Worksheet # 33 Home Questions Puzzle Links Next
REBELLION
BREWS IN BOSTON
And angry groups soon gathered by the townÕs tallest
tree,
With names like The Daughters and The Sons of Liberty.
Who gave the tax-takers the fine choice of whether
To forgo their collections or wear the tar and the feather!
And fitful and fuming, the colonies chose not
To buy British-made goods in a continental
boycott.
They donned their rough clothes, homespun and threadbare,
-- But worn with great pride in the cause they did
share.
Yes, King George would learn that theyÕd never be
cowed,
And to speak as one voice, the thirteen colonies
vowed.
ÔTwas a time of great tumult with passions so high
Some even hinted that they should live free or die!
So the days grew tense with the colonists furious,
ÔTil a cold night in Boston turned deadly serious.
As a snowballing crowd hit EnglandÕs tax officer
And the redcoats shot five in The Boston
Massacre.
And how tempers did flare! --- though many said it was
wise
To try as they could to still reach compromise.
And so the Crown ended taxes, only leaving in use
A wee tariff on tea, believing none would refuse.
Ah, but refuse they did, as New England turned frantic
And dumped the KingÕs tea in a now-flavored Atlantic.
Mobs dressed up as Mohawks and marched down to the sea,
They stormed onto ships and they tossed off the tea!
And the waves churned and roiled that fateful night,
For the tea leaves were clear: men were willing to
fight!
And that none on these shores would have of the notion
That the King might tax them from across the ocean.
And The Boston Tea Party, as the night was then called,
Greatly maddened King George who quite shortly
installed
New laws on New England, to punish those rebels
Who treated his rule like a handful of pebbles!