It was a very carefully planned and quietly executed protest. John Adams said of the event, it was “so bold, so daring, so firm…and it must have so important consequences…”

Analysis Questions:

1. What was England’s reasoning for the Tea Act of 1773?

2. The Tea Act was not a tax on tea (which already existed). Briefly describe the terms of this Act of Parliament, and give 2 reasons why some colonists were angered by it?

3. Why did Samuel Adams and other rebels eventually throw approximately 90,000 pounds of East India Company tea into Boston Harbor? (aside from protesting the Tea Act!!!)