The Boston Tea PartyTurning Point towards

Rebellion?

Unit 3, Journal #3

Just how much is enough to force someone to rebel?

Provide at least one example to support your position.o This example can either be historical OR from your own

life.

Revolutionary Tea

Group Activity: Primary Document Analysis

Read the entire song aloud as a group

Answer the questions described under #2

Choose a narrator, actors, and recordero CREATE A SKIT!

Who are the players…?

“Old Lady”…..“Island Queen”

“Her daughter”…..“The Bouncing Girl”“Old Lady’s Pockets”…..

“Her Servants”…..

OLD LADY = BRITAIN

OLD LADY’S POCKETS= BRITAIN’S TREASURY

BOUNCING DAUGHTE

R = COLONIES

HER SERVANTS=

REPRESENTATIVES; ROYAL

GOVERNORS, TAX AGENTS,

ETC.

Revolutionary Tea

What makes this song significant?

Propaganda

• How can we define the word “propaganda”?

PROPAGANDA“information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help

or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.”

Supported by opinion – used to sway the public’s ideas on a topic.

• Where have we seen propaganda used before during the Road to Revolution? What about in our own lives?

Propaganda

• Is “Revolutionary Tea” an example of propaganda?

• What bias is shown in the song? Wealthy vs. poor – which is more accurate? Good vs. evil – who is described as innocent in

the poem? Who is the “angry, mean” character?

THINK – PAIR – SHARE

• Take two minutes to discuss with a partner how the BRITISH would re-write Revolutionary Tea from their perspective.

• Write the answers to the following questions in the space provided on your notesheet: How might the characters be re-written? What would the new story be about?

Taxation

Grenville Charles Townshend Lord Frederick North

• North realizes that the Townshend Acts cost Britain more to enforce than they received in profit Convinces Parliament to repeal Townshend Acts-

except for the tax on TEA

The Tea Act

• 1773- British East India Company (monopoly on tea imports) is hit hard by colonial boycotts from the Townshend Acts.

• Lord North issued the “Tea Act”: • Grants companies the right to sell tea to colonists without taxes• East India Company stopped using colonial merchants, and instead

sold directly to consumers to avoid taxes.• British tea was cheaper, but to buy it was to pay a Townshend duty

and cut out merchant profits!

• Instead of colonists accepting this new rule openly, they protested violently.

• Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty rounded up angry colonists to participate in a rebellion/protest of the Tea Act

• December 16, 1773- Boston rebels disguised as Native Americans

invade three British tea ships that are anchored in Boston Harbor.

These “Indians” dumped 300 chests (almost $2 million dollars worth in today’s money) of East India Company’s tea into the harbor.

The Boston Tea Party, 1773

I dressed myself in the costume of an Indian, equipped with a small hatchet, which I and my associates denominated the tomahawk, with which, and a club, after having painted my face and hands with coal dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin's wharf, where the ships lay that contained the tea...

We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of the water. In about three hours from the time we went on board, we had thus broken and thrown overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship, while those in the other ships were disposing of the tea in the same way, at the same time. We were surrounded by British armed ships, but no attempt was made to resist us.

– Anonymous, "Account of the Boston Tea Party by a Participant," (1773)

Indians Dump Tea Into Boston Harbor!

• Why Indians?? Destroying the tea was an act of treason; as a result

many men did disguise themselves as Indians to hide their identity.o Disguises can give people a sense of “freedom” to

behave without worrying about the consequences of their actions.

EQ

How could the Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party help to turn heads towards

Revolution?

Tea Act

BOSTON TEA

PARTY