Book Report: Mary E. Hull's The Boston Tea Party in American History

Essay by soccerjaylHigh School, 11th gradeA+, December 2004

download word file, 6 pages 4.3

The Boston Tea Party in American History, by Mary E. Hull, is an excellent book that analyzes the events leading up to the Boston Tea Party and establishes each event's importance in the American Revolution. The book primarily focuses on events from 1763, or the end of the French and Indian War, to the start of the American Revolution, around the year 1775, with a substantial amount of emphasis on the year 1773, or the year of the occurrence of the Boston Tea Party. Hull primarily uses primary sources to support her facts and thesis, using many original copies of posters, documents, and quotations by important individuals of the time period. Over the course of the book, Hull addresses the events prior, during, and after the Boston Tea Party, including the effects of the French and Indian War, British virtual representation, the British taxes and other laws of injustice forcing Americans to pay for British debt, and the uprisings and revolts caused by British and loyalist disfavor, including the Boston Tea Party as the main event that led to the American Revolution in 1775.

"The Boston Tea Party was the culmination of events dating back to 1763 and was the one and final main event that sparked the agitation that grew into united opposition to England (117)." Hull explains that the Boston Tea Party, although it led England to punish the colonies with the Intolerable Acts, brought Americans into unison in their opposing views and goals in separating with England for independence. The Intolerable Acts, a punishment for colonists because of the Boston Tea Party, led the First Continental Congress to determine America's future potential prosperity. In an unexpected result, the colonists' opposition to the Intolerable Acts brought them closer and set them on a united...