The British Parliament passed the Tea Act on May 10, 1773. This allowed the British East India Company to trade Chinese tea directly from China to America to completely avoid paying high duties. This undercut the prices offered by colonial merchants and therefore infuriated them. Samuel Adams called for a series of protests and meetings once the first East India Company Ships arrived in Boston. Governor Thomas Hutchinson struggled against the Sons of Liberty to have the ships anchor in the harbor. The more meetings held by Samuel Adams, the more people attended; the meetings attendance numbered into the thousands. On December 16 the largest meeting yet was held. It is estimated to have included approximately 8,000 people.
Send the Tea Back
The owners of the Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver all said that they would leave Boston and return to Great Britain. Samuel Adams had the colonies' support on the decision to send the tea ships back without paying duties. The decision to have the Dartmouth, Eleanor, and the Beaver sent back was made at Faneuil Hall at meetings held by Samuel Adams. Twice it was voted for unanimously to send the tea back to Great Britain without paying the Townshend duties. Twenty- five men were sent to the harbor to guard the Dartmouth and ensure that no tea was unloaded. The tea agents claimed that they did not have the authority to send the tea back to England, but that they could store it in Boston to make sure that it wasn’t sold. Samuel Adams then held a third vote which was again unanimous to send the tea back to Great Britain. However, Governor Thomas Hutchinson made this impossible as he blockaded the harbor and demanded the tea to be unloaded.
The Boston Tea Party and The Sons of LibertyThe Boston Tea Party on Thursday September 16, 1773 was organized and led by Samuel Adams and was carried out by the Sons of Liberty. This was a direct blow to the British as many crates of tea bricks were thrown into the harbor. This action really helped spark the American Revolution and gave the Revolution much of its initial momentum. The Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians from Narragansett and carried with them small hatchets and clubs. They went to Griffin’s Warf in Boston Harbor where the Dartmouth, Beaver, and Eleanor all were located. The tea was brought from the holds of the ships up to the decks. The crates from all three ships were then opened and the tea was dumped into the harbor. Throughout the night over 342 casks or 45 tons of tea was in the Boston Harbor. The estimated worth was £10,000. Samuel Adams made sure to it that only the tea was damaged. One padlock was supposedly broken and replaced by an unknown person.
Samuel Adams played the key part in organizing the Boston Tea Party and following through with all the plans. The Boston Tea Party rallied much support from revolutionaries who would be essential in fighting the Revolution to come. Without Samuel Adams as the leader of the Boston Sons of Liberty, the Sons of Liberty would not have been organized enough in order to make such an efficient job of protesting the British tax on tea.
Samuel Adams and His Role in IndependenceAfter Samuel Adams’s death on October 2, 1803, his cousin John said, “Without the character of Samuel Adams, the true history of the American Revolution can never be written. For fifty years his pen, his tongue, his activity, were constantly exerted for his country without fee or reward.” Samuel Adams gained more support for the Revolutionary cause than any other person at the time. If it weren’t for Samuel Adams the colonies might not have organized to rebel effectively against Great Britain. Many historians and people of the time considered Samuel Adams as a radical. Maybe it took a radical to gain the independence of the United States of America.
Samuel Adams gained the support of many through his role in the Boston Tea Party, his opposition to the Intolerable Acts, his opposition to the Stamp Act, and his influential writings.
Sources
- Puls, Mark. Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
- Hosmer, James K. Samuel Adams. Temecula: Reprint Services Corp, 1885.
- Miller, John C. Sam Adams: Pioneer in Propaganda. Chicago: Stanford University Press, 1936.
- Wells, William Vincent. Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams. Manchester: Ayer Co Pub, 1988.Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
- Ammerman, David. In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of 1774 New York: Norton, 1974
- Adams, John, and George W. Carey: The Political Writings of John Adams. Washington D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 2000
- Morgan, Edmund S, and Helen M. Morgan. Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1963
- Adams, Samuel and Harry Alonzo Cushing. The Writings of Samuel Adams. New York: Octagon Books, Inc. /G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1968.
- Winston, Alexander. “FIREBAND of the REVOLUTION” American Heritage April 1967: Volume 18, Issue 3
- Ketchum, Richard M. “XIV Men of the Revolution” American Heritage February 1975: Volume 26, Issue 2
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