From Protest to Rebellion

The Boston Tea Party

The Tea Act - 1773• During the early 1770s, the colonies’ protests

quieted down• However, in 1773 England passed the Tea Act• The act was meant to help the British East India

Company and actually lowered tea prices• Colonists were angry because this created a

monopoly and hurt colonial merchants. In short, it kept other country’s tea out of the colonies.

• The colonists responded with the Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party – 1773

• Organized by the Sons of Liberty• Sons of Liberty was an organization formed to

protest the abuse of the colonies by the Crown.

• Famous members: Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere.

• Many ships in the harbor full of tea; the colonists, in protest of the Tea Act, refused to unload the ships. Sons of Liberty dressed like Native Americans, and dumped most of the tea into the harbor.

The Intolerable/Coercive Acts

• Britain’s response to the Boston Tea Party was to pass the Intolerable Acts • Port of Boston closed• Increased power of the

royal governors• Abolished the upper

house of the Massachusetts legislature

• Strengthened the Quartering Act

The Intolerable Acts as Approved by King George III

The First Continental Congress• The colonies were outraged at the Intolerable

Acts and many people wanted to help Boston• The Committee of Correspondence organized

the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774

• The Congress accomplished:– Demanded a repeal of the Intolerable Acts– Declared colonies had a right to tax and govern

themselves– Called for the training of militias– A new boycott of British goods

The Midnight Ride

• The British government had no intention of meeting colonial demands

• British general Thomas Gage was going to capture colonial arms in Concord, Massachusetts but the colonists learned of the plan

• Paul Revere and William Dawes rode through the night to warn the minutemen to be ready to confront the British

A Statue of a Minuteman

The Battle of Lexington and Concord• When the British arrived in

Lexington, Massachusetts, they were confronted by the minutemen on April 18th 1775

• Nobody knew who shot first, but this was the first battle of the American Revolution

• This is referred to as “The Shot Heard Around the World”

• Another battle took place near Concord. The British ultimately retreated

A Portrait of the Battle of Lexington Created Years Later