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How Economics Helped Spark the American Revolution |
 Economics played a large role in events
leading up to the Revolutionary War. The Townshend Acts took affect in
Boston in 1767, and many colonists began boycotting English goods and
smuggling goods into Boston. The British had been taxing the colonies
without representation in Parliament, and people were getting mad. It
didn’t help when British soldiers were sent to Boston to keep the
peace. Tensions were high. In February of 1770, the tension erupted. A
young boy, Christopher Seider,
was killed by a customs agent firing his gun into a crowd. In March of
that same year, the Boston
Massacre occurred, killing five and wounding six. In the case of the Boston Tea Party, the
Tea Act had been passed, giving the East India Tea Company a monopoly
over selling tea. Only Loyalist merchants could sell the tea. Now, the
colonists were getting very angry. When three tea ships arrived in
Boston Harbor, it didn’t make things any better. So on December 16,
1773, after much debate and argument, a signal was given and Sons of
Liberty boarded the ships and dumped the contents into Boston Harbor.
Over a ton of tea, worth up to 1.2 million dollars in today’s money,
was dumped over. Parliament then closed Boston Harbor as punishment. |
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Go Directly to the Journals,
catalogued by their relevant sparks: the Boston Massacre, the Tea Party, the Funeral
of Christopher Seider,
and Paul Revere.
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Or Explore the journals through the index by historian.
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| Get the teachers' perspectives in About Sparks. |