240 years ago to the day, a group of disgruntled Bostonians boldly destroyed an entire supply of British tea by dumping it into Boston Harbor in what has become one of the most historically significant nonviolent protests in the history of our nation. The Boston Tea Party, as it has since come to be colloquially referred, was the catalyst for sparking the birth of the United States, the resounding sentiment of “no taxation without representation” in the colonies and that of treachery and treason in Great Britain.
The idea of the Boston Tea Party remains soundly situated in American lore, a symbol of patriotism and defiance to tyranny, and lives on today as the namesake of the far-right faction of the Republican Party. But to help celebrate this American milestone and subsequent country the momentous event helped to conceive, here are five fun facts you might not know about the Boston Tea Party.
1. A perfect storm of events
Rather than saying the Boston Tea Party was in response to a single legislative measure that unfairly taxed colonial America, one has to realize that, in retrospect, it was in response to a slew of Parliamentary and Royal procedures that culminated with the Tea Party. Americans had already been subjected to the likes of the Stamp Act – which taxed paper goods heavily, anything from legal documents to playing cards – as well as the Townshend Acts – which allowed Parliament to tax the colonies on the strict basis of raising revenue without their consent – to help Britain repay its debts from perpetual war with neighboring France. Thus, when the Tea Act was passed, forcing Americans to pay taxes on tea cargo that they were forced to unload without question, they simply had had enough. Keep in mind that Britain had a global monopoly on the tea trade out of the likes of China and India, so finding the beverage elsewhere was difficult, illegal and expensive.
2. It was the Sons of Liberty
In November 1773, Samuel Adams called for a meeting upon learning that three ships carrying tea would anchor and unload in Boston Harbor. There Adams led the discussion on whether or not Bostonians ought to receive the 342 chests of tea or not. Those in discussion appointed 25 men to guard the ship. When the other two ships arrived and Thomas Hutchinson, the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, refused to allow them to set sail across the Atlantic without paying the required duty. A protest of thousands of people amassed at Sam Adams’s town meeting with some 30 to 60 men dressed as Native Americans stormed the ships and dumped the cargo.
3. It crippled Boston
Naturally, King George III and his cohorts were outraged by this show of opposition by the colonists. In response, he and Parliament passed what became known in the colonies as the “Intolerable Acts,” a series of measures that essentially put Boston out of business for an extended period of time. The acts literally closed the entire port of Boston until it had reimbursed the Crown for the tea the protesters had ruined and severely limited Bostonians’ right to assemble and host town meetings. Further, they forced Boston residents to house British soldiers in their own homes and allowed the Governor to send any British official accused of any crime to another colony or even Great Britain if by his discretion felt said official would not receive a fair trial in Massachusetts – despite this being completely proved otherwise by the aftermath of the Boston Massacre.
4. It helped unite the colonies
For much of the 17th and 18th centuries, colonies saw themselves as more independent of each other than a singular colonial entity. That notion lived on until the Tea Party, as many of the colonies felt that a legislative attack against one, the closing of Boston Harbor in particular, was attack against all. George Washington reportedly referred to the Intolerable Acts as the ‘Murder Acts,’ in acknowledgement of the devastation the acts imposed on Boston and could do to other port cities like New York, Philadelphia and Charleston. Thus, the First Continental Congress was born. And although the Congress’s only real accomplishment was an agreement by delegates to boycott British goods, it set the stage for the Second Continental Congress from which emerged the Declaration of Independence, the appointment of Washington as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army and the sculpting of the Founding Fathers.
5. Reenactments abound
Join the Old South Meeting House and The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum for an accurate reenactment of the Boston Tea Party events, from the Sam Adams-led meeting at the former to the march down to Griffin’s Wharf (now Independent Wharf), where the latter took place. Be aware that tickets online are sold out but can be bought in person for $20 at the Old South Meeting House Museum Shop. The event kicks off at 6:30 p.m. at the Old South Meeting House so be sure to get your tickets accordingly and dress warmly. See you there!
