8th grade

Chapter 5 Section 3

From Protest to Revolution
Chapter 5
Section 3
A Dispute Over Tea
• Tea was very popular
• “would rather go without dinner than without a dish of tea”
• Parliament Passes the Tea Act
– British East India Company supplied most of the tea to the colonies
– Tax tea…sat on boats unsold
– British merchants were allowed to sell tea
– Undercut the colonial merchants
– Colonists boycotted Tea Act buy continuing to buy colonial tea at a higher price
• A New Boycott
– Started drinking coffee and “Liberty Tea”
– Refused to allow British merchants to unload their cargo of tea
• Boston Tea Party
– November 1773 3 British ships reach Boston harbor
– Dec. 16th Sam Adams & Sons of Liberty demand ships leave the harbor
– They refuse
– Sons of Liberty dress like Indians and dump 342 chest of tea into Boston Harbor
• Parliament Strikes Back
– Colonists had mixed reactions to tea party
– Britain passes Intolerable Acts
• British ships blockade Boston Harbor until tea is paid for
• Town meetings forbidden
• British officials must be tried in Britain
• New Quartering Act
• Quebec Act
– Set up separate government for Canada
– Complete religious freedom for French Catholics
– Gave land in Ohio Valley to French Canadians
• Other Colonies Support Boston
– Smuggled food into Boston
– All Merchants closed in a show of unity
– First Continental Congress-
• Boycott of all British goods until Intolerable Acts were repealed
• Agreed to meet again on May 1775
• Encouraged each colony to setup a militia
• Militia- citizens that served as soldiers during an emergency
• Lexington and Concord
– Minutemen- men trained and ready to fight at a minutes notice
– British soldiers marched on Concord to seize a cache of arms stored there.
– Led by General Thomas Gage
– Supposed to be a surprise
– April 18th 700 British troops leave Boston
– Sons of Liberty watching
– 2 lamps hung in Old North Church-By sea
– Militia waited on banks of Charles River
– Day break on April 19th, near Lexington British commanders ordered militia to go home
– Militia disbanded and headed home
– Shot rang out from somewhere
– Fighting breaks out
– 8 militiamen killed
– British move on Concord
– British found nothing at Concord
– Supplies had been moved
– On the march back to Boston, militia, now larger waited for British
– 300 militiamen
– More fighting
– 73 British killed and 200 wounded
– Became know as the Battle of Lexington and Concord
– All hope of a peaceful solution was gone
– Only option…..WAR!