"Last night, three cargos of Bohea Tea were emptied into the sea. This is the most magnificent moment of all. There is a dignity, a majesty, a sublimity, in this last effort of the Patriots that I greatly admire . . . This destruction of the tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important consequences, and so lasting, that I can't but consider it as an epoch of history."
John Adams, in his diary, December 17, 1773
On December 16, 1773, an angry mob fresh from incendiary speeches at the Old South Meeting House marched down to Griffins Wharf at Boston Harbor and witnessed a group of men dressed as Mohawks climb aboard three British ships: the Eleanor, Brig Beaver and the Dartmouth. Without a sound, the “Indians” dumped three hundred forty-two boxes of valuable tea belonging to the East India Company overboard.[5] According to both British and American sources, not a single box was overlooked, and the participants, as well as some onlookers, were searched to make certain no person made off with any (at least one person tried).
This destruction of property was a major crime and somewhat discomforting for England; several investigations were made into the matter.[6] Early the next year an assembly of Loyalists from every town in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, passed a set of resolutions, one of which stated, “That no obedience is due from the province to either, or any part of the acts [of shutting up Boston Port], but that they ought to be rejected as the wicked attempts of an abandoned administration to establish a despotic government.”[7] However, shortly after the destruction of the tea, non-loyalist inhabitants and Freeholders in Charlestown (outside of Boston) passed a resolution that they would not stand for any tea to be present in their homes, and they proposed burning all East India tea in their market square.[8] Due to the political and economic turmoil this event created or exacerbated in the colonies, no who participated that night spoke of the event, and only one person was ever convicted of the crime.[9]
The destruction of tea was encouraged, and possibly even organized, by the wealthy smugglers, who stood to lose the most by the British tax on tea in the colonies. The American people actually benefited by the East India Trading Company's near-monopoly on importation, as it cost them approximately one shilling less from the Company for the same amount of tea. The smugglers couldn't beat this price and still turn a viable profit. This threat to put the smugglers out of business was enough to excite them into protest. True, the few legitimate importers of tea also stood to lose ground, and this was technically "taxation without representation." However, England felt she was paying for the ongoing protection of her young colony from hostile Amerindian tribes and from the rival European powers also in the Americas.
After the war, and once the United States actually achieved independence along with international recognition, such radical events leading to the Revolution were kept quiet and certainly not celebrated. This was partly due to embarrassment, but also for fear it would incite further rebellion. Revolutionary War veterans were ignored, Bunker Hill was leveled, and the precise location for what would later be called the Boston Tea Party was filled in and forgotten.
“The destruction of the tea in 1773… was virtually lost in the sixty years after the Revolution as the elites who established their cultural domination chose to erase the radical or ‘popular’ side of the Revolution: the ‘mob’ actions, the farmer’s rebellions, the quest for equality. When the event was recovered in the 1830s, it returned as ‘The Boston Tea Party,’ a name that reduced an act of civil disobedience to a comic, frivolous and safe event.”[10] For years, many of the participants were unknown, simply because it was not something of which to be proud during its day. By the time it was finally celebrated and allowed into public memory, most of the original participants had died, and those left failed to remember many of the names of their disguised companions. Only with new research has this forgotten history and the names of those who lived it come to light. [11]
Bibliography and Other Sources for Continued Reading
Alfred F. Young, “Revolution in Boston? Eight Propositions for Public History on the Freedom Trail,” The Public Historian, Vol. 25, No. 2, (Spring 2003), pgs. 17-41.
Alfred F. Young, The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution, Beacon Press, 1999.
In the Minds and Hearts of the People: Prologue to the American Revolution, 1760-1774, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1971.
Arthur Meier Schlesinger, “Political Mobs and the American Revolution, 1765-1776,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 99, No. 4., 30 August 1955.
Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Boston, 1905, located at the Massachusetts Historical Society of 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA, 448-454.
Peggy Mullen, “Steeped in History: Chest from Boston Tea Party returns to harbor to become centerpiece of new museum,” The Patriot Ledger, Boston, 6 January 2005.
McManus/Peterman Architects, “Boston Tea Party and Ship Museum: Historic Tours of America,” Architectural Plans, 19 May 2004.
“News and Opinion,” Boston News-Letter, 30 December 1773, Issue 3665, pg 2.
Sylvanus Urban, ed., “Account of the Proceedings of the American Colonies since the passing of the Boston Port Bill,” The Gentleman’s Magazine, London, November 1774.
William Price, A new plan of ye great town of Boston in New England in America with the many additionall [sic] buildings & new streets, 1769.
Sir Thomas Hyde Page, A plan of the town of Boston with the entrenchments of His Majesty's forces in 1775, from the observations of Lieut. Page of His Majesty's Corps of Engineers, and from those of other gentlemen, 1777.
[1] Arthur Meier Schlesinger, “Political Mobs and the American Revolution, 1765-1776,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 99, No. 4., 30 August 1955, pg. 245.
[2] “News and Opinion,” Boston News-Letter, 30 December 1773, Issue 3665, pg 2.
[3] Sylvanus Urban, ed., “Account of the Proceedings of the American Colonies since the passing of the Boston Port Bill,” The Gentleman’s Magazine, London, November 1774, 516.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Alfred F. Young, The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution, (Boston: Beacon Press), 1999.
[6] Alfred F. Young, “Revolution in Boston? Eight Propositions for Public History on the Freedom Trail,” The Public Historian, Vol. 25, No. 2, Spring 2003, pg. 22.
[7] Alfred F. Young, The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution.
Remainder of footnotes inexplicably cut off. Will remedy before end of day.
Remainder of footnotes inexplicably cut off. Will remedy before end of day.
In the heat of Oklahoma circa Summer, 2011, I would love to read of things being thrown into the water, too!
ReplyDeleteThat is a great read. Thank you.