Boston Tea Party History Essay Sample

📌Category: History, History of the United States
📌Words: 950
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 26 April 2022

Review

When you think about the Boston Tea Party, you probably remember a bunch of Americans dressed as Native Americans dumping tea off ships in Boston, Massachusetts to protest higher taxes on tea and then everyone rejoices. However, that is not entirely true, there was a tax break for imported tea because of supposed banking schemes against the East India Company who exported goods around the world (Raphael, 2010). This accusation led to a collapse in the company where stocks dropped, goods sat in warehouses, and the company eventually asked for a loan from Britain. Parliament enacted the Tea Act of 1773, which meant that the East India Company would agree to parliament’s right to taxation, the company could deliver straight to the consumer, America, and most importantly drive smuggled Dutch tea out of America (Raphael, 2010). Although, what America was furious about was the fact that America had no say, which started the movement of no “taxation without representation”. The Townshend Revenue Act of 1767 was the real start of this issue, it taxed not only tea, but also goods such as wine, paper, glass, sugar, and molasses. Parliament eventually repealed the act after boycotts, but somehow the boycott on tea just stuck. Tea and teatime was a symbol of British culture and as Americans grew to resent Britain because of their governing ways, America started to create the idea that drinking tea was sinful and producing propaganda such as “Tea from the East India Company was packed tightly in chests by the stomping of barefoot Chinese and was infested with Chinese fleas” (Raphael, 2010, p. 63). Essentially, the boycott on tea was to symbolize America disapproving of Britain not the prices of tea. Additionally, the dumping of tea did not unite Americans, the author even cites a letter John Adams wrote to solidify his claim. Granting, in reality, it was the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party. Since Britain had such a hold on American’s, no one celebrated because the act was unlawful and if anyone found out they would face repercussions from Britain, the author uses a quote from Joshua Wyeth, a conspirator the night of the Boston Tea Party, explains; “Our most intimate friends among the spectators had not the least knowledge of us” (Raphael, 2010, p. 64). To show that this act had to be of the utmost secrecy. The author concludes with how Parliament reacted with the Intolerable Acts, and also closed the Boston Harbor, and thus started the unification of the 13 colonies, the First Continental Congress, and the road for independence for America. He even explains that not until the 1820’s did American’s start talking about that night and ever since then the act was coined as the Boston Tea Party (Raphael, 2010).

Analysis

Ray Raphael gives the impression that he did do his homework, and gathered reputable sources to write this article. The author uses primary sources, for example, Joshua Wyeth, Dr. Thomas Young, newspaper cartoons, and letters from John Adams, along with sources such as historians from Tufts University to support his claims. Furthermore, the author dives rather deeply into each myth to provide lengthy reasons such as the first myth, the dispute was about higher taxes, to provide that higher taxes weren’t the case, “The immediate catalyst was a tax break—not a tax increase” (Raphael, 2010, p. 62). He further explains the whole reason as to why the tax was lowered and why this was the beginning of Americans having enough of no “taxation without representation” from parliament. The article surely gives a clear picture of how and why every event led up to the Boston Tea Party, nonetheless, bias is sound through the article as well. Ray Raphael paints a negative view of parliament, explaining that “Tea was an easy target, a symbol both of Parliament's arrogance and a crumbling social hierarchy” (Raphael, 2010, p. 63). As American citizens, it’s easy to understand Raphael’s point of view, though the article is missing parliaments and Britain’s point of view, along with British citizens’ views as well. At this time Britain had grown to be a powerful world leader, especially after defeating the French, “the Royal Navy engaged in a long struggle with the French navy for maritime supremacy, leading Britain to victory over France in four separate wars between 1688 and 1763” (Ray, 2021). And if you know a thing or two about this time, land and military were what made you the most powerful, therefore this explains why Britain had such a hold on American colonies because losing them and giving them power would show their weakness. For that reason, is why this information or a perspective from Britain would more of an unbiased view from both sides. 

Application 

Many educators do not dive this deep into the history of the Boston Tea Party, which is why the article was probably written and published. A general population of Americans does not know the whole story of why Americans revolted against the British, which is why the three main points explained why it wasn’t about higher taxes, why the taxes weren’t a burden on ordinary Americans, and why it didn’t unify Americans. After reading this article, it’ll probably change your view on the Boston Tea Party as a whole because history can be misconstrued and some educators might just want to get the point across and move on. Ray Raphael even explains that “a new generation of chroniclers toned down the truly revolutionary aspects of the action against tea and played up the carnival atmosphere. More than 50 years after the event was over, it was informally christened the Boston Tea Party” (Raphael, 2010, p. 65). This just goes to show that this act was downplayed for children throughout early education, throughout generations, and even today. The Boston Tea Party mostly was never given the kind of spotlight it deserved to accurately paint the picture into Americans’ minds. In addition, this part of history is extremely important because this is a key factor in why and how America became America, this was and is a tremendously heroic act of patriotism that has sadly seemed to fade throughout the minds of Americans throughout the generations.

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