The following excerpt is taken from a broadsheet (newspaper) published in Philadelphia in December 1773. It is a reaction by the colonists to the British East India Company and the role they played in getting theTea Act(Links to an external site.)

passed.

"The East India Company if once they get Footing in this once happy Country, will leave no Stone unturned to become your Masters. They have a designing, depraved and despotic Ministry to assist and support them. Theythemselves are well versed inTyranny, Plunder, Oppression andBloodshed...Thus they have enrichedthemselves, thus they are become the most poweful Trading company in the Universe."

1. The colonists, shortly after the article was published, set out to have "tea parties" in which they boarded the ships of the British East India Company and began tipping tea chests into colonial harbors (the biggest taking place on December 13, 1773 in Boston). What factors would account for the colonists finally being pushed to such actions?
2. How did the British government respond to the actions of the colonists?
3. How would our government react today to protestors making a political statement by destroying the property of a major corporation?