101 Harborside Drive, Boston, MA 02128 February/12/2018 Dear Parents,The reasons I have for partaking in the dumping of the tea is, the numerous taxes Parliament has recently put on the colonies. The Sugar Act that passed in 1764 imposing customs duties on several different items, including tea. Prime Minister Grenville wanted to raise the revenue by putting a direct tax on the colonists instead of at the ports, so he delayed giving the colonists a chance to find a way to raise funds themselves. The following year, the Stamp Act was passed. All official documents and papers were required to have an official stamp.
The cost of this stamp went directly to the crown. The colonists were outraged. They complained bitterly that because of their distance from England, they were receiving inadequate representation in Parliament.
They had not agreed to have these new taxes placed on their colonies. The Stamp Act was eventually repealed, but not before the Sons of Liberty had formed and begun to perform public demonstrations and boycott, sometimes with violence and looting. The Colonists were frustrated by the number of taxes Parliament kept trying to place on them without their consent. In 1767, the Townshend Acts rocked the colonies when they replaced the Stamp Act with an import duty on all kinds of essential goods. Parliament mistakenly thought the colonies objected to only internal taxes or purchases like the objects described in the Stamp Act, and that import taxes wouldn’t be a problem. This was the Tea Act, passed by the British parliament on May 10, 1773. This was an attempt by the British government to prop up the failing Dutch East India Company.
It reduced taxes and removed all duties on the exportation of East India Company tea. However, even when the tea tax was lowered with the Indemnity Act, the colonists protested, not because of the price, but on the principle that they were not required to pay taxes placed on them without their consent. Much love your son, Joshua Neese
