The Boston Tea Party
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=433
General Information
Source:
NBC News
Resource Type:
Creator:
N/A
Copyright:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
1773
01/06/2007
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video MiniDocumentary
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
2007
00:03:16
Description
When several attempts to tax the American colonies fail, Britain attempts a compromise by taxing tea.
Colonial radicals led by Samuel Adams of Boston are incensed and dump the British tea into Boston
Harbor.
Keywords
Boston Tea Party, Sons of Liberty, Samuel Adams, Committees of Correspondence, Colonists, American
Revolution, British, Boston, Boston Harbor, East India Tea Company, Monopoly, Taxes, Governor
Thomas Hutchinson, Parliament, Intolerable Acts, Independence, Liberty
Citation
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1 of 3
MLA
"The Boston Tea Party." NBC News. NBCUniversal Media. 6 Jan. 2007. NBC Learn. Web. 2 April 2015
APA
2007, January 6. The Boston Tea Party. [Television series episode]. NBC News. Retrieved from
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=433
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"The Boston Tea Party" NBC News, New York, NY: NBC Universal, 01/06/2007. Accessed Thu Apr 2
2015 from NBC Learn: https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=433
Transcript
The Boston Tea Party
NARRATOR: The growing resentment of the colonists against British control culminated in a dramatic
display of rebellion in Boston Harbor called the Boston Tea Party. It all started in 1773 when Britain
wanted to save one of its prominent companies, the East India Tea Company, from bankruptcy. It allowed
that company to sell surplus tea directly to colonists, bypassing colonial merchants along the way.
The colonists were furious. As they saw it, Britain was trying to give a British company a monopoly on
American soil. And by bypassing the American tea merchants who traditionally collected taxes, it was
cheating the Americans out of money. The colonists decided to boycott East India tea. But for some
colonists a boycott didn’t go far enough.
Samuel Adams, one of the leaders of the Sons of Liberty, a vigilante group intent on protecting colonial
rights, saw the tax on tea as an opportunity to rally support against British rule. Adams had organized
groups of colonial patriots throughout the colonies to exchange information and monitor British activities.
They were called the Committees of Correspondence and would be crucial in setting up the Boston Tea
Party.
Mr. THOMAS FLEMING, author: Sam proceeded to set up these Committees of Correspondence. And
they started writing back and forth in the different Colonies saying we must stop this. He worked
everybody up into quite a state of anger. And when the tea finally arrived, the taxed tea from the East
India Company, Sam was ready.
NARRATOR: In Boston, the unpopular Governor Thomas Hutchinson, an American appointed by the
Crown, ordered the ships to remain in the harbor until the tea was unloaded. On December 16th, 1773,
Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty organized about 100 Bostonians, disguised themselves as Indians,
and boarded the ships.
FLEMING: They chopped open the tea, and threw it all into Boston Harbor, destroying quite a lot of
money.
NARRATOR: On lookers cheered as Boston Harbor became an enormous teapot. Governor Hutchinson
fled the city, never to return. Not a single ounce of the several thousand chests of tea shipped by the East
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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India Company ever reached colonial stores.
FLEMING: There were tea parties in other colonies, but nothing quite as dramatic, as expensive as the
Boston Tea Party.
NARRATOR: In Philadelphia and New York, mass demonstrations forced tea-bearing ships to return to
England with their cargo holds still full. In Annapolis, protesters burned both the tea and the ships,
chanting “Liberty and independence or death in pursuit of it.” Outside of Massachusetts, radical colonists
burned tea leaves in solidarity with Boston. Others shook their heads at the destruction of private property
and the breakdown of law. The British Parliament was outraged by this blatant act of rebellion and
proceeded to slap the colonists with a new set of laws called the Intolerable Acts. They were designed to
bring the Colonists to their knees but instead spurred them closer to the battle for independence.
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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