The Boston Tea Party

1. The Boston Tea Party

2. The British Government had placed a tax on tea, and were forcing the Colonists to buy tea from the British East India Company.The Tea Act caused great resentment among the colonists because it caused more tax and a monopoly on imported tea.

3. The Colonists asked the Tea Consignees to leave without a payment of a tax. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party

4. In every colony but Massachusetts, the Tea Consignees left. However, the Governor of Massachusetts refused to let the Tea Consignees leave and was going to force the boats to unload their tea.

5. The people of Boston resented this and held a meeting to come up with a plan.

6. On December 16, 1773, colonists known as the “Sons of Liberty” finally took action against the British Government.

7. Several colonists dressed as Indians, boarded three ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it overboard into the Boston Harbor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party

8. About 90,000 pounds of tea was dumped overboard in 342 containers at Griffin's Wharf .

9. This took them about three hours to dump all of the tea.

10. The three ships were the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver.Interesting fact:These ships were actually American ships, not British ships.

11. Most importantly, when the tea was thrown overboard, the spark for the War for Independence had been lit. This was the beginning 0f the American Revolution.

12. Sources: • http://www.boston-tea-party.org/ • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party • http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/teaparty.htm • http://www.kidport.com/reflib/usahistory/americanrevolution/teaparty.htm • Powerpoint Clip art