Miguel A. Medina

Mr. Gerdes

AP Language and Composition

January 20, 2011

Tea and Antipathy Summary

In the article Tea and Antipathy, Caleb Crain analyzes the reasons why the American Revolution

may have occurred. One theory is that merchants may have been in charge of all the occurrences that

happened during the American Revolution but then again they became victims of the revolutionaries

themselves. The main question that Crain addresses is the fact whether or not the Tea Party from the

American Revolution was a good idea. In the past one of the main issues was that merchants had to

often break the law to sell their products. Often at odds with the law, it was natural that at times in

order to because a major difference in regulations merchants organized boycotts of British merchandise

to ensure that changes would be made. Some holdouts were around and measures were taken against

them. One way was publishing their name in the paper to the public. If that did not work, then drastic

measures were taken such as destruction of property and possibility of harm to those that hold out. The

public did turn on the merchants though, like previously stated, since in reality the organized boycotts

were for their personal interest. When prices became high for goods they decided that they could

manage with Tea Tax so they began importing again. Further down the road, merchants tried to cause

uproar among the public once again since the direct importation being allowed by the British

government basically cut them out as the middleman meaning they could make no profit. Evidently

many people suffered because of the protests and as the article states many people such as George

Washington and Benjamin Franklin disapproved of it. So in the end, there is a great chance that the

merchants were in fact the ones pulling the strings of the American Revolution for personal gain.