Students will explore the role economics had in the Tea Party and the Intolerable Acts had during the American Revolution. This lesson is suitable for U.S. History and economics classes.
Students will warm up by analyzing an image of the Boston Tea Party and discussing any prior learning they have about it. After reading about the causes and effects of the Boston Tea Party, students will analyze primary sources in order to construct a cause‐and‐effect chart.
Students should have foundational knowledge and understanding of the Boston Tea Party. We recommend that students complete the lesson on writs of assistance to better understand preceding economic policies the British imposed on the colonists.
Distribute the warm‐up, and have students view the image and note what they see, think, and wonder.
Students might notice people throwing crates off a boat while people on shore cheer. Students might note that the people are either colonists or Indigenous tribal members.
They might recognize this as the Boston Tea Party.
Ask students what they already know about the event in the image.
Hopefully students have some prior knowledge of the Boston Tea Party and can explain that it was a colonial protest over a tea tax.
Few will know that this tea was actually cheaper than before, because Parliament allowed the British East India Company to export directly to the American colonies without going through middlemen in London.
Few will know that the Tea Act also granted a monopoly to the British East India Company, resulting in giving colonists fewer choices and essentially forcing them to pay the tea tax.
Few will know that the colonists dressed up as Indigenous tribal members (believed to be either the Algonquian or Mohawk tribal communities) to both disguise themselves and symbolically embody the violent behavior colonists stereotypically associated with those communities.
Discuss student answers and provide context and additional information about the Boston Tea Party.
Background Reading
Distribute the background reading.
Have students read the background reading once without pen or pencil.
Have students read a second time, noting the vocabulary words in bold and underlining context that can help define the words.
Have students write definitions for the vocabulary words in the graphic organizer at the bottom of the page.
Have students share definitions so that you can check for understanding.
Boycott: a protest in which protesters avoid purchasing a specific good or service.
Monopoly: economic situation in which only one manufacturer is permitted to sell a specific good or service.
Port: place in which goods are exchanged with other places.
Tax: government surcharge on a good or service meant to raise government revenue or discourage use of a good or service.
Primary Source Analysis
Distribute primary sources A–G.
Have students work in pairs or small groups to answer the question under each source.
Source A
According to John Adams, what caused the event he is describing?
Adams says that the tax on tea, passed without representation, caused the Tea Party.
Source B
According to the text, why was the Quartering Act passed?
The act says this is a punishment for mutiny and desertion and implies that colonial legislatures aren’t doing all they can to provide housing for troops.
According to the cartoon, how did the colonists react to increased British enforcement of trade policies?
The image shows anti‐British colonists forcing a loyalist to sign something.
Source D
According to the text, what is the purpose of the Tea Act?
The act says its purpose is to increase the amount of British East India Company tea imported into the colonies.
Source E
According to the text, what caused the event described in the article?
According to the article, the British customs officers did not allow the colonists to simply refuse delivery of the tea.
Source F
According to the political cartoon, how did the colonists react to increased British control of trade?
Colonists reacted by tarring, feathering, and otherwise harassing British customs officials.
Source G
According to the text, what caused the event described in the article?
According to the text, the British Port Act is a direct response to the destruction of tea by the citizens of Boston.
Economic Causes and Effects Graphic Organizer
Have students work in groups or pairs to complete the cause‐and‐effect chart by putting the letter of each source in the correct box.
Box 1 should contain Source D.
The two boxes after the first arrow should contain
Source A
Source E
The two boxes after the second arrow should contain
Source B
Source G
The last two boxes should contain
Source C
Source F
Discuss the positioning of the sources and clarify the economic causes (taxation, monopoly, boycotts) and effects (quartering to transfer costs of soldiers, and cutting off trade as punishment) of the policies.
Vignettes (If time allows, you may do this activity during the same class session or make it a Day 2 activity.)
Break class into 7 groups.
Assign each group a primary source.
Have each group take a few minutes to construct a vignette such as a still photograph. They should arrange themselves as if to physically recreate this still photograph. They may leave one student out of the photograph to narrate or explain the vignette.
Have students present in the correct order as listed above to reinforce the causal nature of each of these actions.
Distribute exit ticket and have students complete the graphic organizer by relating each Declaration of Independence grievance with the Boston Tea Party.
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: Parliament wanted to shift the cost of British troops in the colonies to the colonists themselves and improve enforcement of British trade policies after colonists destroyed tea in the Boston Tea Party.
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: After the Boston Tea Party, Boston Harbor was shut down in order to punish the people.
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: Colonists did not want to pay the tax on tea because it was passed by Parliament, not by colonial legislatures. Even though the Tea Act made this tea more affordable by bypassing London, it still would have generated revenue without taxpayer consent, so it was thrown overboard.
Based on the graphic organizer above, how did British taxation and trade policy lead to the Revolutionary War?
Colonists refused to pay taxes and follow British trade policy, choosing instead to produce goods themselves and boycott British products, which led to the Boston Tea Party. After the act of rebellion, Parliament instituted even harsher control over the colonies, which backfired and led to independence.
