Thomas Hutchinson, however, would not allow the tea ships to return to England until the duty had been paid. On the evening of December 16, a group of Bostonians, instigated by the American patriot Samuel Adams and disguised as Indians, boarded the vessels and emptied the tea into Boston Harbor. When the government of Boston refused to pay for the tea, the British closed the port. The acts by the British with the tea provoked Bostonians. Because of this they were pushed too far. After what happened with the Boston Massacre, the Patriots wanted something that could push them over the edge to start the Revolution and with the taxes this moved them a few steps closer. This should have taught the British a lesson, but it didn't.The Stamp Act was an act introduced by the British Prime Minister George Grenville and passed by the British Parliament in 1765 as means of raising revenue in the American colonies. It required all legal documents, licenses, commercial contracts, newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards to carry a tax stamp. The act extended to the colonies the system of stamp duties then employed in Great Britain and was intended to raise money to lower the cost of maintaining the military defenses of the colonies. Passed without debate, it aroused widespread opposition among the colonists, who argued that because they were not represented in Parliament, they could not legally be taxed without their consent. The Stamp Act was the one that pushed the colonies over the edge.Although The Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, and Stamp Act were only three events that helped cause The American Revolution, they were major. Without them there might not have been a Revolution. Let's hope nothing like The American Revolution ever happens again, and no country puts stupid taxes on any other country....
