December 16th, 2023 is the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. To celebrate I spoke briefly at my DAR chapter's Christmas luncheon about the event:
The Boston Tea Party took place the night of December 16th 1773. 116 men are documented as having participated, but it is estimated that 100s of men actually took part.
The three ships holding tea had arrived in the Boston Harbour at the end of November and the first and middle of December....each carrying more than a 100 chests of British East Indian Tea. The colonists had asked the Royal Governor Hutchinson to allow the ships to be sent back to England without unloading the tea. He did not respond to this request. On December 17th customs officials were scheduled to board the ships to unload the tea. Once the tea was unloaded the tax would have to be paid.
The colonist's major complaint was not that the tea was being taxed but that Parliament implemented the tax with no representation by the colonists, Parliament exerted this power move to gain more control over the colonists.
Remember that the British Government and the colonists had recently fought the French and Indian war which ended in 1763. This had been an expensive war for the British and they felt that the colonists should help pay the bill. Great Britain was deep in debt.
Great Britain had imposed the Stamp Act in 1765 and the Townsend Act in 1767 which taxed essentials such as lead, glass, paint and tea.
John Hancock and Samuel Adams, architects of the Boston Tea party planned the even, but stayed at Faneuil Hall to establish an alibi. These were ordinary men doing an extraordinary action.
The Tea Party participants (a group of men who called themselves the sons of Liberty) destroyed 340 chests of tea weighing more than 92,000 pounds by dumping it into Boston Harbor.
What happened after the Boston Tea Party was even more amazing. Men and women in other colonies rallied behind this idea and organized similar protests in their cities.
As a result of the destruction of the tea in Boston, the British cut off all access to Boston by land and sea for three years. Bostonians were prevented from starving by sneaking food into Boston during those three years.
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