Posted on 12/13/2023 5:51:48 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants
At 6:30 p.m. on Thursday December 16, 1773, a group of between 100 and 150 Americans raided three East India Company merchantmen moored in Boston and threw 92,000 lb of tea (worth $1.7 million in today’s terms) into the harbor. A central part of the American founding story, the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party is being commemorated this month as a key moment when patriotic Americans fought back against the greedy British and their oppressive taxation policies that forced up prices on commodities such as tea, which in turn led to the American Revolution.
But the truth is more complex, interesting and nuanced, especially regarding the motivation of the “Patriots,” as the Americans who destroyed the tea described themselves. Far from increasing the price for American consumers, the taxed East India tea was going to be sold for about half the $1 that they were then paying for a pound of tea. The only people who were going to lose out were the smuggler-barons of Boston, New York and Pennsylvania who employed the “Patriots” who attacked the vessels. As the historian Charles Arnold-Baker has pointed out, “The Boston Tea Party was essentially a private operation for the benefit of racketeers,” rather than the action of selfless citizens.
(Excerpt) Read more at thespectator.com ...
I am not endorsing it, just putting it out there.
and how will history spin the J6 protest? see for yourself
https://rumble.com/v181401-january-6th-rally-2021.html
There is normally more then one side to any story.
History is constantly being rewritten just as our culture is being cancelled. Today’s Boston is hardly a Patriot stronghold. The participants of the Boston Tea Party would be ashamed of what Boston is today, whether were Patriots or racketeers.
Considering Massachusetts gave us Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, I’d say the whole damn state could sink under he waters of Kerry’s imagined glow-bull warming.
We all know how the leftists ARE spinning it; as a mob of murderous terrorists who broke into the capitol and killed several LEOs just trying to do their jobs.
Your post is ironic because I recently began posting comments related to circumstances surrounding the BTP.
Specifically, the ‘intolerable acts’.
One man’s terrorist is another man’s patriot.................
Revisionist clap trap
The War of Independence was mainly a revolt by the Colonial capitalists, many engaged in illegal trades, against the nobility of Great Britain, i.e. the King and the House of Lords.
Besides the illegal sea borne trade of the New England seaports, there were the ambitions of the mid-Atlantic colonies to settle the newly acquired Ohio River Valley without the process being managed from London.
The “Founders” were mostly colonial commoners who had become wealthy as planters, land speculators, merchants, and traders, while the reviled colonial governors were British nobility, as were many of the British Army commanding officers.
There is nothing “secret” about the Tea Party or the causes of the Revolution.
I was taught this in a rural high school in the 70’s....maybe my hardcore patriot teacher was woke?
Even our text books said it was about un-taxed men being taxed by an increasingly illegitimate government based on a monarchy.....a weakened monarchy, but it was still Lords over Commons.
The Reformation ended “divine right”, as all men are equal before God thru Jesus.
The outgrowth of that was the trendy Enlightenment authors who called for capitalism (property), rule by consent and by men of merit.
The Colonies, now that the Spanish and French threats were defeated, had a ready made local elite with a system of self-governance already in place.
And....they were armed.
Of course, the Atlantic Ocean was helpful, too.
Oh...and John Hancock, the Elon Musk of his day...or George Soros?....was a smuggler that bought Sam Adams a suit of clothes and then paid him to agitate.
Thanks BT.
I don’t want to register to read it, but if I may, I do have a comment.
I would like folks to understand that the aggression we took in Boston that day was against our neighbors who had already paid the tax. The same principle applies to a union going on strike. The violence is against the scabs who are cooperating with management not against management itself. This is very unpleasant for our side and contributes to the fatal hesitation that historically has weakened the efforts of the good and the godly to resist tyranny.
Here I list the three other factors which only hinder our side and not our enemies:
1. Legitimacy. We only work within and through legitimate government structures. The Civil War was carried out by elected government officials, on either side, as was the Revolution of 1776. Our enemies however will steal elections and break store windows whatever is necessary.
2. Last Resort. Our government sent an Olive Branch Petition to the King in July of 1775. It was terribly naive, but that is how we are. South Carolina seceded too late. While the various compromises were implemented postponing not averting the conflict, the North continued to build ships and railroads until it was impossible for them to lose. Our conservative women are especially bad about this. They don’t want to fight until it is absolutely necessary, until they are frightened enough, but by then it is too late.
3. Leadership. Conservatism works off principles not personalities. Therefore, without leadership, we cannot galvanize, cooperate and coordinate efforts, and most importantly we cannot prioritize threats. Ronald Reagan did this in the 198o’s when he set aside the balanced budget fight in order to defeat Russian Communism.
Because of these four principles, I do not believe our side and win without God’s help. We had that in 1776 and again in 1863, but today?
Praying for revival.
God’s will be done.
True, the Tea Act reduced the “price of tea” . . . in theory.
But heightened crackdown on smugglers that accompanied the law meant that ordinary American colonists would pay far more.
Here is a comparable scenario:
You have a freeway where the speed limit is 65, but everyone drives 72 or 73. Gov enacts a law that raises the speed limit to 70, but promises 1 year in jail mandatory for anyone going so much as a mile over. REAL speeds fall to 67 or 68. The threat of the law altered the real behavior of colonists, causing them harms.
Before you sink Massachusetts over the sins of Teddy K and John Francois, please give the rest of us some warning.
The Spirit of Lexington still lives on in the Bay State. We’re still here.
Crony Capitalism - government sponsored company, invested in and controlled by all the elites in the distant capital, is given a preferential tax rebate and monopoly over business in your area through government edict.
My first thought was “electric vehicles” in USA Today
Probably a good historian but may be biased when it comes to the colonials' complaints against the British government.
Yeah, I really don’t need an article from a British Magazine about the Boston Tea Party,
It’s a limey magazine.
Of course the colonists saw it as a plot to get them to pay taxes levied by Parliament. The law was designed to rescue the East India Company—which had a lot more clout in Parliament than the colonists did.
Well, well........ I didn’t realize that.
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