How did the colonists respond to the Tea Act?
CRISIS6. 1772-73: Crisis Renewed
Q. What will be the most effectual methods of proceeding to obtain a repeal of the said oppressive unconstitutional [tea] act? A. TO USE NO TEA, at least for the present, for if any person should give to the sellers more than the usual price for tea, he ought to be held up as a mortal enemy to American freedom. "An Old Prophet," "Queries Respecting the Tea Act," With Parliament's repeal of most of the Townshend duties, and as the shock of the Boston Massacre eased, an uneasy peace existed for two years. But in 1772 two policy moves by Britain spurred virulent protest in the colonies. First, Britain removed the colonies' authority to pay the salaries of the royal governors, judges, and other officials, thereby obliterating the most potent tool the colonies held to influence royal officials—the "power of the purse." Second, Britain threatened to send Americans accused of destroying a British ship to England for trial, thereby holding hostage a long-cherished right of Englishmen —the right to trial by a jury of one's peers. The cycle of action and reaction was rekindled, to ignite explosively in 1773 with a seemingly innocuous tax on tea. "Why, we may ask, did this convulsive reaction occur," posits historian Robert Middlekauff, "destroying private property, provoking a fresh defiance of Parliament, and once more pulling American colonies together?"1 We pursue this question with readings that illustrate the colonists' renewed sense of crisis, vulnerability, and rebellion from 1772 to early 1774.
Discussion Questions
Framing Questions
PrintingBoston Committee of Correspondence, The "Boston Pamphlet" Supplemental SitesThe "Boston Pamphlet," 1772, full text as digital images, with page-by-page transcriptions (Massachusetts Historical Society) Bedford, Massachusetts, responds to the "Boston Pamphlet" (Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities) Rev. John Allen, Oration upon the Beauties of Liberty, 1772, full text with extensive footnotes (Gaspee Virtual Archives) Non-Importation Agreements of 1773 (Avalon Project, Yale Law School)
The Coming of the American Revolution, 1764-1776 (Massachusetts Historical Society)
The American Revolution, overviews and primary sources (American Memory, Library of Congress)
Primary documents in History Matters (George Mason University & the City University of New York)
The Road to Revolution (American Revolution, Digital History, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History et al.) The Revolutionary War, primary documents (Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History) "Was the American Revolution Inevitable?," not-to-miss teachable essay by Prof. Francis D. Cogliano, University of Edinburgh (BBC) Teaching the Revolution, valuable overview essay by Prof. Carol Berkin, Baruch College (CUNY) General Online Resources 1Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789, vol. II in The Oxford History of the United States, C. Vann Woodward, ed., (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982, paperback ed., 1985), p. 221. Images: Banner image: Americans Throwing the Cargoes of the Tea Ships into the River, at Boston, engraving (detail), in W. D. Rev. Mr. Cooper, The History of North America (London: E. Newbery, 1789). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-538 (also Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Digital ID us0012_01). Courtesy of the Library of Congress. *PDF file - You will need software on your computer that allows you to read and print Portable Document Format (PDF) files, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have this software, you may download it FREE from Adobe's Web site. |