What did the american colonists think the tea act was really for? (explain in one or two sentences)
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By the People: A History of the United States, AP EditionJames W. Fraser 496 solutions The Tea ActIn 1773, a relative calm existed between the British government and her colonial subjects. British soldiers remained in America after the tumultuous years of the Stamp Act, and the Boston Massacre, and the Townshend duties had been repealed, except for the tax on tea. A new act of Parliament, designed to help a struggling trading company, would fuel the next growing conflict between the American colonies and the British government. The East India Company, once one of England’s oldest and most successful trading companies, faced economic collapse in the years following the Seven Years War. The high annual payment the company was required to pay the British government was a factor in the company’s financial problems. The company enjoyed many friends in the government, and responding to pleas for governmental assistance, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act in May 1773 to help the company. This act eliminated the customs duty on the company’s tea and permitted its direct export to America. Though the company’s tea was still subject to the Townshend tax, dropping the customs duty would allow the East India Company to sell its tea to Americans for less than smuggled Dutch tea. Though Parliament did not pass the Tea Act as a revenue measure, patriot leaders saw the act as a cunning way to get the Americans to pay the hated Townshend duty on tea by undercutting the price of smuggled Dutch tea. Many colonial leaders feared that the colonists would buy the company’s tea if it made it to shore and submit to the payment of the tea tax. This would undercut their claim that only colonial legislatures could tax the colonies. Ships carrying the company’s tea arrived in Philadelphia and New York but chose to return to England without unloading rather than face angry mobs. In Massachusetts, however, the Royal Governor refused to allow the ships carrying the company’s tea to leave the harbor without first paying the duty on the tea. The Boston Tea PartyW.D. Cooper. “Americans throwing the cargoes of the Teaships into the river, at Boston,” History of North Americas, London, 1789. London: E. Newberry, 1789. Engraving. Plate opposite p. 58. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. On the night of December 16, 1773, patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded ships in the Boston harbor and destroyed 342 chests of East India Company tea. This was a large loss for the East India Company, worth well over $1,000,000 today. The men’s disguises were not meant to be convincing. They were used to hide the men’s identities, but in the small town of Boston where a light disguise couldn’t truly mask a person’s identity, they would have communicated to onlookers to keep the men’s identities to themselves. The choice of disguise as Mohawk Indians also symbolized that the men were American, not Englishmen, and played on the idea that America’s indigenous people lived as far from monarchy as possible. The Boston Tea Party inspired other similar actions, notably in Edenton, North Carolina and Yorktown, Virginia. News of the destruction of the tea caused outrage in England. Parliament responded by closing the port of Boston in June of 1774 along with issuing the Coercive Acts. With these punitive acts, the colonies had one more reason to resent Parliament and moved a step closer to declaring their independence. Further Reading:
What did the American colonists think the Tea Act was really for quizlet?The British thought the colonist would be pleased with the Tea Act because the price of tea was lowered. Why did the colonist resent the Tea act? The colonist resented the Tea Act because if the Parliament could monopoly the East India Company then they could do it to other companies.
What did colonists claim was the real purpose of the Tea Act?The act's main purpose was not to raise revenue from the colonies but to bail out the floundering East India Company, a key actor in the British economy. The British government granted the company a monopoly on the importation and sale of tea in the colonies.
How did the American colonists respond to the Tea Act?Tea Act. By reducing the tax on imported British tea, this act gave British merchants an unfair advantage in selling their tea in America. American colonists condemned the act, and many planned to boycott tea.
Why did the colonists think the Tea Act was unfair?The colonists resisted the Tea Act more because it violated the constitutional principle of self-government by consent than because they could not afford the tax, which had existed since the passage of the 1767 Townshend Revenue Act.
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