THE BOSTON TEA PARTY

TAXES

1733 - the Molasses Act - forbade to import rum and molasses from non-English areas without taxes.

L764 - Sugar Act - forbade to import foreign rum. Levied duties on wines, silks, coffee and other things.

L764 - Currency Act - forbade colonial issues of paper money.

1765 - Quartering Act - demanded from the colonies to provide troops with provisions and barracks.

1765 - Stamp Act - required tax stamps on most printed materials: newspapers, broadsides, pamphlets, Iicenses, leases or other legal documents. The British government said that it was used for defending and protecting the colonies. The Stamp Act influenced mostly people who did any kind of business: journalists, lawyers, clergymen, merchants, and businessmen. The House of Burgesses denounced this act.

In 1766 the British Parliament had to agree and abolish this act.

1766 - Declaratory Act - proclaimed that only Parliament could make laws for the colonies.

BOSTON MASSACRE

English troops were present in America and colonists were displeased with it. On March 5,1770, a crowd of workers began throwing snowballs at soldiers guarding the Customs House. Someone gave the order to fire. As the result the soldiers killed four and wounded eight, one of whom died a few days later. The incident made the Americans dislike the British even more.

COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE

In 1772 Samuel Adams, the senior of most other leaders of American resistance, suggested that they should act together, and for that purpose select "Committee of Correspondence" to state the rights of the colonists. They issued a pamphlet, in which complained of all violations of their rights.

THE BOSTON TEA PARTY

People who drank tea in Britain and America were considered to have high status. Usually the British used the American wholesalers to distribute tea in the colonies. But in May 1773 the East India Company was about to go bankrupt, and the British government decided to save it by levying a Tea Tax on people, and also by selling tea in the colonies avoiding coionial middlemen. The Americans thought these measures to be a threat to their freedom and in many cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, local government refused to take tea, brought by the British ships. However, in Boston the Governor agreed to take tea from the ship Dartmouth, which came on November 28. Two more ships were to come soon. The citizens held several meetings and tried to make Thomas Hutchinson change his mind, but nothing helped. Samuel Adams was the chairman of the meetings. At last they decided to disguise as Indians, board the three ships, and dump the cargo into the harbor. By 9 pm, their work had been done: 342 chests of tea worth approximately 10.000 pounds floated on the water.

In response, the British government issued the so-called Coercive, or Intolerable, Acts.It called for closing the port of Boston until the tea was paid for and prohibiting all but coastal trade in food and firewood.

Coercive Acts included Government Act, Justice Act, new Quartering Act, which limited the freedom of colonistsin different ways.

Therefore, the colonists agreed to send deiegates to philadelphia in September, and find the way out of this situation.

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