Since you’re reading this, you probably want to hear a good story about how food and drink fueled the American Revolution. Or maybe your teacher asked you to read this. Either way, you've come to right place, so let’s get right to the action in 1763!!
That’s when the British win the Seven Years War against France. You can also call it the French and Indian War. Either way, it plunges Britain deeply into debt because wars are expensive.
Enter a guy named George Grenville.
He’s the British Prime Minister and he wants the colonists in North America to help repay the debt because that’s where most of the war was fought.
And that’s not all. He wants the colonists to help pay the cost of supporting all the British troops still stationed there to protect the land — and there’s 10,000 of them!!
The best way to do this, he decides, is to ask the British Parliament (kind of like Congress) to pass laws that place taxes on certain food items (like molasses, sugar, and red peppers), drinks (like coffee, wine, and tea) and other stuff imported into the colonies.
Young King George III (he's 22 and kind of a nut) thinks it’s a great plan. But, as the action unfolds, you’ll see that it turns out to be a REALLY. INCREDIBLY. SPECTACULARLY. BAD IDEA!
This is what happens:
In April, 1764, Parliament passes the Sugar Act, which places a new tax on sugar, coffee, certain kinds of wines, and other things imported into the colonies.
Now, most colonists don’t mind being taxed by their own local governments. But they STRONGLY DISLIKE being taxed by Parliament. You can probably guess why. That's right! Because they don’t have any representatives there to protect their interests.
It’s during angry protests over the Sugar Act that the famous cry, “NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!” (basically meaning, “Hey, King George, we’re NOT paying!) is first heard.
So that’s the deal with the Sugar Act. The colonists don’t like it. But they’re still pretty chill.
Not for long.
In May, Parliament passes the Quartering Act, which requires the colonies to provide free food and public housing for British troops. Now the colonists are REALLY mad!!
But King George doesn’t see a problem. In fact, he believes that Parliament has every right to tax the colonists.
And that's EXACTLY what Parliament does.
This time, it's the Stamp Act. It's passed in 1765 and it places a tax on newspapers, books, playing cards, and other paper products in the colonies. And it requires colonists to buy a little stamp to prove that they’d paid the tax!
Now the colonists are really, REALLY mad! So a group of patriots led by Samuel Adams get together in Boston and come up with a plan. Known as the Sons of Liberty, they call for a boycott of all British imports, including, coffee, wine, sugar and tea.
Some colonists also start harassing British tax agents. They threaten to destroy their homes. They set fire to their property. They even strip one young agent naked to his waist, smear hot, sticky tar all over his body, and cover him with chicken feathers!!
The tax collectors are like, “Wait, WHAT?!! This isn’t part of the job description!” So, eventually, they all quit, and when the tax goes into effect in 1766, no one’s around to collect it.
Back in London, King George realizes that the Stamp Act isn’t gonna work. So, Parliament votes to repeal (get rid) of it. But King George is stubborn, Britain’s still strapped for cash, and, in another REALLY bad move, Parliament passes the Townshend Acts, which place new taxes on paint, paper, glass, lead and tea.
Outraged, the colonists respond by reviving boycotts of everything from coffee, wine, and molasses to spices, sugar and tea. Some patriots, like John Hancock, a wealthy Boston shipping magnate and all-around smuggling powerhouse, protest by smuggling wine, tea, and other goods past British custom officials.
Hancock knew smuggling was illegal, but he and his fellow patriots are tightly united in the belief that the colonists have no obligation to pay unfair taxes imposed by a Parliament in which they were offered no representation.
Hancock made most of his fortune by smuggling French wines and Dutch tea into the colonies. But, in the summer of 1768, British officials seize his ship LIBERTY that had docked in Boston Harbor. The reason: violations of revenue laws.
This further infuriates Boston colonists who were relying on supplies onboard. In response, angry mobs protest at the docks and riot in the streets. They even pull a British tax agent’s boat out of Boston Harbor and set it afire!
As riots intensified throughout the late summer of 1768, British officers warn King George that the colonists are on the brink of rebellion. And soon a fleet of British warships sails into Boston Harbor to restore order.
Under command of General Thomas Gage, a thousand young British soldiers (most of them are only seventeen or eighteen) march through the streets of Boston with cannons and guns.
So, now there’s a bunch of angry American patriots and young British soldiers with loaded cannons and guns.
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG??!!!
Nothing too terrible. Until March 5, 1770. That’s when a group of colonists are shot by British troops stationed in Boston. One colonist, Crispus Attucks, a former slave, and two others are killed that night and two others later die from their injuries.
Outraged, Sam Adams calls the British soldiers “bloody murderers” and labels the event “The Boston Massacre.”
After that, British soldiers are ordered to leave Boston. Tensions settle down for a while. But, in 1773, Parliament makes another REALLY. BAD. MOVE.
It passes the Tea Act. It doesn’t place any new taxes on tea. Instead, it allows the struggling British East India Company (in which members of Parliament have financial interests) to sell tea directly to the colonists instead of merchants.
This lowers the price of British tea in the colonies, which Parliament hopes will help end the colonists’ boycott.
But THIS is what happens: at midnight on December 16, 1773, a hundred patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded three British ships docked in Boston Harbor.
Armed with tomahawks, they chopped open 342 crates onboard and dumped 92,000 pounds — about 46 tons — of British tea into Boston Harbor!
When news of the Boston Tea Party reaches London, King George is furious and throws a fit. Calling it “violent and outrageous,” he views it as a total rejection of British rule and vows to punish Boston colonists swiftly and severely.
At the King’s request, Parliament passes a series of harsh laws known as the Intolerable Acts (also known the Coercive Acts) that are meant to punish Boston for its defiance.
One law orders the port of Boston to be closed to trade until the town paid for all of the destroyed tea. Stripped of their ability to profit from overseas trade, New England merchants shutter their shops. Thousands of fishermen, tavern-keepers, and dockworkers lose their jobs.
Another act revises and expands the old Quartering Act.
Remember that from earlier? Previously, the colonists were required to provide free food and shelter to British soldiers in unoccupied public buildings.
But the expanded act demands that they provide free food and shelter to British soldiers in their OWN private dwellings and homes. At this point, the colonists are like, "WHAT??!! NO WAY!!! NOT. GONNA. HAPPEN!!!"
It was under these explosive circumstances that some patriot leaders agree to convene in Philadelphia to come up with a plan. And, in September, 1774, Samuel Adams and his cousin John Adams head off to the First Continental Congress.
Along with George Washington and other delegates, they declare the Intolerable Acts to be an illegal violation of their rights.
Equally important, they also agree that the colonies should start raising their own militias (basically, a group of armed citizens).
Now things start happening fast. In April, 1775, shots are fired at Lexington and Concord.
George Washington takes command of the Continental Army.
And, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is approved.
And soon, British forces arrive in New York Harbor, bent on crushing the American rebellion.
And so NOW you know how FOOD and DRINK helped fuel the American Revolution!
For more fun food history, please visit my HISTORY CHEF blog by clicking here!
