0:00:15.037,0:00:17.677 You've probably heard of the Boston Tea Party, 0:00:17.677,0:00:19.466 something about a bunch of angry colonists 0:00:19.466,0:00:21.058 dressed as Native Americans 0:00:21.058,0:00:23.148 throwing chests of tea into the water. 0:00:23.148,0:00:24.842 But the story is far more complicated, 0:00:24.842,0:00:26.207 filled with imperial intrigue, 0:00:26.207,0:00:27.480 corporate crisis, 0:00:27.480,0:00:28.190 smuggling, 0:00:28.190,0:00:31.752 and the grassroots origins of the American Revolution. 0:00:31.752,0:00:34.669 The first thing you need to know about tea in the 1700's 0:00:34.669,0:00:36.742 is that it was really, really popular. 0:00:36.742,0:00:38.759 In England, each man, woman, and child 0:00:38.759,0:00:42.032 consumed almost 300 cups of this stuff every year. 0:00:42.032,0:00:44.661 And, since the English colonized America, 0:00:44.661,0:00:47.411 Americans were crazy about tea too. 0:00:47.411,0:00:48.803 By the 1760's, they were drinking 0:00:48.803,0:00:51.289 over a million pounds of tea every year. 0:00:51.289,0:00:53.375 So, when Britain wanted to increase taxes 0:00:53.375,0:00:54.534 on tea in America, 0:00:54.534,0:00:55.726 people were not happy, 0:00:55.726,0:00:58.088 mostly because they had no say in tax decisions 0:00:58.088,0:00:59.547 made in London. 0:00:59.547,0:01:00.610 Remember that famous phrase, 0:01:00.610,0:01:02.628 "No taxation without representation"? 0:01:02.628,0:01:04.600 The American colonists had long believed 0:01:04.600,0:01:07.566 that they were not subject to taxes imposed by legislature 0:01:07.566,0:01:09.684 in which they lacked representation. 0:01:09.684,0:01:11.352 In fact, rather than paying the taxes, 0:01:11.352,0:01:13.695 they simply dodged the tax collectors. 0:01:13.695,0:01:16.775 Since the east coast of America is hundreds of miles long 0:01:16.775,0:01:18.595 and British enforcement was lax, 0:01:18.595,0:01:20.779 about 3/4 of the tea Americans were drinking 0:01:20.779,0:01:23.198 was smuggled in, usually from Holland. 0:01:23.198,0:01:24.826 But the British insisted that Parliament 0:01:24.826,0:01:27.120 did have the authority to tax the colonists, 0:01:27.120,0:01:29.161 especially after Britain went deeply into debt 0:01:29.161,0:01:31.421 fighting the French in the Seven Years' War. 0:01:31.421,0:01:32.375 To close the budget gap, 0:01:32.375,0:01:33.792 London looked to Americans, 0:01:33.792,0:01:37.964 and in 1767 imposed new taxes on a variety of imports, 0:01:37.964,0:01:40.513 including the American's beloved tea. 0:01:40.513,0:01:42.223 America's response: no thanks! 0:01:42.223,0:01:44.219 They boycotted the importation of tea from Britain, 0:01:44.219,0:01:45.972 and instead, brewed their own. 0:01:45.972,0:01:48.521 After a new bunch of British customs commissioners 0:01:48.521,0:01:51.210 cried to London for troops to help with tax enforcement, 0:01:51.210,0:01:52.416 things got so heated 0:01:52.416,0:01:54.674 that the Red Coats fired on a mob in Boston, 0:01:54.674,0:01:55.957 killing several people, 0:01:55.957,0:01:58.408 in what was soon called the Boston Massacre. 0:01:58.408,0:02:00.651 Out of the terms of the 1773 Tea Act, 0:02:00.651,0:02:02.905 Parliament cooked up a new strategy. 0:02:02.905,0:02:05.241 Now the East India Company would sell the surplus tea 0:02:05.241,0:02:08.776 directly through hand-picked consignees in America. 0:02:08.776,0:02:10.238 This would lower the price to consumers, 0:02:10.238,0:02:12.855 making British tea competitive with the smuggled variety 0:02:12.855,0:02:14.783 while retaining some of the taxes. 0:02:14.783,0:02:16.365 But the colonists saw through the British ploy 0:02:16.365,0:02:18.272 and cried, "Monopoly!" 0:02:18.272,0:02:21.664 Now it's a cold and rainy December 16, 1773. 0:02:21.664,0:02:23.757 About 5,000 Bostonians are crowded 0:02:23.757,0:02:25.426 into the Old South Meeting House, 0:02:25.426,0:02:27.262 waiting to hear whether new shipments of tea 0:02:27.262,0:02:28.736 that have arrived down the harbor 0:02:28.736,0:02:30.431 will be unloaded for sale. 0:02:30.431,0:02:32.099 When the captain of one of those ships reported 0:02:32.099,0:02:34.344 that he could not leave with his cargo on board, 0:02:34.344,0:02:35.821 Sam Adams rose to shout, 0:02:35.821,0:02:38.899 "This meeting can do no more to save the country!" 0:02:38.899,0:02:41.566 Cries of "Boston Harbor a teapot tonight!" 0:02:41.566,0:02:42.916 rang out from the crowd, 0:02:42.916,0:02:43.892 and about 50 men, 0:02:43.892,0:02:45.989 some apparently dressed as Native Americans, 0:02:45.989,0:02:47.818 marched down to Griffin's Wharf, 0:02:47.818,0:02:49.485 stormed aboard three ships, 0:02:49.485,0:02:52.690 and threw 340 tea chests overboard. 0:02:52.690,0:02:54.537 An infuriated British government responsded 0:02:54.537,0:02:57.461 with the so-called Coercive Acts of 1774, 0:02:57.461,0:02:59.423 which, among other things, 0:02:59.423,0:03:02.155 closed the port of Boston until the locals compensated 0:03:02.155,0:03:04.102 the East India Company for the tea. 0:03:04.102,0:03:05.093 That never happened. 0:03:05.093,0:03:06.686 Representatives of the colonies 0:03:06.686,0:03:08.310 gathered at Philadelphia to consider 0:03:08.310,0:03:11.666 how best to respond to continued British oppression. 0:03:11.666,0:03:14.830 This first Continental Congress supported destruction of the tea, 0:03:14.830,0:03:17.248 pledged to support a continued boycott, 0:03:17.248,0:03:20.023 and went home in late October 1774 0:03:20.023,0:03:22.274 even more united in their determination 0:03:22.274,0:03:24.389 to protect their rights and liberties. 0:03:24.389,0:03:26.814 The Boston Tea Party began a chain reaction 0:03:26.814,0:03:28.210 that led with little pause 0:03:28.225,0:03:29.696 to the Declaration of Independence 0:03:29.696,0:03:30.995 and a bloody rebellion, 0:03:30.995,0:03:33.762 after which the new nation was free to drink its tea, 0:03:33.762,0:03:35.958 more or less, in peace.