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121-674: Both the December 16, 1773, Boston Tea Party and the Philadelphia incident were the result of Americans being upset about Great Britain 's decision to tax the American colonies despite a lack of representation in Parliament . The tax on tea particularly angered the colonists, so they boycotted English tea for several years, during which time merchants in several colonial cities resorted to smuggling tea from The Netherlands . It

242-622: A Founding Father , wrote in his diary on December 17, 1773, that the Boston Tea Party proved a historical moment in the American Revolution , writing: This is the most magnificent Movement of all. There is a Dignity, a Majesty, a Sublimity, in this last Effort of the Patriots , that I greatly admire. The People should never rise, without doing something to be remembered—something notable And striking. This Destruction of

363-865: A quorum . When the Articles of Confederation were superseded by the Constitution of the United States , the Confederation Congress was superseded by the United States Congress . The Confederation Congress ultimately established a suitable administrative structure for the Federal government, which placed into operation a federal government comprising three departments (finance, war, and foreign affairs), led by three ministers for each respective department. Robert Morris

484-719: A 1976 play by Allan Albert , and "Boston Tea Party", a 1976 song by the Sensational Alex Harvey Band from SAHB Stories . In the 2012 video game Assassin's Creed III , the Boston Tea Party is retold through a main story mission in Sequence 6. Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies , with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain in North America, and

605-587: A British navy ship enforcing British customs laws off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island . The Indemnity Act of 1767, which gave the East India Company a refund of the duty on tea that was re-exported to the colonies, expired in 1772. Parliament passed a new act in 1772 that reduced this refund, effectively leaving a 10% duty on tea imported into Britain. The act also restored the tea taxes within Britain that had been repealed in 1767, and left in place

726-581: A British newspaper compared the event to the Boston Tea Party. When Gandhi met with the Viceroy of India in 1930 after the Indian salt protest campaign, Gandhi took some duty-free salt from his shawl and said, with a smile, that the salt was "to remind us of the famous Boston Tea Party." American activists from a variety of political viewpoints have invoked the Tea Party as a symbol of protest. In 1973, on

847-590: A Gauntlet as will induce you, in your last Moments, most heartily to curse those who have made you the Dupe of their Avarice and Ambition. What think you, Captain, of a Halter around your Neck—ten Gallons of liquid Tar decanted on your Pate—with the Feathers of a dozen wild Geese laid over that to enliven your Appearance? Only think seriously of this—and fly to the Place from whence you came—fly without Hesitation—without

968-525: A New York merchant, went to Lord North with three other merchants and offered to pay for the losses, but the offer was turned down. The incident resulted in a similar effect in North America, when news of the Boston Tea Party reached London in January and Parliament responded with a series of acts known collectively in the colonies as the Intolerable Acts. These were intended to punish Boston for

1089-567: A chest marked "tea" and dumped it into the harbor. In 2006, a libertarian political party called the " Boston Tea Party " was founded. In 2007, the Ron Paul "Tea Party" money bomb , held on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, broke the one-day fund-raising record by raising $ 6.04 million in 24 hours. Subsequently, these fund-raising "Tea parties" grew into the Tea Party movement , which dominated conservative American politics for

1210-546: A comprehensive study places it near the foot of Hutchinson Street (today's Pearl Street). The property damage amounted to the destruction of 92,000 pounds (42,000 kg) or 340 chests of tea, reported by the British East India Company worth £9,659 (equivalent to £1,550,322 in 2023 ), or roughly $ 1,700,000 in today's money. The owner of two of the three ships was William Rotch, a Nantucket-born colonist and merchant. Another tea ship intended for Boston,

1331-474: A documentary, and a number of interactive exhibits. The museum features two replica ships of the period, Eleanor and Beaver . Additionally, the museum possesses one of two known tea chests from the original event, part of its permanent collection. The American Antiquarian Society holds in its collection a vial of actual tea-infused harbor water from 1773. The Boston Tea Party has been subject of several films: It has been subject of The Boston Tea Party ,

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1452-786: A dozen of them had served as speakers of the houses of their legislatures." The initial idea for the development of the Continental Congress, including the Thirteen Colonies in British America , first arose in 1754 at the start of the French and Indian War , which started as the North American front of the Seven Years' War between Britain and France . Initially known as the Albany Congress ,

1573-588: A large squadron of French warships under Comte de Grasse to the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina . These French warships were decisive at the Battle of Yorktown along the coast of Virginia by preventing Lord Cornwallis 's British troops from receiving supplies, reinforcements, or evacuation via the James River and Hampton Roads . Robert Morris, the Minister of Finance, persuaded Congress to charter

1694-460: A quasi- federation to fight for their freedom, the president functioned as head of state (not of the country, but of its central government). Otherwise, the office was "more honorable than powerful". Congress also elected a secretary, scribe, doorman, messenger, and Chaplain. The rules of Congress guaranteed the right to debate and open access to the floor for each delegate. Additionally, to ensure that each state would be on an equal footing with

1815-639: A serious financial crisis. The severe famine in Bengal from 1769 to 1773 had drastically reduced the revenue of the East India Company from India bringing the Company to the verge of bankruptcy and the Tea Act of 1773 was enacted to help the East India Company. Eliminating some of the taxes was one obvious solution to the crisis. The East India Company initially sought to have the Townshend duty repealed, but

1936-495: A shipment of tea, sent the ship back to England without unloading. The episodes escalated into the American Revolution , and the Boston Tea Party became an iconic event of American history. Since then other political protests such as the Tea Party movement have referred to themselves as historical successors to the Boston protest of 1773. The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against

2057-847: A showdown that eventually resulted in the Revolution , the associated War of Independence , and ultimately the end of British colonialization and the emergence of the United States as a sovereign nation. The Boston Tea Party was the second American tax revolt against the British royal authority, the first occurring in April 1772, in Weare , New Hampshire known as the Pine Tree Riot where colonialists protested heavy fines levied against them for harvesting trees. As Europeans developed

2178-611: A taste for tea in the 17th century, rival companies were formed to import the product from China , which was then governed by the Qing dynasty . In 1698, the British Parliament granted the East India Company a monopoly on the importation of tea. When tea became popular in the British colonies, Parliament sought to eliminate foreign competition by passing an act in 1721 that required colonists to import their tea only from Great Britain. The East India Company did not export tea to

2299-485: A violation of constitutional rights, natural rights , and colonial charters, and united many colonists throughout America. A number of colonists were inspired by the Boston Tea Party to carry out similar acts, such as the burning of Peggy Stewart . The Boston Tea Party eventually proved to be one of the many reactions that led to the American Revolutionary War. In February 1775, Britain passed

2420-598: A violation of their rights. In response, the Sons of Liberty, some disguised as Native Americans , destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company. The demonstrators boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into the Boston Harbor . The British government considered the protest an act of treason and responded harshly. Days later the Philadelphia Tea Party , instead of destroying

2541-506: Is a long-running debate on how effective the Congress was as an organization. The first critic may have been General George Washington . In an address to his officers, at Newburgh, New York , on March 15, 1783, responding to complaints that Congress had not funded their pay and pensions, he stated that he believed that Congress would do the army "complete justice" and eventually pay the soldiers. "But, like all other large Bodies, where there

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2662-552: Is a variety of different Interests to reconcile, their deliberations are slow." In addition to their slowness, the lack of coercive power in the Continental Congress was harshly criticized by James Madison when arguing for the need of a Federal Constitution . His comment in Vices of the Political System of April 1787 set the conventional wisdom on the historical legacy of the institution for centuries to come: A sanction

2783-542: Is an open attempt to enforce the ministerial plan, and a violent attack upon the liberties of America. Printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette , these declarations comprised the first public protest against the importation of taxed tea from England. In Boston three weeks later, a town meeting at Faneuil Hall declared "That the sense of this town cannot be better expressed than in the words of certain judicious resolves, lately entered into by our worthy brethren,

2904-406: Is essential to the idea of law, as coercion is to that of Government. The federal system being destitute of both, wants the great vital principles of a Political Cons[ti]tution. Under the form of such a Constitution, it is in fact nothing more than a treaty of amity of commerce and of alliance, between so many independent and Sovereign States. From what cause could so fatal an omission have happened in

3025-491: Is over". The British government felt this action could not remain unpunished, and responded by closing the port of Boston and putting in place other laws known as the " Intolerable Acts ." Benjamin Franklin stated that the East India Company should be paid for the destroyed tea, all ninety thousand pounds (which, at two shillings per pound, came to £9,000, or £1.44 million [2014, approx. $ 1.7 million US]). Robert Murray,

3146-659: The American Revolution , committees of correspondence began building the foundation for interaction between the thirteen colonial states. In 1765, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act requiring that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. The act provoked the ire of merchants in New York City , Boston , and Philadelphia , who responded by placing an embargo on British imports until

3267-527: The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union , came into force , and thus the body became what later was called the Congress of the Confederation. This unicameral governing body would convene in eight sessions before adjourning in 1789, when the 1st United States Congress under the new Constitution of the United States took over the role as the nation's legislative branch of government. Both

3388-669: The Bank of North America on December 31, 1781. Although a private bank, the Federal Government acquired partial ownership with money lent by France. The Bank of North America played a major role in financing the war against Great Britain . The combined armies of George Washington and Nathanael Greene , with the help of the French Army and Navy, defeated the British in the Battle of Yorktown during October 1781. Lord Cornwallis

3509-887: The Boston Massacre of 1770. Three years later, the Tea Act , which granted the British East India Company the right to directly ship its tea to North America and the right to the duty-free export of tea from Great Britain, became law, exacerbating the colonists' resentment toward the British government, inciting the December 1773 Boston Tea Party , and inspiring the September 1774 Suffolk Resolves . The First Continental Congress met briefly in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , from September 5 to October 26, 1774. Delegates from twelve of

3630-580: The British Parliament and many of their own colonial assemblies had powerful speakers of the house and standing committees with strong chairmen, with executive power held by the British Monarch or the colonial Governor. However, the organization of the Continental Congress was based less on the British Parliament or on local colonial assemblies than on the 1765 Stamp Act Congress. Nine delegates to that congress were in attendance at

3751-738: The British Parliament following the Boston Tea Party . The First Congress met for about six weeks, mainly to try to repair the fraying relationship between Britain and the colonies while asserting the rights of colonists , proclaiming and passing the Continental Association , which was a unified trade embargo against Britain, and successfully building consensus for establishment of a second congress. The Second Continental Congress convened in 1775, soon after hostilities broke out in Massachusetts . Soon after meeting,

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3872-579: The Conciliatory Resolution , which ended taxation for any colony that satisfactorily provided for the imperial defense and the upkeep of imperial officers. The tax on tea was repealed with the Taxation of Colonies Act 1778 , part of another Parliamentary attempt at conciliation that failed. John Adams and many other Americans considered tea drinking to be unpatriotic following the Boston Tea Party. Tea drinking declined during and after

3993-662: The Dartmouth to leave without paying the duty. Two more tea ships, Eleanor and Beaver , arrived in Boston Harbor. On December 16 – the last day of Dartmouth 's deadline – approximately 5,000 –7,000 people out of an estimated population of 16,000 had gathered around the Old South Meeting House. After receiving a report that Governor Hutchinson had again refused to let the ships leave, Adams announced that "This meeting can do nothing further to save

4114-597: The Intolerable Acts , or Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, ended local self-government in Massachusetts and closed Boston's commerce . Colonists throughout the Thirteen Colonies responded to the Intolerable Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia , which petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them, culminating in

4235-600: The Pennsylvania . Peyton Randolph of Virginia was its president. Benjamin Franklin put forward the idea of such a meeting the year before, but he was unable to convince the colonies of its necessity until the Royal Navy instituted a blockade of Boston Harbor and Parliament passed the punitive Intolerable Acts in 1774, in response to the Boston Tea Party . During the congress, delegates organized an economic boycott of Great Britain in protest and petitioned

4356-568: The Polly and escorted Ayres to the city. Two days later, there was a mass meeting of 8,000 Philadelphians in the State House yard to address the situation. This was the largest crowd assembled in the American colonies up to that point. A number of resolutions were adopted, the first one being "that the tea... shall not be landed." It was further determined that the tea should be refused and that

4477-618: The Second Continental Congress became the Congress of the Confederation , which was officially styled as the "United States in Congress Assembled", a unicameral body composed of delegates from the several states. A guiding principle of the Articles was to preserve the independence and sovereignty of the states. The weak central government established by the Articles received only those powers which

4598-660: The Thirteen Colonies that would ultimately join in the Revolutionary War participated. Only Georgia , where Loyalist feelings still outweighed Patriotic emotion, and which relied upon Great Britain for military supplies to defend settlers against possible Indian attacks, did not, nor did East and West Florida, which at the time were also British colonies . Altogether, 56 delegates attended, including George Washington , Patrick Henry , and John Adams . Other notable delegates included Samuel Adams from Massachusetts Bay and Joseph Galloway and John Dickinson from

4719-547: The William , ran aground at Cape Cod in December 1773, and its tea was taxed and sold to private parties. In March 1774, the Sons of Liberty received information that this tea was being held in a warehouse in Boston, entered the warehouse and destroyed all they could find. Some of it had already been sold to Davison, Newman and Co. and was being held in their shop. On March 7, Sons of Liberty once again dressed as Mohawks, broke into

4840-419: The 1980s accepted the conventional interpretation on the weakness of the Congress due to the lack of coercive power. They explored the role of leadership , or rather the lack of it, in the Continental Congress. Going beyond even Madison's harsh critique, they used the "analytical stance of what has come to be called the new institutionalism " to demonstrate that "the norms, rules, and institutional structures of

4961-399: The 200th anniversary of the Tea Party, a mass meeting at Faneuil Hall called for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon and protested oil companies in the ongoing oil crisis . Afterwards, protesters boarded a replica ship in Boston Harbor, hanged Nixon in effigy, and dumped several empty oil drums into the harbor. In 1998, two conservative US Congressmen put the federal tax code into

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5082-559: The 343 serving delegates, only 55% (187 delegates) spent 12 or more months in attendance. Only 25 of the delegates served longer than 35 months. This high rate of turnover was not just a characteristic, it was due to a deliberate policy of term limits . In the Confederation phase of the Congress, "no delegate was permitted to serve more than three years in any six". Attendance was variable: while in session, between 54 and 22 delegates were in attendance at any one time, with an average of only 35.5 members attending between 1774 and 1788. There

5203-530: The Articles of Confederation? From a mistaken confidence that the justice, the good faith, the honor, the sound policy, of the several legislative assemblies would render superfluous any appeal to the ordinary motives by which the laws secure the obedience of individuals: a confidence which does honor to the enthusiastic virtue of the compilers, as much as the inexperience of the crisis apologizes for their errors. Political scientists Calvin Jillson and Rick Wilson in

5324-460: The British government rather than allowing them to be accountable to the colonists. Another possible solution for reducing the growing mound of tea in the East India Company warehouses was to sell it cheaply in Europe. This possibility was investigated, but it was determined that the tea would simply be smuggled back into Great Britain, where it would undersell the taxed product. The best market for

5445-520: The British were trying to use cheap tea to "overcome all the patriotism of an American," in the words of Benjamin Franklin . Word was received in North America by September, 1773, that East India Company tea shipments were on their way. Philadelphians held a town meeting on October 16 at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall ). This meeting was organized by Dr. Benjamin Rush , Colonel William Bradford , Thomas Mifflin , Dr. Thomas Cadwalader , and other local leaders and members of

5566-423: The Confederation Congress: Under the Articles of Confederation, the Confederation Congress had little power to compel the individual states to comply with its decisions. More and more prospective delegates elected to the Confederation Congress declined to serve in it. The leading men in each State preferred to serve in the state governments, and thus the Continental Congress had frequent difficulties in establishing

5687-410: The Congress met in Albany, New York from June 18 to July 11, 1754, and representatives from seven of the thirteen colonies attended. Among the delegates was Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia , who proposed that the colonies join in a confederation . Though the idea of a confederation was rejected, Franklin and others continued to argue that the colonies should act more cohesively. At the beginning of

5808-404: The Congress met predominantly at what is today Independence Hall in Philadelphia , though it was relocated temporarily on several occasions during the Revolutionary War and the fall of Philadelphia . The First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in 1774 in response to escalating tensions between the colonies and the British, which culminated in passage of the Intolerable Acts by

5929-437: The Continental Congress" were equally to blame "for the institution's eventual failure", and that the "institutional structure worked against, rather than with, the delegates in tackling the crucial issues of the day." Historian Richard P. McCormick suggested that Madison's "extreme judgment" on the Congress was "motivated no doubt by Madison's overriding desire to create a new central government that would be empowered to veto

6050-409: The East India Company compete with smuggled Dutch tea, Parliament passed the Indemnity Act , which lowered the tax on tea consumed in Great Britain and gave the East India Company a refund of the 25% duty on tea that was re-exported to the colonies. To help offset this loss of government revenue, Parliament also passed the Townshend Revenue Act of 1767, which levied new taxes, including one on tea, in

6171-431: The East India Company's surplus tea, so it seemed, was the American colonies, if a way could be found to make it cheaper than the smuggled Dutch tea. The North Ministry's solution was the Tea Act, which received the assent of King George on May 10, 1773. This act restored the East India Company's full refund on the duty for importing tea into Britain, and also permitted the company, for the first time, to export tea to

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6292-417: The First Congress in 1774, and their perspective on governance influenced the direction of both the Continental Congresses and the later Confederation Congress. Congress took on powers normally held by the British King-in-Council , such as foreign and military affairs. However, the right to tax and regulate trade was reserved for the states, not Congress. Congress had no formal way to enforce its ordinances on

6413-450: The First and Second Continental Congresses convened in Philadelphia , though when the city was captured during the Revolutionary War, the Second Congress was forced to meet in other locations for a time. The Congress of Confederation was also established in Philadelphia and later moved to New York City , which served as the U.S. capital from 1785 to 1790. Much of what is known today about the daily activities of these congresses comes from

6534-422: The Formality of a Protest—and above all, Captain Ayres, let us advise you to fly without the wild Geese Feathers. The flyer also warned river pilots that they would receive the same treatment if they tried to bring in the Polly . (Another such broadside specifically warning river pilots was later issued on December 7.) Consignees of the tea would also suffer dire consequences if they accepted shipment. Captain Ayres

6655-422: The King for a redress of grievances . The colonies were united in their effort to demonstrate to the mother country their authority by virtue of their common causes and their unity, but their ultimate objectives were inconsistent. Most delegates were not yet ready to break away from Great Britain, but they most definitely wanted the king and parliament to act in what they considered a fairer manner. Delegates from

6776-474: The North ministry was unwilling because such an action might be interpreted as a retreat from Parliament's position that it had the right to tax the colonies. More importantly, the tax collected from the Townshend duty was used to pay the salaries of some colonial governors and judges. This was in fact the purpose of the Townshend tax: previously these officials had been paid by the colonial assemblies, but Parliament now paid their salaries to keep them dependent on

6897-413: The October 1774 Continental Association . The crisis escalated, leading to the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, which marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War . Initially known as The Destruction of the Tea. The moniker "Boston Tea Party" gained popularity in the early 19th century as the event took on a legendary status in American history. The name succinctly captures

7018-426: The Philadelphia Sons of Liberty . They adopted eight resolutions, one of which stated: "That the duty imposed by Parliament upon tea landed in America is a tax on the Americans, or levying contributions on them without their consent." The most important one read: That the resolution lately entered into by the East India Company, to send out their tea to America subject to the payment of duties on its being landed here,

7139-405: The Revolution, resulting in a shift to coffee as the preferred hot drink. According to historian Alfred Young , the term "Boston Tea Party" did not appear in print until 1834. Before that time, the event was usually referred to as the "destruction of the tea". According to Young, American writers were for many years apparently reluctant to celebrate the destruction of property, and so the event

7260-413: The Second Congress sent the Olive Branch Petition to King George III , established the Continental Army , and elected George Washington commander of the new army. After the king issued the Proclamation of Rebellion in August 1775 in response to the Battle of Bunker Hill , some members of the Second Congress concluded that peace with Britain would not be forthcoming, and began working towards unifying

7381-408: The Sons of Liberty identified with America, over their official status as subjects of Great Britain. That evening, a group of 30 to 130 men, some dressed in the Mohawk warrior disguises, boarded the three vessels and, over the course of three hours, dumped all 342 chests of tea into the water. The precise location of the Griffin's Wharf site of the Tea Party has been subject to prolonged uncertainty;

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7502-438: The Stamp Act was repealed in March 1766. The colonists' resistance to the Stamp Act served as a catalyst for subsequent acts of resistance. The Townshend Acts , which imposed indirect taxes on various items not produced within the colonies, and created a more effective means of enforcing compliance with trade regulations, passed by Parliament in 1767 and 1768, sparked renewed animosity in the colonies, which eventually resulted in

7623-436: The Stamp Act was repealed. To present a united front in their opposition, delegates from several provinces met in the Stamp Act Congress , which convened in New York City from October 7 through 25, 1765. It issued a Declaration of Rights and Grievances , which it sent to Parliament . Under pressure from British companies hurt by the embargo, the government of Prime Minister Lord Rockingham and King George III relented, and

7744-438: The Tea Act, a tax passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act believing it violated their rights as Englishmen to " no taxation without representation ", that is, to be taxed only by their own elected representatives and not by a parliament in which they were not represented. The well-connected East India Company also had been granted competitive advantages over colonial tea importers, who resented

7865-420: The Tea Act. Another major concern for merchants was that the Tea Act gave the East India Company a monopoly on the tea trade, and it was feared that this government-created monopoly might be extended in the future to include other goods. In New York , Philadelphia , and Charleston protesters compelled the tea consignees to resign. In Charleston, the consignees had been forced to resign by early December, and

7986-443: The Tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important Consequences, and so lasting, that I cant but consider it as an Epocha in History. In Great Britain, even those politicians considered friends of the colonies were appalled and this act united all parties there against the colonies. The Prime Minister Lord North said, "Whatever may be the consequence, we must risk something; if we do not, all

8107-442: The Townshend tax, primarily because it was used to pay the salaries of colonial officials; maintaining the right of taxing the Americans was a secondary concern. According to historian Benjamin Labaree, "A stubborn Lord North had unwittingly hammered a nail in the coffin of the old British Empire." Even with the Townshend duty in effect, the Tea Act would allow the East India Company to sell tea more cheaply than before, undercutting

8228-775: The United States. Both Pennsylvania and Philadelphia were regarded as having been far more conservative before and during the Revolutionary War than the New England colonies and most of the Southern colonies—and this historic reputation persists to this day. But the Philadelphia Tea Party highlights that the radicals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania played a much more active role in the American Revolution than generally acknowledged. Cummins, Joseph. Ten Tea Parties: Patriotic Protests That History Forgot (Quirk Books, 2012) ISBN   1594745609 . Boston Tea Party [REDACTED] Great Britain Samuel Adams Paul Revere William Molineux and other " Sons of Liberty "... Thomas Hutchinson The Boston Tea Party

8349-403: The act of her citizens in sending back the tea ship, and that Massachusetts would have received her portion of the tea had not our example encouraged her to expect union and support in destroying it... The flame kindled on that day [October 16, 1773] soon extended to Boston and gradually spread throughout the whole continent. It was the first throe of that convulsion which delivered Great Britain of

8470-428: The acts of state legislatures," but that it fails "to take any notice of the fact that while the authority of the Confederation Congress was ambiguous, it was not a nullity". Benjamin Irvin in his social and cultural history of the Continental Congress, praised "the invented traditions by which Congress endeavored to fortify the resistance movement and to make meaning of American independence." But he noted that after

8591-553: The cargo (i.e. unload it onto American soil). The mass meeting passed a resolution, introduced by Adams and based on a similar set of resolutions promulgated earlier in Philadelphia , urging the captain of Dartmouth to send the ship back without paying the import duty. Meanwhile, the meeting assigned twenty-five men to watch the ship and prevent the tea – including a number of chests from Davison, Newman and Co. of London – from being unloaded. The colonial governor of Massachusetts, Governor Hutchinson , refused to grant permission for

8712-689: The citizens of Philadelphia." Indeed, Bostonians adopted the same resolutions that Philadelphians had promulgated earlier. The Boston Tea Party followed just a few weeks later, on December 16, 1773. On December 25, the British tea ship Polly sailed up the Delaware River and reached Chester, Pennsylvania . Commanded by one Captain Ayres, the ship carried 697 chests of tea consigned to the Philadelphia Quaker firm of James & Drinker. Several Philadelphia gentlemen proceeded to intercept

8833-622: The colonies into a new nation. The body adopted the Lee Resolution for Independence on July 2, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence two days later, on July 4, 1776, proclaiming that the former colonies were now independent sovereign states . The Second Continental Congress served as the provisional government of the U.S. during most of the Revolutionary War. In March 1781, the nation's first Frame of Government ,

8954-516: The colonies on its own account. This would allow the company to reduce costs by eliminating the middlemen who bought the tea at wholesale auctions in London. Instead of selling to middlemen, the company now appointed colonial merchants to receive the tea on consignment ; the consignees would in turn sell the tea for a commission. In July 1773, tea consignees were selected in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Charleston. The Tea Act in 1773 authorized

9075-492: The colonies. A controversy between Great Britain and the colonies arose in the 1760s when Parliament sought, for the first time, to impose a direct tax on the colonies for the purpose of raising revenue. Some colonists, known in the colonies as American patriots , objected to the new tax program, arguing that it was a violation of the British Constitution . Britons and British Americans agreed that, according to

9196-423: The colonies: four were bound for Boston, and one each for New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. In the ships were more than 2,000 chests containing nearly 600,000 pounds (270,000 kg) of tea. Americans learned the details of the Tea Act while the ships were en route, and opposition began to mount. Whigs, sometimes calling themselves Sons of Liberty, began a campaign to raise awareness and to convince or compel

9317-589: The colonies; by law, the company was required to sell its tea wholesale at auctions in England. British firms bought this tea and exported it to the colonies, where they resold it to merchants in Boston , New York , Philadelphia , and Charleston . Until 1767, the East India Company paid an ad valorem tax of about 25% on tea that it imported into Great Britain. Parliament laid additional taxes on tea sold for consumption in Britain. These high taxes, combined with

9438-634: The combination of locality (Boston), the commodity involved (tea), and the nature of the event (a political 'party' or gathering as a form of protest). The Boston Tea Party arose from two issues confronting the British Empire : the financial problems of the British East India Company and an ongoing dispute about the extent of Parliament's authority, if any, over the British American colonies without seating any elected representation. The North Ministry 's attempt to resolve these issues produced

9559-439: The consignees to resign, in the same way that stamp distributors had been forced to resign in the 1765 Stamp Act crisis. The protest movement that culminated with the Boston Tea Party was not a dispute about high taxes. The price of legally imported tea was actually reduced by the Tea Act of 1773. Protesters were instead concerned with a variety of other issues. The familiar "no taxation without representation" argument, along with

9680-438: The constitution, British subjects could not be taxed without the consent of their elected representatives. In Great Britain, this meant that taxes could only be levied by Parliament. Colonists, however, did not elect members of Parliament, and so American Whigs argued that the colonies could not be taxed by that body. According to Whigs, colonists could only be taxed by their own colonial assemblies. Colonial protests resulted in

9801-479: The country." According to a popular story, Adams's statement was a prearranged signal for the "tea party" to begin. However, this claim did not appear in print until nearly a century after the event, in a biography of Adams written by his great-grandson, who apparently misinterpreted the evidence. According to eyewitness accounts, people did not leave the meeting until 10–15 minutes after Adams's alleged "signal", and Adams in fact tried to stop people from leaving because

9922-406: The declaration, and John Adams was a leader in the debates in favor of its adoption. Afterward, the Congress functioned as the provisional government of the United States of America through March 1, 1781. To govern the war effort and to foster unity among the states , Congress created various standing committees to handle war-related activities, such as the committee of secret correspondence,

10043-480: The demands made by the colonies; however, it took no official notice of Congress's petitions and addresses. On November 30, 1774, King George III opened Parliament with a speech condemning Massachusetts and the Suffolk Resolves, prompting the Continental Congress to convene again. The Second Continental Congress convened on May 10, 1775, at Pennsylvania's State House in Philadelphia shortly after

10164-707: The destruction of private property, restore British authority in Massachusetts, and otherwise reform colonial government in America. Although the first three, the Boston Port Act , the Massachusetts Government Act and the Administration of Justice Act , applied only to Massachusetts, colonists outside that colony feared that their governments could now also be changed by legislative fiat in England. The Intolerable Acts were viewed as

10285-608: The fact that tea imported into the Dutch Republic was not taxed by the Dutch government, meant that Britons and British Americans could buy smuggled Dutch tea at much cheaper prices. The biggest market for illicit tea was England—by the 1760s the East India Company was losing £400,000 per year to smugglers in Great Britain —but Dutch tea was also smuggled into British America in significant quantities. In 1767, to help

10406-437: The former colonies had recognized as belonging to king and parliament. Congress had the power to declare war, sign treaties, and settle disputes between the states. It could also borrow or print money, but did not have the power to tax. It helped guide the United States through the final stages of the Revolutionary War, but steeply declined in authority afterward. During peacetime, there were two important, long-lasting acts of

10527-563: The journals kept by the secretary for all three congresses, Charles Thomson . Printed contemporaneously, the Journals of the Continental Congress contain the official congressional papers , letters, treaties, reports and records. The delegates to the Continental and Confederation congresses had extensive experience in deliberative bodies , with "a cumulative total of nearly 500 years of experience in their Colonial assemblies , and fully

10648-445: The meeting was not yet over. While Samuel Adams tried to reassert control of the meeting, people poured out of the Old South Meeting House to prepare to take action. In some cases, this involved donning what may have been elaborately prepared Mohawk costumes. While disguising their individual faces was imperative, because of the illegality of their protest, dressing as Mohawk warriors was a specific and symbolic choice. It showed that

10769-587: The modern congress run by powerful partisan hierarchies, but modern government and corporate entities, for all their coercive power and vaunted skills as 'leaders'." Looking at their mission as defined by state resolutions and petitions entered into the Congressional Journal on its first day, it found that on the common issues of the relief of Boston, securing Colonial rights, eventually restoring harmonious relations with Great Britain, and repealing taxes, they overachieved their mission goals, defeated

10890-487: The move and feared additional infringement on their business. Protesters had prevented the unloading of tea in three other colonies, but in Boston, embattled Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to Great Britain. The Boston Tea Party was a significant event that helped accelerate and intensify colonial support for the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with

11011-494: The much lower American duty. The resulting tax break allowed East India to sell tea for half the old price and cheaper than the price of tea in Great Britain, enabling the firm to undercut prices offered by colonial merchants and smugglers. The Tea Act infuriated colonials precisely because it was designed to lower the price of tea without officially repealing the tea tax of the Revenue Act of 1767. And colonial leaders thought

11132-548: The newly declared United States before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War . The Continental Congress refers to both the First and Second Congresses of 1774–1781 and at the time, also described the Congress of the Confederation of 1781–1789. The Confederation Congress operated as the first federal government until being replaced following ratification of the U.S. Constitution . Until 1785,

11253-637: The next two years, reaching its peak with a voter victory for the Republicans in 2010 who were widely elected to seats in the United States House of Representatives . In 2023, the December 16th 1773 organization hosted a 250th anniversary re-enactment of the Tea Party, putting an original bottle of tea on display. The Boston Tea Party Museum is located on the Congress Street Bridge in Boston. It features reenactments,

11374-449: The non-importation movement by October 1770. From 1771 to 1773, British tea was once again imported into the colonies in significant amounts, with merchants paying the Townshend duty of three pence (equivalent to £1.61 in 2023) per pound in weight of tea. Boston was the largest colonial importer of legal tea; smugglers still dominated the market in New York and Philadelphia. In the 1772 Gaspee affair , colonists attacked and burned

11495-506: The others, voting on ordinances was done en bloc , with each state having a single vote. Prior to casting its yay or nay vote, preliminary votes were taken within each state delegation. The majority vote determined here was considered the vote of the state on the motion; in cases of a tie the vote for the state was marked as divided, and was not counted. Turnover of delegates was high, with an average year-to-year turnover rate of 37% by one calculation, and 39% by session-to-session. Of

11616-420: The payment of the Townshend duty was politically sensitive, the company hoped to conceal the tax by making arrangements to have it paid either in London once the tea was landed in the colonies, or have the consignees quietly pay the duties after the tea was sold. This effort to hide the tax from the colonists was unsuccessful. In September and October 1773, seven ships carrying East India Company tea were sent to

11737-436: The prices offered by smugglers, but also undercutting colonial tea importers, who paid the tax and received no refund. In 1772, legally imported Bohea , the most common variety of tea, sold for about 3 shillings (3s) per pound, equal to £24.22 today. After the Tea Act, colonial consignees would be able to sell tea for 2 shillings per pound (2s), just under the smugglers' price of 2 shillings and 1 penny (2s 1d). Realizing that

11858-463: The provinces of Pennsylvania and New York were given firm instructions to pursue a resolution with Great Britain. While the other colonies all held the idea of colonial rights as paramount, they were split between those who sought legislative equality with Britain and those who instead favored independence and a break from the Crown and its excesses. In London, Parliament debated the merits of meeting

11979-407: The question of the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies, remained prominent. Samuel Adams considered the British tea monopoly to be "equal to a tax" and to raise the same representation issue whether or not a tax was applied to it. Some regarded the purpose of the tax program—to make leading officials independent of colonial influence—as a dangerous infringement of colonial rights. This

12100-886: The repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, but in the 1766 Declaratory Act , Parliament continued to insist that it had the right to legislate for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever". When new taxes were levied in the Townshend Revenue Act of 1767, American patriots again responded with protests and boycotts. Merchants organized a non-importation agreement, and many colonists pledged to abstain from drinking British tea , with activists in New England promoting alternatives, such as domestic Labrador tea . Smuggling continued apace, especially in New York and Philadelphia, where tea smuggling had always been more extensive than in Boston. Dutied British tea continued to be imported into Boston, however, especially by Richard Clarke and

12221-409: The shipment of 5,000 chests of tea (250 tons) to the American colonies. There would be a tax of £1,750 (equal to £283,000 today) to be paid by the importers when the cargo landed. The act granted the East India Company a monopoly on the sale of tea that was cheaper than smuggled tea; its hidden purpose was to force the colonists to pay a tax of 3 pennies on every pound of tea. The Tea Act thus retained

12342-432: The shop, and dumped the last remaining tea into the harbor. Whether or not Samuel Adams helped plan the Boston Tea Party is disputed, but he immediately worked to publicize and defend it. He argued that the Tea Party was not the act of a lawless mob, but was instead a principled protest and the only remaining option the people had to defend their constitutional rights. John Adams , Samuel's second cousin and likewise

12463-475: The sons of Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson , until pressure from Massachusetts Whigs compelled them to abide by the non-importation agreement. Parliament finally responded to the protests by repealing the Townshend taxes in 1770, except for the tea duty, which Prime Minister Lord North kept to assert "the right of taxing the Americans". This partial repeal of the taxes was enough to bring an end to

12584-401: The start of the Revolutionary War . Initially, it functioned as a de facto common government by raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties. The Thirteen Colonies were represented when in the following year it adopted a resolution for independence on July 2, 1776, and two days later approved the Declaration of Independence . Thomas Jefferson drafted

12705-449: The state governments. Delegates were responsible to and reported directly to their home state assemblies; an organizational structure that Neil Olsen has described as "an extreme form of matrix management ". Delegates chose a presiding president to monitor the debate, maintain order, and make sure journals were kept and documents and letters were published and delivered. After the colonies declared their independence in 1776 and united as

12826-399: The tea ship Dartmouth arrived in the Boston Harbor in late November, Whig leader Samuel Adams called for a mass meeting to be held at Faneuil Hall on November 29, 1773. Thousands of people arrived, so many that the meeting was moved to the larger Old South Meeting House . British law required Dartmouth to unload and pay the duties within twenty days or customs officials could confiscate

12947-404: The three pence Townshend duty in the colonies, equal to £1.61 today. With this new tax burden driving up the price of British tea, sales plummeted. The company continued to import tea into Great Britain, however, amassing a huge surplus of product that no one would buy. For these and other reasons, by late 1772 the East India Company, one of Britain's most important commercial institutions, was in

13068-493: The three pence Townshend duty on tea imported to the colonies. Some members of Parliament wanted to eliminate this tax, arguing that there was no reason to provoke another colonial controversy. Former Chancellor of the Exchequer William Dowdeswell , for example, warned Lord North that the Americans would not accept the tea if the Townshend duty remained. But North did not want to give up the revenue from

13189-486: The treasury board, the board of war and ordnance, and the navy board. Much work was also done in small ad hoc committees. One such small group was tasked with developing a constitution to perpetuate the new Union . Such an agreement, the Articles of Confederation was approved by Congress on November 15, 1777, and sent to the states for ratification . The Articles of Confederation came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all Thirteen Colonies , and

13310-568: The unclaimed tea was seized by customs officials. There were mass protest meetings in Philadelphia. Benjamin Rush urged his fellow countrymen to oppose the landing of the tea, because the cargo contained "the seeds of slavery". By early December, the Philadelphia consignees had resigned, and in late December the tea ship returned to England with its cargo following a confrontation with the ship's captain. The tea ship bound for New York City

13431-660: The vessel should make its way down the Delaware River and out of the Delaware Bay as soon as possible. Captain Ayres was probably influenced by a broadside issued by the self-constituted "Committee for Tarring and Feathering " that plainly warned him of his fate should he attempt to unload his ship's cargo. Dated November 27, the handbill read, in part: You are sent out on a diabolical Service; and if you are so foolish and obstinate as to complete your Voyage, by bringing your Ship to Anchor in this Port, you may run such

13552-426: The war's end, "Rather than passively adopting the Congress's creations, the American people embraced, rejected, reworked, ridiculed, or simply ignored them as they saw fit." An organizational culture analysis of the Continental Congress by Neil Olsen, looking for the values, norms, and underlying assumptions that drive an organization's decisions, noted that "the leaderless Continental Congress outperformed not only

13673-608: Was an American political and mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in colonial Massachusetts . The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the East India Company to sell tea from China in American colonies without paying taxes apart from those imposed by the Townshend Acts . The Sons of Liberty strongly opposed the taxes in the Townshend Act as

13794-563: Was compared to Boston's, the Philadelphia Tea Party was one of the incidents that led to the calling of the Continental Congress at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia the following September, which passed the Continental Association on October 20. Furthermore, in 1809, Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote to John Adams : I once heard you say [that] the active business of the American Revolution began in Philadelphia in

13915-424: Was delayed by bad weather; by the time it arrived, the consignees had resigned, and the ship returned to England with the tea. In every colony except Massachusetts , protesters were able to force the tea consignees to resign or to return the tea to England. In Boston, however, Governor Hutchinson was determined to hold his ground. He convinced the tea consignees, two of whom were his sons, not to back down. When

14036-448: Was especially true in Massachusetts, the only colony where the Townshend program had been fully implemented. Colonial merchants, some of them smugglers, played a significant role in the protests. Because the Tea Act made legally imported tea cheaper, it threatened to put smugglers of Dutch tea out of business. Legitimate tea importers who had not been named as consignees by the East India Company were also threatened with financial ruin by

14157-523: Was forced to sue for peace and to surrender his entire army to General Washington. During 1783, the Americans secured the official recognition of the independence of the United States from Great Britain following negotiations with British diplomats in Paris , which culminated with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783. The Treaty of Paris was later ratified by the British Parliament. Both

14278-484: Was generally known that Philadelphia merchants were greater smugglers of tea than their Boston counterparts. As a result, the East India Company appealed for financial relief to the British government, which passed the Tea Act on May 10, 1773. This Act of Parliament allowed the East India Company to sell tea to the colonies directly and without "payment of any customs or duties whatsoever" in England , instead paying

14399-416: Was selected as the new Superintendent of Finance, and then Morris secured a loan from the French government to deal with his empty treasury and also runaway inflation, for a number of years, in the supply of paper money. As the ambassador to France, Benjamin Franklin secured the loan for a common budget, and also persuaded France to send an army of about 6,000 soldiers to the United States and to dispatch

14520-619: Was ushered to the Arch Street Wharf and from there returned to his ship. He then refitted the Polly with food and water and sailed it back to Britain, still laden with its cargo of tea. Perhaps due to the Quaker influence in Philadelphia, the "Philadelphia Tea Party" was relatively nonviolent and did not cause loss to any innocent merchants, since no tea was destroyed. In fact, local merchants may have even helped Captain Ayres with his expenses in returning to England. Restrained as it

14641-508: Was usually ignored in histories of the American Revolution. This began to change in the 1830s, however, especially with the publication of biographies of George Robert Twelves Hewes , one of the few still-living participants of the "tea party", as it then became known. The Boston Tea Party has often been referenced in other political protests. When Mohandas Gandhi led a mass burning of Indian registration cards in South Africa in 1908,

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