As the eighteenth century progressed the American colonies had been growing more and more independent from their British mother county, and after King George III’s costly French and Indian War, his government planned to recoup its monetary losses and to regain control over the colonies by taxing them. Through a series of acts, 1765 Stamp Act, the 1767 Townsend Acts, and the 1770 Boston Massacre, the colonies grew even more dissatisfied with the government of the England. But the king’s levy of taxation on tea became the last insult, the one that would not be tolerated, the one that is recognized as the beginning of the American Revolution against England.

The recalcitrant colonies had refused pay the taxes imposed by the Townsend Acts, because they claimed it to be taxation with representation. So the English Parliament hatched a plan to tax the colonies supposedly on the sly. The parliament actually reduced the duty on tea that the colonies would be required to pay, but the colonists were not fooled. They realized that paying any duty on imported tea would be recognizing England’s right to tax them.

Tea was as important to the colonies during that historical time frame as coffee is to contemporary America. The king thought the colonists would rather pay a tax than do without their tea. The king was wrong, as the following lines from a poem attest:

No more shall my teapot so generous be
In filling the cups with this pernicious tea,
For I'll fill it with water and drink out the same,
Before I'll lose LIBERTY that dearest name . . .

In early December 1773 the East India Company brought shipments of tea to the colonies. At Philadelphia and New York the ships were not permitted to dock. In Charleston, the tea was stored in warehouses. Boston allowed three ships to dock, and fierce opposition broke out among the Bostonians.

Early in the day December 16, 1773, a meeting was held at the Old South Meeting House, and it was decided that no tax would be paid for the cargo and that the ships should leave Boston Harbor. Later that day a large crowd of about 5000 people congregated near the wharf where the ships sat idle. A group of citizens took the demand for the ships to leave to the Customs House, but the tax collector at the Customs house refused to let the ships leave without payment of the tax.

After the group reported back that the ships would not be leaving without payment, a group of about 200 citizens dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded the ships and dumped about 350 cartons of Darjeeling into the harbor.

For an eyewitness account from a participant in the Boston Tea Party, please visit The History Place.

Reference:
The Boston Tea Party, 1773 - a brief history
“A Lady's Adieu to Her Tea-Table” - features a poem affirming liberty

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Books by Linda Sue Grimes:
Jiggery-Jee's Eden Valley Stories
Singing in the Silence: Poems of Faith
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