What prompted the Boston Tea Party?

Answer 1

The British government had decided that the British colonists living in America should contribute to the cost of their protection from the Indians, the French and the Dutch. The Stamp Act of 1765 introduced new taxes on goods imported from Britain. The colonists objected on the grounds that they had no representation in the House of Commons. Taxation without representation. John Hancock and others attempted to evade the new taxes by smuggling tea from elsewhere and was arrested and charged (but let off). In response he organised a boycott of British tea. The British responded by allowing British merchants to sell tea duty free at half the price the American merchants charged. This cost Hancock and the other tea smugglers dearly. Eventually an armed gang calling itself the Sons of Liberty attacked the ships of the British East India Company in Boston harbour and destroyed a million dollars worth of tea. John Hancock was charged with High Treason.

Answer 2

Hancock paid and organized it and had Samuel Adams organize the men.They didn't dress up. This is part of the fable. The Boston Tea Party was a protest of the lowering of the cost of the British tea by the government and the East India tea company who had gotten a bail out from the crown in 1773. The smugglers in the colonies found the Dutch tea that they sold was higher in price than the British tea, so they staged the Boston Tea Party and others in harbors in the colonies ( Hamilton was one of the largest smugglers in the colonies and a founding member of the Son's of Liberty). The cost of tea also went as far back as the Navigation Acts and the restricting of trade to and from the colonies passed from 1650-1733. Tea was also taxed in 1767 in the Townsend Acts.