Return to TAH Lesson Plans
UMBC Center for History Eduction
Resources for Teachers Timeline
Site Credits
UMBC Home Page |
| Colonial Tea Parties |
| [Download a printer-friendly version] |
 |
 |
Author: Tamara Dingman, Richard Henry Lee Elementary School, Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Grade Level: Upper Elementary
Duration: 1-2 periods |
Overview:
 |
This lesson places the Boston Tea Party in context for students by showing its role within a broader movement of protest against Britain in the 1770s. Through a series of Parliamentary Acts and taxes, Britain attempted to maintain the East India Companys monopoly over colonial trade, shutting American merchants out of world commerce. Parliament was also trying to produce more revenue to pay off debts incurred from fighting the French and Indian War. When thousands of Bostonians, led by Samuel Adams, marched in protest against the British measures, other colonial ports followed, including Chester Town harbor in Maryland.
By comparing protests and points of view, students will recognize the tea parties as both a dividing and unifying event for Americans. On the one hand, those colonists who opposed the destruction of property by the mob became loyalists. But on the other hand, patriots from Massachusetts to South Carolina had united in common cause, making it no longer possible for the crown to play the colonies against each other. Students may also grapple with the question of the use of violence during times of revolution.
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
