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Events from the year 1773 in Canada.
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The story behind the Boston Tea Party - Ben Labaree
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1773 Apple Pie - One of the Earliest Recipes
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The British-American War of 1812 - Explained in 13 Minutes
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Timeline of Canadian History
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French and Indian War Era, 1750-1763 | Britain, France, & North America | Amherst & Montcalm
Transcription
You've probably heard of the Boston Tea Party, something about a bunch of angry colonists dressed as Native Americans throwing chests of tea into the water. But the story is far more complicated, filled with imperial intrigue, corporate crisis, smuggling, and the grassroots origins of the American Revolution. The first thing you need to know about tea in the 1700's is that it was really, really popular. In England, each man, woman, and child consumed almost 300 cups of this stuff every year. And, since the English colonized America, Americans were crazy about tea too. By the 1760's, they were drinking over a million pounds of tea every year. So, when Britain wanted to increase taxes on tea in America, people were not happy, mostly because they had no say in tax decisions made in London. Remember that famous phrase, "No taxation without representation"? The American colonists had long believed that they were not subject to taxes imposed by legislature in which they lacked representation. In fact, rather than paying the taxes, they simply dodged the tax collectors. Since the east coast of America is hundreds of miles long and British enforcement was lax, about 3/4 of the tea Americans were drinking was smuggled in, usually from Holland. But the British insisted that Parliament did have the authority to tax the colonists, especially after Britain went deeply into debt fighting the French in the Seven Years' War. To close the budget gap, London looked to Americans, and in 1767 imposed new taxes on a variety of imports, including the American's beloved tea. America's response: no thanks! They boycotted the importation of tea from Britain, and instead, brewed their own. After a new bunch of British customs commissioners cried to London for troops to help with tax enforcement, things got so heated that the Red Coats fired on a mob in Boston, killing several people, in what was soon called the Boston Massacre. Out of the terms of the 1773 Tea Act, Parliament cooked up a new strategy. Now the East India Company would sell the surplus tea directly through hand-picked consignees in America. This would lower the price to consumers, making British tea competitive with the smuggled variety while retaining some of the taxes. But the colonists saw through the British ploy and cried, "Monopoly!" Now it's a cold and rainy December 16, 1773. About 5,000 Bostonians are crowded into the Old South Meeting House, waiting to hear whether new shipments of tea that have arrived down the harbor will be unloaded for sale. When the captain of one of those ships reported that he could not leave with his cargo on board, Sam Adams rose to shout, "This meeting can do no more to save the country!" Cries of "Boston Harbor a teapot tonight!" rang out from the crowd, and about 50 men, some apparently dressed as Native Americans, marched down to Griffin's Wharf, stormed aboard three ships, and threw 340 tea chests overboard. An infuriated British government responsded with the so-called Coercive Acts of 1774, which, among other things, closed the port of Boston until the locals compensated the East India Company for the tea. That never happened. Representatives of the colonies gathered at Philadelphia to consider how best to respond to continued British oppression. This first Continental Congress supported destruction of the tea, pledged to support a continued boycott, and went home in late October 1774 even more united in their determination to protect their rights and liberties. The Boston Tea Party began a chain reaction that led with little pause to the Declaration of Independence and a bloody rebellion, after which the new nation was free to drink its tea, more or less, in peace.
Incumbents
Governors
- Governor of the Province of Quebec: Guy Carleton
- Governor of Nova Scotia: Lord William Campbell
- Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland: John Byron
- Governor of St. John's Island: Walter Patterson
Events
- December – Prominent French Canadians petition the King to restore their ancient laws and accord them the rights of British subjects, reminding him that five-sixths of the seigniories belong to Frenchmen. They represent that the Labrador Coast and fisheries, now alienated to Newfoundland, should revert to Canada. They prefer a Legislative Council, nominated by the King, because less expensive than an Elective Assembly.
- Lord Dartmouth promises Canadians just and considerate treatment respecting their religion.
- Montreal Ft. La Traite, on Churchill River, by Frobisher to cut into HBC's trade.
Births
- January 14 – William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, diplomat and governor general (d.1857)
- March 29 – Samuel Street Wilmot, surveyor, tanner, farmer, justice of the peace, and assemblyman in Upper Canada (d. 1856)
Full date unknown
- Joseph Willcocks, diarist, office holder, printer, publisher, journalist, politician, and army officer (d.1814)
Deaths
- January 31 – Sebastian Zouberbuhler, merchant and politician in Nova Scotia
Historical documents
Canada
Attorney General says minimize change to laws of Canada, which should conform to its form of government, religion and revenue (Note: "savage" used)[2]
Two Exchequer-linked MPs say ministry has been asleep for 7 years while Canada needed proper government; Lord North says reforms will come in time[3]
Earl of Dartmouth on Quebec policies (religion, western territory) to be addressed shortly, plus cases involving Indigenous people (Note: "savages" used)[4]
Ninety freeholders sign petition to lieutenant-governor for popular assembly in Quebec, citing its good effect on "peace, welfare, and good government"[5]
Indigenous man from St.-Francois in Boston to seek "satisfaction for the deaths of several Indians[...]killed at different times in the woods by the English"[6]
21st Regiment leaving Quebec after 1 year, during which only 4 soldiers died - matchless record, even against "young and healthy Corps" from Britain[7]
"Marie Louise Blanchard was inhumanly beat and abus'd by some Soldiers in such a Manner that she expir'd" next morning[8]
Gazette co-owner's widow asks debtors pay money owed partnership so she can clear his debts and assume partnership management now denied her[9]
Pierre Ignace Dubois, baker, and his wife, Therese Charlotte Campion, buy stone house on Notre-Dame St., Montreal, for 6,500 shillings[10]
Surveyor-general, 4 Abenaki and 2 Hurons complete 3-month trek from Quebec to Boston to find best route for road between Canada and Massachusetts[11]
Nova Scotia
Temporary stop to shipping Nova Scotia grain, flour, meal or pease from Bay of Fundy ports before threshing season, and "to prevent a Scarcity thereof"[12]
Ed. Donahoo, having pled guilty to "assault with an intent to ravish" 8-year-old, is sentenced to 1 hour in pillory, £10 fine and 1 month in prison[13]
500 acre lot of cleared land for lease is on former site of Indigenous settlement at edge of 9-mile-long Eel Lake, between Barrington and Yarmouth[14]
Late Haligonian's estate at auction includes wharf, farm and other lots, fish barrels, seine, salmon nets, and "also a Negro named Prince" in private sale[15]
Missionary's Gospel guide is for poor people of Lunenburg to understand "Christian doctrine and Christian duty, as far as it is necessary in your Station"[16]
Books for sale in Halifax: "Macaulay's history of England," "Spectators, Tatlers, and Guardian," "Pope's Works, 4 vol." and "Smollet's Don Quixotte, 4 vol"[17]
With death of long-time Halifax schoolmaster, another plans to teach "Reading and Writing English, Bookkeeping, practical Geometry, Mensuration" etc.[18]
"Anna Fisher [will open a school in Halifax to] Teach Children the Rudiments of Reading and Writing, Sewing, and all sorts of Needle-Work"[19]
"John Rea, Master of Musick in the 59th Regt. takes this opportunity of informing the Public, that he teaches the German Flute"[20]
"The nights are now of a great length, therefore take care that you do not sleep too much, that being as hurtful to the body as too little."[21]
Prince Edward Island
St. John's Island "settlers turn themselves to the farming business," and their rich soil "produces excellent crops of the finest wheat in America"[22]
Because Island lacks enough qualified jurors in each county, criminal and civil cases will be tried in Queen's County with any Island jurors[23]
Newfoundland
Royal Navy cruisers are to seize "all mercantile goods, spirituous liquors, &c." that cannot be considered Newfoundland fishers' ship stores[24]
Labrador
George Cartwright's Inuit guests in England enjoy visit, but all but one die on return to Labrador and their people's "violent, frantic expressions of grief"[25]
Cartwright on his "slave girl's" father, to whom he traded bait-skiff for her and who died, leaving Cartwright "a legacy of two wives and three children"[26]
Elsewhere
"Sleeping at the edge of the sea" - Hudson's Bay Company loses trade of inland Indigenous people to "numerous and indefatigable" Canadian traders[27]
Alexander Henry the elder sets miners to work on vein of copper on Lake Superior north shore, but difficulty of work and diminishing vein end operation[28]
"We have certain advices from Boston" that people "dressed like Indians" went on East India Company ship and threw overboard about 340 chests of tea[29]
John Harrison, inventor of marine chronometer for determining longitude, receives £9,585 as final installment of £20,000 prize "for his useful discovery"[30]
References
- ^ "Kings and Queens of Canada". aem. 11 August 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
- ^ "Report of Attorney General, Edwd. Thurlow" (January 22, 1773), Documents Relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759-1791 (1907), pgs. 306-10 (PDF frames 319-24). Accessed 21 July 2022
- ^ "London; April 24" The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 444 (July 15, 1773), 1st-2nd pgs. Accessed 20 July 2022
- ^ "Dartmouth to Cramahé" (December 1, 1773), Documents Relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759-1791 (1907), pgs. 338-40 (PDF frames 352-4). Accessed 12 August 2022
- ^ "To the honourable Hector Theophilus Cramahé(....)" An Account of the Proceedings of the British [in] Quebec [for] An House of Assembly[....], pgs. 11-15 (Images 16-20; delivered December 3, 1773). (See also petitioners' attempts to recruit Canadians (texts in French) and Canadians' own petition with English translation) Accessed 14 July 2022
- ^ "Boston, May 10," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, Number 143 (May 25, 1773), last pg. Accessed 18 July 2022
- ^ "Quebec, July 15" The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 444 (July 15, 1773), 3rd pg. Accessed 20 July 2022
- ^ "Avertissements; Publick Notice(....)" The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 443 (July 8, 1773), 3rd pg. (See $100 reward and pardon offered for information (3rd pg.), and acquital for lack of evidence against six men tried for murder (3rd pg.)) Accessed 20 July 2022
- ^ "Mary Gilmore(....)" The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 448 (August 12, 1773), 3rd pg. (See partner's denial of her assertions (3rd pg.), her reply to him (2nd pg.) and his response (3rd pg.)) Accessed 20 July 2022
- ^ "Avertissements; Publick Notice(....)" The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 418 (January 7, 1773), 3rd pg. Accessed 19 July 2022
- ^ "Providence, October 30" The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 466 (December 16, 1773), 2nd pg. Accessed 20 July 2022
- ^ "An Act to prevent for a limitted Time the Exportation or Shipping of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Flour, Meal, and Pease, from any of the Ports or Places in this Province, within the Bay of Fundy" (1773), 13 George III - Chapter 5 (Session 1), British North American Legislative Database, 1758-1867. Accessed 14 July 2022
- ^ "Halifax, August 17," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, Number 152 (August 17, 1773), Page 4 of 4. Accessed 18 July 2022
- ^ "To be Let[...]About 500 Acres", The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, Number 124 (January 12, 1773), Page 2 of 4. Accessed 15 July 2022
- ^ "To be Sold, By Public Auction," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, Number 148 (June 29, 1773), Page 2 of 4. Accessed 18 July 2022
- ^ "To All the Settlers and Inhabitants of the Township of Lunenburg(...)and especially the Poor, whether bound or free" The Gospel of Christ Preached to the Poor, pg. (III). Accessed 14 July 2022
- ^ "New Books," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, Number 145 (June 8, 1773), 2nd pg. (See also criticism of "Dr. Cadogen's Dissertation on the Gout, and all other Chronic Diseases" one of these books (Page 4 of 4)) Accessed 18 July 2022
- ^ "The Subscriber," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, Number 148 (June 29, 1773), Page 2 of 4. (See also death notice of former school master (Page 4 of 4, bottom right corner)) Accessed 18 July 2022
- ^ "Anna Fisher," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, Number 140 (May 4, 1773), Page 2 of 4. Accessed 18 July 2022
- ^ "John Rea," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, Number 148 (June 29, 1773), Page 2 of 4. Accessed 18 July 2022
- ^ January 1773, "The Nova-Scotia Calendar; Or an Almanack; For the year of the Christian Æræ, 1773," Image 9. (See also poem "On Sleep") Accessed 14 July 2022
- ^ "A Gentleman returned from the island of St. John's(....)" The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 466 (December 16, 1773), 2nd pg. Accessed 20 July 2022
- ^ "An Act for the more easy and effectual Trial(...)of what nature or kind soever(....)" George III, 13th Year, Chapter 8, The Statutes at Large, of Prince Edward Island[...]1773 to 1833, inclusive (1834), pgs. 6-8. Accessed 23 February 2023
- ^ "July 12" The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 458 (October 21, 1773), 3rd pg. Accessed 20 July 2022
- ^ C.W. Townsend (ed.), Captain Cartwright and His Labrador Journal (1911), pgs. 128-39 Accessed 15 July 2022
- ^ C.W. Townsend (ed.), "Sunday, October 10, 1773," Captain Cartwright and His Labrador Journal (1911), pg. 143 (See also Cartwright takes one child to England and has him fatally inoculated for smallpox) Accessed 15 July 2022
- ^ Edward Umfreville, The Present State of Hudson's Bay (1790), pgs. 70-1 (See also HBC in 1773 "begin their inland voyages" to detriment of Indigenous people) Accessed 15 July 2022
- ^ Alexander Henry the elder, Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories[....] (1809), pg. 234 Accessed 15 July 2022
- ^ "Halifax, Dec. 28," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, Number 171 (December 28, 1773), Page 3 of 4. (See also letter with details of events leading to and likely results of Tea Party) Accessed 18 July 2022
- ^ "On Saturday Mr. Harrison(....)" The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 468 (December 30, 1773), 3rd pg. Accessed 20 July 2022