The Boston Tea Party

Day 109 / 365

Before America became independent in 1783, it used to be a group of 13 colonies under British rule. The first instance of protest against the British rule happened in Boston, Massachusetts in 1773, in an event that later came to be known as the Boston Tea Party. I had seen this protest referenced in pop culture multiple times and I knew this involved some people throwing tea out of a ship, but that was pretty much all I knew about it. So today I thought I would read up on it.

Why did the protest happen?

The British were in huge debt, and because of that, they were heavily taxing the colonies under their rule. One such tax was the tea tax. Tea was quite popular and the colonies consumed more than a million pounds of it every year. So this was a huge source of revenue for the British, and a huge pain for the people in the colonies.

The day of the protest

In December 1773, Three ships reached Boston carrying Tea from India and China. But thousands of protestors gathered at the wharf and refused to allow the ships to be unloaded.

That night, a few men dressed as Native Americans, got onto the ships and started throwing all the tea into the water. The ships had over 45 tonnes of tea combined, and this protest went on for about 3 hours till each and every ounce of the tea was thrown away.

This event had an inspirational effect all throughout America, and similar acts of protests were held in many other colonies. The British retaliated, creating acts and laws to punish the protestors. This, in turn, led to more protests, and it all escalated into the American Revolutionary War that began near Boston in 1775 and ended with the formation of the United States of America.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — The day when there was no news