Description
This Country of Ours, Part 6
PART VI: STORIES OF THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY
Chapter 51 – The Boston Tea party
All these wars which had been fought on American soil had cost a
great deal of money and many lives. Now it seemed to the British
Government that the best way to be sure of peace in the future
was to keep an army in America. They decided to do this. They also
decided that America should pay for the army. And in order to raise
the money a stamp tax was to be introduced. Newspapers, marriage
licenses, wills, and all sorts of legal papers were henceforth to
be printed on stamped paper, the price of stamps varying according
to the importance of the paper from a few pence to as many pounds.
But when the Americans heard that this Act had been passed without
their consent they were angry.
"No," they said to the British Government, "you cannot tax us without
our consent. It is one of the foundations of British freedom that
those who pay the tax must also consent to it. We are not represented
in the British Parliament, our consent has not been asked, and we
deny your right to tax us."
The whole country was filled with clamour. In every colony young
men banded themselves together, calling themselves Sons of Liberty,
and determined to resist the tax. "No taxation without representation"
was the cry.
When the first boxes of stamps arrived they were seized and destroyed.
Newspapers appeared with a skull and crossbones printed where the
stamp should have been. There were riots and mass meetings everywhere.
Product ID: 9781776785940
Sku: 9781776785940
