2013外研版选修11Module 1“The Boston Tea Party”课件1.pptVIP

* The Boston Tea Party By Catherine Background Townshend duty crisis Parliament finally repealed the Townshend taxes in 1770, except for the tea duty. From 1771 to 1773, Boston was the largest colonial importer of legal tea. * * Background Committees of Correspondence Samuel Adams suggested every community to appoint people to exchange information and to coordinate measures to defend their own rights. Within a year, most Massachusetts communities had established “Committees of Correspondence”, and the idea spread throughout New England. And in 1773, only Pennsylvania did not have the committees. * Tea act in 1773 In May 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act to save the East India Company. The act eliminated all important duties on tea entering England and thus lowering the selling price. The Tea Act permitted the company to sell tea directly to consumers rather than through wholeselers. Many smugglers and merchants regarded the Tea Act as another attempt by the British parliament to seduce American into accepting Parliamentary taxation. * The Boston Tea Party The Committees of Correspondence decided to resist the importation of tea. In November 1773,the first ships of East India Company’s tea arrived in Boston Harbor. Samuel Adams and John Hancock called for the cargoes to be returned to England but they were refused by the Governor of Massachusetts. The Boston Tea Party On the evening of December 16,1773, Samuel Adams convened a meeting. The crowd spilled onto the streets and there commenced the Boston Tea Patry. And 52 young men dressed as Indians boarded three vessels and dumped 90000 pounds of tea into Boston harbor. * * Consequences In 1774, the British government enacted a series of punitive acts——the Coercive Acts. The Boston Port Bill closed the port of Boston to all oceangoing traffic until the destroyed tea was paid for. The Massachusetts Government Act reduced the power of