Summary:

"The Night the Revolution Began" is a non-fiction story which shares an inside perspective on the Boston Tea Party by following a character through the night of the rebellion. It starts after dark when men are gathering together and painting their faces to look like Mohawk Indians. About 200 men altogether gathered at the pier side.  Men who were from prominent families, or wealthy merchants were especially careful to cover their identities - they knew they could be arrested for destroying the King's property. The tax on each pound of tea was only 3 cents, a meager amount even then, but it symbolized the continued taxation of the king on the colonists. They knew that it represented the King's power over them without representation, or a chance to stick up for themselves, in Parliament. When all the tea had been thrown overboard, the men lined up and marched away - they even marched by the British Admiral, who was looking out the window of a friend's house.  He yelled to them that they'd have to pay somehow, but the colonists didn't take it seriously. As stated in the Social Studies book, after the dumping, the King wanted the colonists to pay for the tea they destroyed, AND an apology- but this never happened. This was one of the large events that led up to the inevitable American Revolution.

Questions to focus on when you read this with your child would be:

1. Why did the colonists dress up in disguise?

2. What does it mean that the tea "symbolized" the King's taxation policies?

3. Why didn't the British Admiral run out and try and stop the colonists?

4. What does taxation without representation mean? Why would the colonists be mad about it?

Key Concepts:

The Boston Tea Party was one of the major events leading up to the American Revolution.

The colonists were angry over the taxes imposed by England because they had not representation in the British Parliament where these decisions were made.

Vocabulary:

• apprentice (a person learning a trade from a master of the trade)
• lieutenant (a military officer)
• defiance (the act of disobeying)
• fife (a flute often played by one member of a marching army)
• boycott (to refuse to buy or use a product) 

Spelling:

Possessive nouns (when the noun is plural already, just add the apostrophe)

Try:  boys’, girls’, ladies’, parents’, waitresses’, babies’ and  actor’s, pilot’s, writer’s, boss’s

Story questions:

1. Why did some men take extra care to disguise themselves? (they were important men who could be arrested if recognized)

2. Why did the colonists wan to get rid of all the tea in the ships?  (angry because the British were taxing them without giving them a voice in decisions)

3. Why did the "Sons of Liberty" take care not to disturb anything else on board the ships?  (they did not want to be blamed for anything but the tea)

4. Why was the 3-cent a pound tax a symbol of British tyranny?  (Britain wanted to be able to tax the colonists, but the British government refused to give them a voice in Parliment)