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(Just in case you can't see the link)
Mallory Goodwin
May
November 26, 2016

The Boston Tea Party
The English Colonist Fight Against British Taxation

For over 200 years Americans have come together to celebrate our freedom on July 4th, the day the Declaration of Independence was signed, but we sometimes forget to think about the hundreds of men and women (who were disguised as men) who landed their lives out on the line so that we could have the freedoms that we do today. Most of us as Americans only remember the fighting that took place once the American Revolution took off and tend to forget the events that led up to the english colonists fighting back against the British. We hear about the killings and the deaths but again we as Americans never really focus on the major events that led up to the start of the Revolution. The English Colonists had been dealing with the British unfairly taxing them for years and didn't really do anything about it. They sent letters to England to express their grief of being taxed without representation but the British didn't listen. The only thing the English Colonists did was tar British tax collectors. This act was known as tarring. But the taxes kept coming. Then came to Boston Massacre which took place at night were english colonists teased and threw things at British soldiers. No fighting took place until a someone on the British side accidentally fired. Again the English Colonists really didn't do anything the get the British to stop with the taxation. Then came the Tea Act. The Tea Act was passed to help the East India Company reduce the amount of tea they had. When word got through to the colonists they were furious that they were being taxed on tea. They had already boycott buying British goods and then the events with the Boston Massacre yet they were still being taxed. This was the final straw for the colonists
The colonists wanted the taxation to stop. The colonists even met with the Chief Justice of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson who refused to cooperate with the peoples demands. Samuel Adams left the meeting declaring “This meeting can do nothing more to save the country.” With that Adams then addressed the thousands of colonists that met at the Old South Meeting House where Samuel Adams closed the meeting by saying “make Boston Harbor a teapot tonight!” and this was the Sons of Liberties signal to carry out their plan. On December 16th, 1773 Samuel Adams led the Sons of Liberty to Boston Harbor where they were disguised as Mohawk Indians and boarded three East India Company ships and dumped crates of tea into Boston Harbor.  That night the Sons of Liberty destroyed 92,000 pounds of tea. The British did not intend to anger the colonists with the tea act they were just trying to get the East India Company out of a massive debt. But because of the unpopular policies and taxes imposed by the British on the American Colonies the colonists were done with the British taxing them. This was the English Colonists first true stand against the British where the colonists actually fought back against a tax. They didn't send anyone to England or boycott buying British goods they took matters into their own hands and went to the source of the problem itself which in this case was the East India Company’s ships that were carrying loads of tea. This of course angered the British sparking up several new acts to pass after this major event.
The start of the unfair taxation lit a fire inside the colonists but no one knew how to act on it to really get the British’s attention until the Boston Tea Party because the colonists never did something this massive. The colonist made the group the Sons of Liberty to protect the liberty of other colonists but they never really did anything to really let the British know that they were unhappy. But with the tea act being put into place the Colonists said enough and the Sons of Liberty jumped into action to defend the liberty of their fellow colonists. That final tax, that final straw let the spark that the colonists had in them the spark to fight, the spark of anger, the spark of justice it let that spark free which drove the colonists to show the British that they weren't going to take being taxed anymore and the more the British tried to fight back against the colonist the stronger the spark got. The British let loose the drive that the Colonist had during the revolution free all because of a tax on tea and the colonists carried that spark and that drive with them through till the very end of the revolution.
It is because of that spark, that fighting instinct, that drive that we have our freedom today. Most Americans today still have that drive and the fighting instinct and that spark. Its the one thing that makes America well America. We had a dream to be independent after being treated so poorly. As Americans we strive to never give up and it is because of the events of the Boston Tea Party that gave the colonists and the Americans today that spark to fight and the drive that all Americans have to chase our dreams. Now people come to America to live the American dream but no one really knows what that dream is. However finding the American dream wouldn't have been possible without the colonists, the first Americans having that fire and that drive that they did to fight for what they thought was right.

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News Paper Article from the Boston Tea Party 

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News Paper Article from the Boston Tea Party 

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Gran, Gary. "Mapleridgewind Pictures Gallery." Mapleridgewind Pictures Gallery. N.p., 18 Sept. 2016. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.

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Map of British Ship Routes from The Boston Tea Party 

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Map of British Ship Routes from The Boston Tea Party 

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"Boston Tea Party Secret Meetings | Planning the Boston Tea Party." Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum. Boston Tea Party Ships and Museums, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.

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"5. Boston Tea Party." TheRoadtoRevolution - 5. Boston Tea Party. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.

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Boston Tea-party." Three Cargoes of Tea Destroyed. Dec. 16, 1773." "Boston Tea-party." Three Cargoes of Tea Destroyed. Dec. 16, 1773. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.