Boston Tea Party

BOSTON TEA PARTY

BOSTON TEA PARTY. The British East India Company, facing severe financial reverses, convinced Parliament to allow them to sell tea in the American colonies at a price that would undercut even smuggled Dutch tea, and raise revenue while clearing their warehouses of a huge surplus. Unfortunately, this tea would still carry the despised three-pence per pound tax, which had remained as a token duty, and would be sold through only a handful of dealers in America. This high-handed policy united small merchants, left out of the deal, with patriot organizations that protested the tax. The arrival of the tea ships Eleanor, Dartmouth and Beaver sparked public protest in Boston, including public meetings, fliers and harassment of the consignees, who took shelter in Castle William to avoid the crowds.

The Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams, decided on 13 December 1773 that the tea must not be unloaded, nor could it remain onboard twenty days and thus be seized for sale by customs officials. On 16 December, the night the Sons of Liberty planned their raid, a public protest at the Old South Meeting House turned rowdy after someone suggested dumping the tea in the harbor. As protesters stormed out of the meeting house, they met Sons of Liberty, costumed as Narragansett Indians, on their way to do the same thing. With a crowd of perhaps 1,000 Bostonians following, the "Indians" and volunteers stormed the three ships and in a three-hour fracas, broke open all 342 of the tea chests and dumped them into the harbor, which was at low tide.

The attackers were conscientious, and they damaged no ship or other cargo. Only one man was injured, knocked unconscious by a collapsing winch. However, they had ruined 18,000 pounds worth of tea and infuriated the British government, particularly the king. Despite arresting a barber named Francis Eckley, who had been caught bragging about his participation, the Boston authorities were unable to find anyone who could identify

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the protestors. Patriots tarred and feathered Eckley's accuser in retaliation. George III specifically noted the Tea Party in his address to Parliament, and he and Prime Minister Lord North pushed through the Coercive Acts by April 1774. The Coercive Acts were designed to punish Boston and the colony of Massachusetts. They sparked further protests and eventually, war between Britain and her American colonies.

Although usually considered by itself, the Boston Tea Party was a natural growth of other protests against the British administration in Boston, centered on royal governor Thomas Hutchinson and his subordinates. Until the publication of Thomas Paine's Common Sense in 1776, these protests were notable in their careful avoidance of blaming George III, instead focusing on his council or colonial administrators. The costumes and violence of the Tea Party were also an outgrowth of regular crowd demonstrations in Boston, including burning Catholic figures in effigy, vandalizing administrator's homes or intimidating customs and tax inspectors. Even when not politically motivated, the apprentices and laborers of Boston also engaged in highly charged territorial contests that often ended in injuries and rowdy outbursts, and were led by men who took pains to hide their appearance using symbolic disguises. In all these respects, it was not the Tea Party itself that was unusual, but the British reaction to it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Griswold, Wesley S. The Night the Revolution Began. Brattleboro, Vt.: The Stephen Green Press, 1972.

Labarre, Benjamin Woods. The Boston Tea Party. New York: Oxford University Press, 1964.

Shaw, Peter. American Patriots and the Rituals of Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981.

Margaret D. Sankey

See also Sons of Liberty (American Revolution) ; Townshend Acts .