1 00:00:15,037 --> 00:00:17,677 You've probably heard of the Boston Tea Party, 2 00:00:17,677 --> 00:00:19,466 something about a bunch of angry colonists 3 00:00:19,466 --> 00:00:21,058 dressed as Native Americans 4 00:00:21,058 --> 00:00:23,148 throwing chests of tea into the water. 5 00:00:23,148 --> 00:00:24,842 But the story is far more complicated, 6 00:00:24,842 --> 00:00:26,207 filled with imperial intrigue, 7 00:00:26,207 --> 00:00:27,480 corporate crisis, 8 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:28,190 smuggling, 9 00:00:28,190 --> 00:00:31,752 and the grassroots origins of the American Revolution. 10 00:00:31,752 --> 00:00:34,669 The first thing you need to know about tea in the 1700's 11 00:00:34,669 --> 00:00:36,742 is that it was really, really popular. 12 00:00:36,742 --> 00:00:38,759 In England, each man, woman, and child 13 00:00:38,759 --> 00:00:42,032 consumed almost 300 cups of this stuff every year. 14 00:00:42,032 --> 00:00:44,661 And, since the English colonized America, 15 00:00:44,661 --> 00:00:47,411 Americans were crazy about tea too. 16 00:00:47,411 --> 00:00:48,803 By the 1760's, they were drinking 17 00:00:48,803 --> 00:00:51,289 over a million pounds of tea every year. 18 00:00:51,289 --> 00:00:53,375 So, when Britain wanted to increase taxes 19 00:00:53,375 --> 00:00:54,534 on tea in America, 20 00:00:54,534 --> 00:00:55,726 people were not happy, 21 00:00:55,726 --> 00:00:58,088 mostly because they had no say in tax decisions 22 00:00:58,088 --> 00:00:59,547 made in London. 23 00:00:59,547 --> 00:01:00,610 Remember that famous phrase, 24 00:01:00,610 --> 00:01:02,628 "No taxation without representation"? 25 00:01:02,628 --> 00:01:04,600 The American colonists had long believed 26 00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:07,566 that they were not subject to taxes imposed by legislature 27 00:01:07,566 --> 00:01:09,684 in which they lacked representation. 28 00:01:09,684 --> 00:01:11,352 In fact, rather than paying the taxes, 29 00:01:11,352 --> 00:01:13,695 they simply dodged the tax collectors. 30 00:01:13,695 --> 00:01:16,775 Since the east coast of America is hundreds of miles long 31 00:01:16,775 --> 00:01:18,595 and British enforcement was lax, 32 00:01:18,595 --> 00:01:20,779 about 3/4 of the tea Americans were drinking 33 00:01:20,779 --> 00:01:23,198 was smuggled in, usually from Holland. 34 00:01:23,198 --> 00:01:24,826 But the British insisted that Parliament 35 00:01:24,826 --> 00:01:27,120 did have the authority to tax the colonists, 36 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:29,161 especially after Britain went deeply into debt 37 00:01:29,161 --> 00:01:31,421 fighting the French in the Seven Years' War. 38 00:01:31,421 --> 00:01:32,375 To close the budget gap, 39 00:01:32,375 --> 00:01:33,792 London looked to Americans, 40 00:01:33,792 --> 00:01:37,964 and in 1767 imposed new taxes on a variety of imports, 41 00:01:37,964 --> 00:01:40,513 including the American's beloved tea. 42 00:01:40,513 --> 00:01:42,223 America's response: no thanks! 43 00:01:42,223 --> 00:01:44,219 They boycotted the importation of tea from Britain, 44 00:01:44,219 --> 00:01:45,972 and instead, brewed their own. 45 00:01:45,972 --> 00:01:48,521 After a new bunch of British customs commissioners 46 00:01:48,521 --> 00:01:51,210 cried to London for troops to help with tax enforcement, 47 00:01:51,210 --> 00:01:52,416 things got so heated 48 00:01:52,416 --> 00:01:54,674 that the Red Coats fired on a mob in Boston, 49 00:01:54,674 --> 00:01:55,957 killing several people, 50 00:01:55,957 --> 00:01:58,408 in what was soon called the Boston Massacre. 51 00:01:58,408 --> 00:02:00,651 Out of the terms of the 1773 Tea Act, 52 00:02:00,651 --> 00:02:02,905 Parliament cooked up a new strategy. 53 00:02:02,905 --> 00:02:05,241 Now the East India Company would sell the surplus tea 54 00:02:05,241 --> 00:02:08,776 directly through hand-picked consignees in America. 55 00:02:08,776 --> 00:02:10,238 This would lower the price to consumers, 56 00:02:10,238 --> 00:02:12,855 making British tea competitive with the smuggled variety 57 00:02:12,855 --> 00:02:14,783 while retaining some of the taxes. 58 00:02:14,783 --> 00:02:16,365 But the colonists saw through the British ploy 59 00:02:16,365 --> 00:02:18,272 and cried, "Monopoly!" 60 00:02:18,272 --> 00:02:21,664 Now it's a cold and rainy December 16, 1773. 61 00:02:21,664 --> 00:02:23,757 About 5,000 Bostonians are crowded 62 00:02:23,757 --> 00:02:25,426 into the Old South Meeting House, 63 00:02:25,426 --> 00:02:27,262 waiting to hear whether new shipments of tea 64 00:02:27,262 --> 00:02:28,736 that have arrived down the harbor 65 00:02:28,736 --> 00:02:30,431 will be unloaded for sale. 66 00:02:30,431 --> 00:02:32,099 When the captain of one of those ships reported 67 00:02:32,099 --> 00:02:34,344 that he could not leave with his cargo on board, 68 00:02:34,344 --> 00:02:35,821 Sam Adams rose to shout, 69 00:02:35,821 --> 00:02:38,899 "This meeting can do no more to save the country!" 70 00:02:38,899 --> 00:02:41,566 Cries of "Boston Harbor a teapot tonight!" 71 00:02:41,566 --> 00:02:42,916 rang out from the crowd, 72 00:02:42,916 --> 00:02:43,892 and about 50 men, 73 00:02:43,892 --> 00:02:45,989 some apparently dressed as Native Americans, 74 00:02:45,989 --> 00:02:47,818 marched down to Griffin's Wharf, 75 00:02:47,818 --> 00:02:49,485 stormed aboard three ships, 76 00:02:49,485 --> 00:02:52,690 and threw 340 tea chests overboard. 77 00:02:52,690 --> 00:02:54,537 An infuriated British government responsded 78 00:02:54,537 --> 00:02:57,461 with the so-called Coercive Acts of 1774, 79 00:02:57,461 --> 00:02:59,423 which, among other things, 80 00:02:59,423 --> 00:03:02,155 closed the port of Boston until the locals compensated 81 00:03:02,155 --> 00:03:04,102 the East India Company for the tea. 82 00:03:04,102 --> 00:03:05,093 That never happened. 83 00:03:05,093 --> 00:03:06,686 Representatives of the colonies 84 00:03:06,686 --> 00:03:08,310 gathered at Philadelphia to consider 85 00:03:08,310 --> 00:03:11,666 how best to respond to continued British oppression. 86 00:03:11,666 --> 00:03:14,830 This first Continental Congress supported destruction of the tea, 87 00:03:14,830 --> 00:03:17,248 pledged to support a continued boycott, 88 00:03:17,248 --> 00:03:20,023 and went home in late October 1774 89 00:03:20,023 --> 00:03:22,274 even more united in their determination 90 00:03:22,274 --> 00:03:24,389 to protect their rights and liberties. 91 00:03:24,389 --> 00:03:26,814 The Boston Tea Party began a chain reaction 92 00:03:26,814 --> 00:03:28,210 that led with little pause 93 00:03:28,225 --> 00:03:29,696 to the Declaration of Independence 94 00:03:29,696 --> 00:03:30,995 and a bloody rebellion, 95 00:03:30,995 --> 00:03:33,762 after which the new nature was free to drink its tea, 96 00:03:33,762 --> 00:03:35,958 more or less, in peace.