In Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor.
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The midnight raid, popularly known as the “Boston Tea Party,” was in protest of the British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. The low tax allowed the East India Company to undercut even tea smuggled into America by Dutch traders, and many colonists viewed the act as another example of taxation tyranny.
When three tea ships, the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver, arrived in Boston Harbor, the colonists demanded that the tea be returned to England. After Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused, Patriot leader Samuel Adams organized the “tea party” with about 60 members of the Sons of Liberty, his underground resistance group. The British tea dumped in Boston Harbor on the night of December 16 was valued at some $18,000.
Parliament, outraged by the blatant destruction of British property, enacted the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts, in 1774. The Coercive Acts closed Boston to merchant shipping, established formal British military rule in Massachusetts, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America, and required colonists to quarter British troops. The colonists subsequently called the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance to the British.
This version by history.com is a perfect example of the axiom that history is written by the winners …. and, also, that if a story is told often enough it becomes accepted as true, even though it may not be.
There are many questionable “facts” in the above presentation. I will cover some of them in an upcoming pictorial on the American Revolution. Here is one fact; at least one Founding Father was displeased with this act of vandalism.
Benjamin Franklin was in London when the event occurred, and this is what he wrote:
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LONDON, Feb. 2, 1774
Gentlemen: I received the Honour of your Letter dated Decr. 21, containing a distinct Account of the Proceedings at Boston relative to the Tea imported there, and of the Circumstances that occasioned its Destruction. I communicated the same to Lord Dartmouth, with some other Advices of the same import. It is yet unknown what Measures will be taken here on the Occasion; but the Clamour against the Proceedings is high and general. I am truly concern’d, as I believe all considerate Men are with you, that there should seem to any a Necessity for carrying Matters to such Extremity, as, in a Dispute about Publick Rights, to destroy private Property; This (notwithstanding the Blame justly due to those who obstructed the Return of the Tea) it is impossible to justify with People so prejudiced in favour of the Power of Parliament to tax America, as most are in this Country.
As the India Company however are not our Adversaries, and the offensive Measure of sending their Teas did not take its Rise with them, but was an Expedient of the Ministry to serve them and yet avoid a Repeal of the old Act, I cannot but wish & hope that before any compulsive Measures are thought of here, our General court will have shewn a Disposition to repair the Damage and make Compensation to the Company. This all our Friends here wish with me; and that if War is finally to be made upon us, which some threaten, an Act or violent injustice on our part, unrectified, may not give a colourable Pretence for it. A speedy Reparation will immediately set us right in the Opinion of all Europe. And tho’ the Mischief was the Act of Persons unknown, yet as probably they cannot be found or brought to answer for it, there seems to be some reasonable Claim on the Society at large in which it happened. Making voluntarily such Reparation can be no Dishonour to us or Prejudice to our Claim or Rights, since Parliament here has frequently considered in the same Light similar Cases; and only a few Years since, when a valuable Saw-mill, which had been destroyed by a Number of Persons supposed to be Sawyers, but unknown, a Grant was made out of the Publick Treasury of Two Thousand Pounds to the Owner as a Compensation—I hope in thus freely (and perhaps too forwardly) expressing my Sentiments & Wishes, I shall not give Offence to any. I am sure I mean well; being over with sincere Affection to my native Country, and great Respect to the Assembly and yourselves,
Gentlemen, Your most obedient and most humble Servant
B. FRANKLIN,
Honble Thomas Cushing, Sam’l Adams, John Hancock, William Phillips, Esquires.
Now this is interesting. I never knew the tax was a “reduced” tax for the East India Company so they basically had a monopoly on tea. I always assumed it was an increased tax placed on the colonists. It was not explained that way when I attended school. It was just called a tax, but no specifications. Interesting.
The three ships were private property. The East India Company was a private joint-stock company. Therefore, the Bostonians did not launch a direct attack on Britain. They attacked private enterprise. Today it might be called terrorism.
What they did was criminal. How could it not be? In fact, most newspapers of the day condemned the action. As did the majority of Bostonians, who were law abiding citizens and loyal to the Crown. The small group known as Sons Of Liberty were thugs and criminals … at least from the British point of view.
So did the Sons of Liberty pay for the tea that was dumped as Ben Franklin suggested? I’m assuming they did not.
So were all of our founding fathers.
Everything our founding fathers did was illegal.
FWIW, and something most people ignore, at the time WE -the Colonials- were the British.
In 1776, Hancock was well known to consumers in New England as a highly price-competitive wholesaler.
John Hancock’s competitor in 1773, British East India Company, had adopted a new marketing strategy. It cut prices to just below what Hancock could afford to meet. How? By persuading Parliament to cut import taxes on the company’s main item of commerce, tea. Only a small tax remained, which went to pay the salary of the governor of Massachusetts and a few officials.
Next, a group of Hancock’s associates who operated out of the Green Dragon Tavern responded by throwing the competition’s tea into Boston harbor. So, Parliament closed Boston’s harbor in 1774.
The debate grew more heated throughout 1774. British tea was now cheaper than the duty-free but illegal Dutch tea, which Hancock imported. But there was a solution: a highly successful direct-response marketing campaign run by Hancock’s long-term associate, Sam Adams. Adams had a serious marketing problem. He had to persuade people that reduced taxes and lower tea prices were a threat to liberty. This was a hard sell. But Adams was up to it. He ignored the obvious: low taxes and low prices are a good thing. Instead, he warned readers that Parliament could close every port. He also skipped over the reason why the Parliament closed the port: protesters had thrown private property into the water.
Terrorism s a strategy not a religion. It works ,too. There those in our western civilization who could use a good dose of it.
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The “Boston tea party” was planned and executed by members of the Masonic lodge:
“October 23rd: Brother Joseph Warren (Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts) and Brother Paul Revere meet at the Green Dragon Tavern to publish the Resolution of the North End Caucus: “To oppose the vending of any tea sent by the East India Company . . . with our lives and fortunes.”…
“November 3rd: Brother William Molineux, a member of St. Andrews Lodge, acts as spokesman for the Sons of Liberty. A notice was placed on the Liberty Tree that the Consignees of the Tea were to report and publicly resign their commissions as tea agents for the East India Company…
“November 29th: Five thousand people gather and vote to return the tea ship. Brother John Hancock acts as Moderator for the Town Meetings. Brother Paul Revere starts his work as a guard on the tea ship to see that the tea is not unloaded.
“December 16th: Two thousand people stand on Griffin’s wharf and watch the Boston Tea Party. The crowd is silent as sixty men dump 90,000 pounds of tea into the salt water…”
Source: http://www.boston-tea-party.org/mystery.html
Note that History.com is owned by Hearst and Disney, long-time peddlers of propaganda and colorful fiction.