The Boston Tea Party
By Miranda
The Boston Tea Party was a very important part of American history. Most people don't know that it is what lead to the Revolutionary War and American freedom.
When the French-Indian war happened, England was in a lot of debt. So England decided to put taxes on the Americans to get the money they needed. First, they made the Stamp Act were you had to buy stamps for all the pieces of paper or even playing cards. The people in America were very angry because they had no say in how much the taxes were or who had to pay them. The people started fighting in the streets and tearing the stamps of all the paper. Later they removed the Stamp Tax and created the Townshend Act.
The Townshend Act taxed all tea, paint, lead, paper, and glass. The people were more angry than before. Some people stopped buying all the things that were taxed. A man named Samuel Adams formed a group of young and old men called the Sons of Liberty. They fought to get the tax off the people of America. Some of the women even formed a group called the Daughters of Liberty, who decided to make sure to not buy anything from England. They made homebrewed tea called Liberty Tea, and they handspun some cloth to make clothes out of.
Then the king of England decided to send the Redcoats (British Soldiers) to America. There were many fights in the streets between the Redcoats and the Americans. The worst one was the Boston Massacre. On March 5, 1770, a fight broke out in the streets and a soldier called for backup. When they arrived, more people were there and the fight got worse, then someone from the crowd yelled "Fire!", thinking it was the officer, one of the soldiers shot his gun and the others followed. In the end 5 people died and 9 more were injured. That day, the king of England took off all tax except the tea tax. He was in for a surprise when he heard of the Boston massacre.
When the king heard about the Boston Massacre, he sent three ships full of tea to Boston harbor. They reached the harbor on November 28, 1773 . The Sons of Liberty held a meeting and decided to get rid of all the tea. So on December 16, 1773, the sons of liberty dressed as Indians and went to the harbor with axes. Once everyone was there they went aboard the ships to destroy the tea. They took their axes, split all the crates of tea open, and poured it into the sea. The Sons of Liberty made sure that only the tea was harmed and they left the ships to go home.
When the news of the Boston Tea Party had reached England, the king was furious with the people in Boston. He closed all the docks in Boston and made sure the no ships could get in. The other colonies sent supplies to Boston so the people would not die. There were still other tea parties in the colonies, and some left the tea to rot on the harbors.
A year after the Boston Tea Party, the Revolutionary War started and soon America was free. The Americans finally got their freedom.
Bibliography
· America Land I Love By Kurt A. Grussendoff, Michael R. Lowman, Brian S. Ashbaugh
· The Boston Tea Party By Dennis Fradin
· The Boston Tea Party By Trudi Trueit
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