1. One of the only remaining taxes was the tea tax, which the colonists didn’t want to pay, especially since they weren’t represented in Parliament.
2. They boycotted tea, and when that didn’t work, they refused to unload a November shipment in Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
3. In New York and Philadelphia, the governors supported the Patriots, and the ships returned to England
4. The governor of Boston, Governor Hutchinson, did not send the ships back to England. His sons worked for the British East India Company, and he knew tea in the colonies = money for his sons.
5. While the Patriots were waiting for a decision from Governor Hutchinson, the Sons of Liberty met to plan what they’d do if he didn’t cooperate with them. They went to the British East India Company to meet and try to find a solution, but the British East India Company refused to meet with them.
6. When it was clear that Governor Hutchinson wasn’t going to cooperate, Samuel Adams decided it was time to move forward with the plans to empty the tea into the harbor, and the rest is history.
Today, we talked about the effects of the Boston Tea Party: the Intolerable Acts, which were a series of harsh laws meant to teach the colonists a lesson, and the unification of the colonies around a common goal—they must defend their rights. At the first Continental Congress, where delegates from almost every colony met to discuss what to do next, Patrick Henry said, “All America is thrown into one mass. The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American!” At the end of our conversation about what happened after the Boston Tea Party, a student commented that Patrick Henry’s quote about the colonies coming together was like Barack Obama urging republicans and democrats to work together. The class concluded that good things happen when people put their differences aside and work together (and then erupted into a song about President Obama! Something from JibJab? Who knows, but it was amazing! They never cease to delight.).
Open Conversation
Open Conversation
After reading about the Boston Tea Party, the class voted to discuss:
It’s always Boston that gets into everything, which is both good and bad.
It was smart for the colonists to start with something not too bad and then to elevate their level of protest.
Individual Goals
Students have identified themselves as either needing to talk more in conversations or to talk less. Students who are trying to talk more decided they should speak towards the beginning of the conversation and that it would help if they wrote their ideas down in their notebooks so they know what they want to say. Students who are trying to talk less decided they should speak towards the end of the conversation, and that they could write in their notebooks instead of speaking when ideas they really want to express come up. The class also talked about what to do when we have traffic jams (lots of voices at once):
Traffic jam goals:
Everybody just be quiet, then someone try to talk loud.
Only talk when it’s something that really needs to be out there.
If you hear that someone has already started to talk, try not to interrupt.
Stay on a subject so everyone can say what they want to say.
Give up you position for someone who doesn’t talk a lot.
And the transcript:
B British/Brittan
Bo Boston
C Colonists
ML I think it was really smart for the C to start with something small because then the B would only get half as mad.
SJ I agree because you wouldn’t want to get the B mad because they have control over the C. I think it was really good that Bo was…
SS I think it was a good idea that they started with small things, because it’s really annoying while they build up more personal power. Some of these engagements were more of a distraction while they were convincing people the B were a bully. They had more time to build up.
HG Because B didn’t solve their problems.
LD I agree that it was good that they did all this because it showed that they were passionate, but it was extremely dangerous.
JA I agree with Lauren and Stella because it was kind of dangerous for Bo to get out there so much. I’d say Bo had more background stories that were more worse than good.
RR I think it happened because Bo was the center. It was the capital, so it’s more likely that things are going to happen.
Pause, pause, pause…
HZ Maybe Bo was sort of a chosen place because all the famous people we remember now were in Boston, like John and Samuel Adams.
MM They were famous because it happened in Bo, if it happened in Phil. other people would have been famous.
MK I disagree. That happened in Bo because they were there. It wasn’t a coincidence—they were leading it.
LD I agree with Max because if it happened in NY then the people in NY would be more famous.
MK But it didn’t happen in Phil or NY because they were there.
Maya should go…
TG I think the only reason the Boston Tea Party happened in Bo was because of Gov. Hutchinson, because unlike NY and Phil where the tea ships just left, Gov. Hutchinson tried to make them get the tea.
JA I agree with Lauren and Max because I think it’s like taking what happened at the Boston Tea Party and moving it to another place. I think NY would be more famous or Phil. would be more famous, and it wouldn’t make a difference.
RR I disagree with Joanna because I think that it happened in Bo because of the Governor, and that same Governor probably wasn’t in Phil or NY.
CS I agree because the Sons were working for the British East India Company.
VC And Gov. Hutchinson was only really thinking about his sons and not about anybody else.
HH um…
MK Henry, you can go
HH The B soldiers were not all bad. It’s kind of like King George. It’s kind of like if someone's mean to you you’re not my friend any more, and then your other friend comes and says shut up, leave me alone. They’re putting all their anger and hate on the soldiers’ backs, but they should be getting mean at King George. Some of the soldiers were bad, but they’re not all bad.
DM I agree, because it shouldn’t be the soldiers in court, it should be King George in court, because he’s forcing them.
Voices
MM If it’s King George, he’s leading everything. If he’s in court he’s going to be like, “I win” because he’s king.
Voices, voices,
HH Wait wait! Let Joanna speak.
JA I definitely agree with Max, because if King George went to court, everybody would be, it would be a lot different than the soldiers being in court. It’s not forbidden, but it’s kind of weird to have the King in Court. He’s the king. The king told the soldiers what to do. It wasn’t the King that did it, it was the soldiers.
HS You’re taking it literally. Devin didn’t exactly mean he should go to court, he meant they shouldn’t be mad. I actually disagree with Devin, though, because the B soldiers were all really loyal to King George, and that was their decision, so they could have been blamed as easily as King George would have been.
That was really fun and right after that we all sang it in P.E. and tried to sing it at lunch but ended up having to stop at the last line.
ReplyDeleteZabby Hovey, stella's mom here: I enjoyed reading this transcript a lot.
ReplyDeleteI am especially interested in the notion of how Boston came to be the place where it started. I think it has something to do with the fact that Boston had the longest relationship with England. It had become a more mature city, perhaps, and had these frictions that were more obvious there.
These circumstances made people talk about the problems and become the famous names we know.
Remember, New York had been New Amsterdam, having no relations with the British crown until the 1660s. There was a greater mix of people here, especially Dutch, so they weren't as worked up about the "rights of Englishmen." (But there was a lot of hostility to the crown here, too, and in Philly. ) And Philadelphia really had a different kind of relationship at first - through its proprietor William Penn and his family, not with the Crown and a charter.
I was looking elsewhere on this web page for drafting paper, and i didn't find it.