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Chapter II - Tea Time in Boston and the Coercive Acts
Tea Time in Boston and the Coercive Acts 1770 - 1777
During the two years following the Boston Massacre and the repeal of the Townshend duties, a general indifference to these issues descended on the colonies. However, in the fall of 1772 when the North ministry began to pay governors and judges from customs revenues, patriots in Massachusetts established a Committee of Correspondence that exchanged letters and initiated a communications network which eventually spread to the other colonies. They also composed a statement of rights and grievances against Parliament and included a declaration that Americans had absolute rights to life, liberty and property. Their statement also soundly condemned taxation without representation, the presence of "unnecessary" troops and customs officials on colonial soil, and the use of tax revenues to pay British officials. Thus, though the "radical patriot" leaders were unable to mobilize the complacent populace during the prosperous years between 1771 and 1773, they firmly laid the foundation for an organization that could seize the initiative whenever the opportunity arose.
That opportunity presented itself when Lord North's ministry attempted to aid the nearly bankrupt British East India Bay Company by pushing the Tea Act of 1773 through Parliament. This crafty act gave the struggling company the exclusive privilege of selling its tea directly to American consumers without paying the English export tax, thereby increasing the company's profits. The Tea Act was also intended to lower the price of tea to the colonists and eliminate widespread smuggling and evasions of the tea duty. Unfortunately, it also deprived Americans of any share in the profitable tea trade, once again driving otherwise conservative merchants to ally themselves with radicals. This latter group claimed that the British lowered tea prices to "seduce Americans into surrendering their liberties." The occasion for direct action and united resistance arrived with the first shipments of tea to New York, Boston, Charleston and Philadelphia. However, once again only the headstrong citizens of Boston openly challenged British authority.
On November 28, 1773, the first of three tea ships, the Dartmouth, entered Boston Harbor. Normal procedures required that cargo had to be "landed" and the appropriate duty paid within twenty days of a ship's arrival. Otherwise, customs officials had the right to seize the cargo. After much debate, the Bostonians voted to prevent the unloading of the tea. Lieutenant Governor Thomas increased the tension between British officials and the townspeople by refusing to allow the vessel to leave the harbor. On December 16, only one day before the cargo would be confiscated, approximately sixty men disguised as Mohawk Indians assembled at the wharf, silently boarded the three ships and dumped ten thousand pounds worth of East India Bay Company tea into the slate-gray Boston Harbor.
When Lord North learned of the "Boston Tea Party," he called the Bostonians "fanatics" and insisted that the dispute was no longer merely about taxes but about whether or not England had any authority at all over the colonies. King George III put the ongoing power struggle into perspective when he asserted: "We must master them or totally leave them to themselves and treat them as aliens."
Following the king's lead, Parliament decided to punish the colonists for this flagrant challenge to their authority with a series of Coercive Acts, also called the Intolerable Acts. Directed mainly at the colony of Massachusetts, these acts called for the closing of Boston ports until the tea was paid for and prohibited all trade except for coastal trade in firewood and food. Another act, the Massachusetts Government Act, eliminated the elected legislature and substituted an appointed council, prohibited town meetings, and increased the executive powers of the governor. The Justice Act provided that a person accused of murder in the "course of suppressing a riot" or enforcing the laws could be tried outside the colony where the incident occurred. Finally, the Quartering Acts gave broad authority to military commanders seeking to house their troops in private dwellings.
Parliament also decided to reform government in Quebec. This reform granted religious freedom to Catholics, Reinstated French law, and called for an appointed council rather than an elected legislature. To protect the Canadian Indians from future colonial settlement, Parliament also annexed western territory already claimed by the individual colonies. While this legislation had little direct impact on the colonies, Britain's show of power seemed yet another threat to colonial self-government.
From the colonists' point of view, the Coercive Acts reconfirmed what they had feared since 1768: that Great Britain had been carrying out a deliberate plan to oppress them. If the British could blockade Boston ports, couldn't the ports of New York or Charleston be next? If the royal charter of Massachusetts could be changed, why not any other colony's charter? If the Roman Catholic Church could receive favored status in Quebec, why not in the thirteen colonies as well? The Coercive Acts appeared to be one more step taken by British leaders to overthrow the liberties guaranteed to all Englishmen, including the colonists.
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