Although the British army and navy were larger and better trained, the colonists were more committed to their cause, plus they had help from the French and Spanish. In the end, the colonists’ desire for freedom and self-rule proved stronger than the king’s desire to keep control of his colonies. In 1781, az big part of the British army surrendered in Yorktown. But the British still occupied places such as Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; and New York, New York. When the Treaty of Paris of 1783 was signed, the thirteen colonies were no more. Instead, they formed a new country, which would be called the United States of America.
In time, the United States of America would grow to fifty states, and its democratic spirit would be a model for many other nations around the world.
A copy of the Declaration of Independence
The war Father and I feared came faster and more furiously than any of us had imagined. We’ve been at war for a year now, and the shelves in Father’s store look very different: Since ships carrying goods from England are no longer coming to the colonies, we’ve learned to get by with less. But we colonists have also learned how to make many of the things we used to import. I am proud to see fabrics woven here in America in Father’s store. I like drinking rose hip tea and knitting with wool I’ve spun myself—just as the Daughters of Liberty do in Boston.
Today I heard the declaration written by the First Continental Congress read aloud on the steps of the courthouse boldly declaring our independence from British rule. No longer will we be subjects of the king, paying taxes we never agreed to, punished for disobeying laws imposed on us unfairly, and ruled by powers an ocean away. I felt shivers when I heard the words:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Father says the war for independence will be long and hard and full of loss and sorrow. I have no doubt that’s true. But I also have no doubt that the struggle will be worth it in the end. For wasn’t I there at the beginning, at that “very unusual tea party” up in Boston, with the first Patriots who stood up for freedom?
Apprentice – a person who is learning a trade or skill
Battalion – a large group of soldiers
Boycott – to refuse to buy or use something as a way of protest
Casualty – someone injured, killed, or captured during war
Colonies – areas that are controlled by, or belong to, another country
Debts – things owed by one person or country to another
Economy – the way a country makes and uses goods and services
Effigy – a portrait, statue, or other image of a person
Elaborate – done with great care and a lot of detail
Exuberant – very, very happy
Fatal – causing death
Fined – made to pay a sum of money as a punishment
Handbills – small, printed advertisements
Independence – freedom from being controlled by another country or government
Loyalists – people faithful to the government, in this case Britain
Parliament – a group of people who are responsible for making laws
Patriots – people who love their country, in this case America
Persuasive – having the ability to get someone to believe or do something
Profit – the amount of money made by a business after all expenses are paid
Rallied – got ready for action
Repeal – to do away with or cancel
Representation – a person or group supporting another person or group
Resentment – bitterness or discontentment
Silversmith – a craftsman who makes or repairs objects made from silver
Skeins – coils of yarn
Skirmishes – short fights during war
Taxes – the amount of money that governments require people to pay, which is then used by the governments
Treacherous – dangerous
Treason – the betrayal of one’s country
Freedman, Russell. The Boston Tea Party. New York: Holiday House, 2012.
Gondosch, Linda. How Did Tea and Taxes Spark a Revolution?: And Other Questions about the Boston Tea Party. Minneapolis: Lerner, 2010.
Krull, Kathleen. What Was the Boston Tea Party? New York: Penguin Group, 2013.
Marten, James, ed. Children in Colonial America. New York: New York University Press, 2007.
Tripp, Valerie, Love and Loyalty: A Felicity Classic, Volume 1. Wisconsin: American Girl Publishing, 2017.
Tripp, Valerie, A Stand for Independence: A Felicity Classic, Volume 2. Wisconsin: American Girl Publishing, 2017.
Trueit, Trudi Strain. The Boston Tea Party: Cornerstones of Freedom. New York: Scholastic, 2005.
Camps of both armies, the British and the Patriots, in Boston at the start of the American War of Independence
1600s – Britain sets up colonies along the northeast coast of North America
1760 – George III becomes King of Britain
1754–1763 – The French and Indian War is fought between France and Britain. The name refers to the fact that France received strong support from its Native American allies. Britain won the war, but not without going into big debt
1765 – The British government passes the Stamp Act, which requires colonists to pay taxes on certain paper documents
1767 – Britain passes the Revenue Act, nicknamed the Townshend Acts, which calls for a tax on tea, glass, paint, and more in the colonies
1768 – Around four thousand British troops are sent to Boston to control the growing resistance to the many new taxes
1770 – On March 5, five colonists are killed by British troops in Boston, in what would come to be known as the Boston Massacre
1773
May 10 – Britain passes the Tea Act, calling for a tax of three cents per pound on all tea sent to the colonies
November 28 – the first of three ships carrying tea from the British East India Company arrives in Boston Harbor
December 16 – following weeks of protests and meetings, the Boston Tea Party takes place from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
1774
March 30 – As a reaction to the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament passes the Coercive Acts
September 5 – Delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies meet at the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia to talk about how to respond to Britain’s continued attack on political and personal freedoms
1775 – On April 19, the opening shots of the Revolutionary War are fired at the battles of Lexington and Concord
1776 – On July 4, colonists adopt the Declaration of Independence, officially declaring themselves free from British rule
1783 – The Revolutionary War ends, with America’s final independence from Britain
Bonnie Bader grew up in Queens, New York. As a child, she loved reading books and writing stories, never dreaming that she would one day become an author! She has written over twenty-five books, including biographies about Martin Luther King Jr. and Jacqueline Kennedy. Today, she lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, two daughters, and cute little dog.
Connie Porter (coauthor, Addy’s Stories) grew up near Buffalo, New York, where the winters are long and hard. As girls, she and her sisters trudged through deep snow to borrow books from the bookmobile that came to the neighborhood twice a week. After the girls finished their homework at night, they crawled into their beds and read the books aloud to each other. Ms. Porter still loves to read books. Today, she lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with her daughter.
Read on for a sneak peek at another book in the Real Stories From My Time series: The Underground Railroad
Thousands of slaves took the risk of escaping on the Underground Railroad. Each one of them has a story.
In 1830, a slave named Josiah Henson decided to follow the North Star from Maryland
to Canada, where he could live as a free man. But Josiah could not flee alone. He had a wife and four children. Josiah’s wife was overcome with terror at the idea of escaping. She was afraid that they would be hunted down by dogs, brought back to their master, and whipped to death. Josiah insisted, but his wife resisted. She cried; Josiah argued. At last, his wife agreed.
On a moonless night in September, Josiah strapped his two youngest children in a knapsack and the family quietly boarded a small boat to cross a river. When they reached the shore, Josiah prayed that their journey would be safe.
For weeks, the family walked miles and miles at night. Whenever they heard a sound—a wagon’s wheels, a dog baying at the moon—they hid. Soon, their food was all eaten. The children cried with hunger. Josiah bravely knocked on doors and asked for food. But the answer was always the same: No. Still, the family pressed on.
Josiah and his family hiked through the forest over fallen logs and branches, up and down steep ravines, and across fast-moving streams. At times they heard wolves howling nearby, but they remained brave. Once, a kind person gave the family a ride in a wagon. Another gave them passage on a boat.
At last, Josiah’s family reached Canada. Josiah threw himself on the ground and kissed the sand. “I’m free!” he shouted. But this wouldn’t be Josiah’s last dangerous journey. Over his lifetime, Josiah helped approximately two hundred slaves find their way to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
The Underground Railroad did not run under the ground. It wasn’t even a real railroad, with train cars and tracks, although there were passengers. The Underground Railroad was a series of routes and hiding places that slaves took to reach freedom.
The white lines and arrows on this map show the routes people took to escape from slavery in the South to freedom in the North
No one really knows where the name “Underground Railroad” came from. One story was about a slave named Tice Davids, who escaped from Kentucky and swam across the Ohio River to freedom in Ohio. When Davids’s owner discovered he was gone, he said that his slave “must have gone off on an underground railroad.” Another story says that slave hunters in Pennsylvania came up with the name. And yet another story tells about a slave who claimed he was making his way north, where “the railroad ran underground all the way to Boston.”
Slaves desperately sought freedom and they would try to escape their harsh lives any way they could. Some walked hundreds and hundreds of miles. Others traveled by boat. Some were smuggled in a train or wagon. Most traveled at night so as not to be seen and caught.
The road to freedom was dangerous. If slaves were caught, they would be sent back to their master and punished. The punishments were horrible. But to many slaves it was worth the risk, for at the end of the road was a light—a light called freedom.
The fictional story of Addy Walker started in 1864, when Addy was nine years old. Addy; her older brother, Sam; her baby sister, Esther; and her parents were enslaved on a plantation in North Carolina. The Walkers lived in a tiny windowless cabin. They had hard lives in slavery. But they were together, and their love for each other gave them strength. Then the worst happened—Addy’s family was torn apart, as enslaved families often were, when Sam and Poppa were sold to a different owner. Addy’s family was divided, just as the nation was divided, North against South, by the Civil War.
Although Addy is a fictional character, her story will help you imagine what it was like to escape slavery on the Underground Railroad.
“The night is real hot and I’m sweating. On my pallet, I try hard not to move—I don’t want to bother my brother, Sam, who’s sleeping at my feet, or baby Esther at my side. Flies buzz in my ears. I can hear more buzzing—a different kind. Momma and Poppa whispering. I want to hear what they’re sayin’, but I know I best keep still and pretend I’m asleep.
“Poppa get up and walk ’cross the dirt floor. He tell Momma we need to run away from Master Stevens’s plantation. Poppa say the time is right to take our freedom. He wants us to run to the North. But Momma don’t want to go.
“Then Poppa say Uncle Solomon tell him of railroad tracks near ten miles up the road. Uncle Solomon say we should follow them north till they cross another set of tracks. Where they cross, look for a house with red shutters. That’s a safe house. An old white woman live there, name Miss Caroline, and she gonna help us.
“I’m scared as I listen to Poppa talk. Almost too scared to breathe. Was we really going to run away and take a train north to freedom? I never seen a train, but I want to. I’m scared, but I’m ready for my family to live free.”
Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Special thanks to Benjamin L. Carp
Photos ©: back cover: Library of Congress; Chapter 2: North Wind Picture Archives, Library of Congress; Chapter 3: North Wind Picture Archives; Chapter 4: Library of Congress, Historia/REX/Shutterstock; Chapter 5: Library of Congress, Alfredo Dagli Orti/REX/Shutterstock, Library of Congress; Chapter 7: Library of Congress; Chapter 8: North Wind Picture Archives, Library of Congress; Chapter 9: Library of Congress; Back matter: MPI/Getty Images
Book design by Suzanne LaGasa
Cover design by Suzanne LaGasa
Cover art by Kelley McMorris
© 2018 American Girl. All American Girl marks, Felicity™, Felicity Merriman™, Addy™, and Addy Walker™ are trademarks of American Girl. Used under license by Scholastic Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Number: 2017049568
First printing 2018
e-ISBN 978-1-338-15226-5
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
The Boston Tea Party Page 4