Today, students are told with great animation the story of the Boston Tea Party. Younger children may even make Indian masks to act out the riot. But before we can understand all of the hype and glamour about the party's grand finale, we need to know the rational behind the rebellion. Why commit such an expensive and destructive act? What lead up to the event? And what was the straw that broke the colonists' backs? …showed first 75 words of 335 total…

…showed last 75 words of 335 total…destruction was worth over $13,000. History credits Samuel Adams as being the mastermind behind this perfect retaliation. But when and where the actual idea popped into his mind is a question the rest of us Americans-- 228 years later-- can only ponder. All we have left of that fateful night is a wistful pondering of what the reality must have been like and a name that we pass down in our history books: the Boston Tea Party.