Tea Parties

The Great American Tea Party

Date: April 15, 2009



Reason:
Irresponsible fiscal policies and intrusive government

Events:
On April 15th, hundreds of thousands of citizens gathered in more than 800 cities to voice their opposition to out of control spending at all levels of government. Organized in all 50 states by Americans from all walks of life, these "tea parties" were a true grassroots protest.

Outcome:
1. The mainstream media has accused these citizens of racism and many other offensive names.
2. This is not the end of the tea parties, but just the beginning! As I write this the movement is growing.
3. FOX news channel has been blamed for backing these tea parties, although all they have done is fairly cover it and the reasons behind it by interviewing many participants.


The Boston Tea Party

Date: December 16, 1773












Reason:
The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act for a variety of reasons, especially because they believed that it violated their constitutional right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives.

It wasn’t just the tea tax, protestors were concerned with a variety of other issues such as the Molasses tax, Wool tax, Navigation tax, and so on (see reference links below). The familiar "no taxation without representation" argument, along with the question of the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies

Events:
1. A group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor.
2. Protestors had successfully prevented the unloading of taxed tea in three other colonies.
3. Samuel Adams 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.

Outcome:
1. The Boston Tea Party was a key event in the growth of the American Revolution.
2. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, closed Boston's commerce until the British East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea.
3. Colonists in turn responded to the Coercive Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress, which petitioned for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them.
4. The crisis escalated, and the American Revolutionary War began near Boston in 1775.

Links to Regulations by the British Parliament put on the Colonies:

Molasses Act
Navigation Act
Wool Act
Hat Act
Iron Act
Sugar Act
Currency Act
Stamp Act
Quartering Act
Declaratory Act
Repeal Act 1
Repeal Act 2
Townsend Acts
Restraining Acts
Prohibitory Act
Taxation of Colonies Act