The Boston Tea Party is arguably the most memorable form of political protest that Bostonians have ever executed, to the point where discoveries of tea crates in the Boston Harbor 200 years after the act attracted national attention 12, because not only was the Tea Party a direct result of the disdain for the taxes and imperial form of government that the colonists had to endure, but it also was a very public form of rebellion by the colonists. As the colonists were on the path to starting the revolutionary war against Britain, the Boston Tea Party helped to accelerate that process. However there are a few important questions about the Boston Tea Party that need to be understood in order to fully grasp the logic behind it.
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Why Tea?
This question can be answered in a couple of ways. Firstly the smuggling aspect of the Boston Tea Party can be explained here. The reason for choosing tea itself besides the Crown implemented tea tax was the close relationship between the East India Tea Company and England.4 The East India Company and the British government had a mutualistic relationship that, given England’s imperial pull, allowed the East India Company to operate in monopolies while sharing the profits with England. The choice of tea itself then was a threefold protest because not only did it protest the tea tax, but it also protested the East India Company’s monopoly and by extension England’s imperialistic system of government. Therefore the Tea Party was, in the words of John Adams, one of the most effective ways for the colonists to voice their frustration and rebel against English imperialism.14 |
The Costumed Rebellion?
When the Boston Tea Party occurred, as seen in the picture above, the colonists were dressed up as Native Americans. The act of pretending to be Native Americans while carrying out the Boston Tea Party had important implications. It allowed the colonists to cross the racial boundaries of the time and embrace the Native American stereotypes in favor of those of their white English heritage. In doing this, the colonists were able to do things that they would not have been able to do as the white patriots that had been following the non-importation agreement as their main form of protest against British taxes for the previous eight years. By embracing the Native American’s perceived freedom and lack of political loyalty, the colonists were able to commit an act of rebellion against England that quite possibly would not have happened if they were not in disguises. The crossing of racial identities then allowed Bostonians the opportunity to channel their angers and frustrations and rebel against imperialism in a way that called for action instead of just protest. Therefore the Native American costumes helped to further the political rebellion of the colonists against imperialism by escalating the forms of protest that the colonists employed. |