Boston Tea Party painting by jacob Lawerence

When I entered the art museum, I knew I wanted to find something that interested me and made me want to think. As I approached Jacob Lawrence's collections, I found myself constantly looking back at a certain photo. I stared in awe at the painting of multiple angry Indians. The picture was called "The Boston Tea Party." It showed multiple natives arguing about something unfair. After reading the notes of Jacob Lawrence, himself, and some other students comments, I formed an idea of my own. My thoughts were that the dressed up Indians
didn't wan't to pay for the high price tea that the British kept raising. The history behind the painting was that on December 6th, 1773, there was a protest by colonists in Boston against the tea tax which was forced upon by the British government. In a result of the tea tax, Boston colonists had dressed up as Mohawk Indians and dumped approximately 342 container s of tea into the harbor from three British boats. The Boston tea party was originally organized by the sons of liberty. Jacob Lawrence's painting shows the anger of the time when tax had just started and begun to rise as well as the effect it had on the colonists. When looking at the painting, I found it's moods to be mad but happy at the same time. Before the Boston tea party, colonists were furious with taxes in general but raising the taxes for one of the most common things in Boston, which was there tea. After the Boston tea party the reaction was joy and celebratory due to showing the British government their thought. I think that Jacob Lawrence painted this artwork because it expresses an act that showed how far American colonists were to go to speak for their freedom.