On April 18, , the Nancy , commanded by Captain Benjamin Lockyer, having been blown far off course by storms, finally anchored at Sandy Hook, "having on board something worse than a Jonah, which, after being long tossed in the tempestuous ocean, it is hoped, like him, will be thrown back upon the place from whence it came," according to the New York Journal.
Its cargo consisted of chests of tea. The consignees sent a note to him, saying they would not accept the tea because it would "expose so considerable a property to inevitable destruction. Members of the New York chapter of the Sons of Liberty took charge of the Nancy at Sandy Hook, and prevented its crew from deserting the ship, and escorted Lockyer into New York City, where he agreed to return to England with the tea and began procuring supplies to do so.
Meanwhile, on April 22, the ship London which had been in Charleston in December arrived, now under the command of a Captain Chambers. Although Chambers protested that he had no tea aboard, the Sons of Liberty had received word from Philadelphia that he was smuggling 18 chests, for his own profit, hidden among the ship's blankets.
Chambers was taken into custody and members of the Sons of Liberty searched the ship, discovered the tea chests, broke them open, dumped the tea into the river, and brought the busted chests back to the city, where they were used to ignite bonfires in the streets. Chambers was threatened with his life, but he managed to escape, and made his way to the Nancy.
A few days later, the ship sailed back to England with both Lockyer and Chambers aboard. One night in late January, , Princeton College students from all the colonies broke into the College's storeroom, and then, as described by student Charles Beatty, "gathered all the steward's winter store of tea and having made a fire on the campus we there burned near a dozen pound, tolled the bell, and made many spirited resolves.
Students subsequently continued their agitations, including paying nocturnal visits in groups of 40 "drest in white," to local townspeople rumored to be tea drinkers, seizing their stock of tea, and burning it. On May 23, , the local chapter of the Sons of Liberty, having heard that the Port of Boston was to be closed, and having passed a series of "resolves" against buying, selling, or drinking tea shipped from England, heard that the brig Geddes which was possibly owned by the local customs inspector, William Geddes, who was also a merchant had put into port in Chestertown with tea in its cargo.
They boarded the brig by force and dumped its tea into the Chester River. Some of the facts in this instance are a little spare—such as who owned the tea and where it had come from. Nevertheless, the city of Chestertown stages an enthusiastic reenactment of the "Chestertown Tea Party" every Memorial Day weekend. In the summer of , Thomas Charles Williams, the London representative of an Annapolis merchant firm, tried to smuggle tea across the Atlantic into Annapolis by disguising nearly a ton of it in 17 packages labeled as linen, and loading it among the rest of the cargo on the brig Peggy Stewart.
The captain of the brig, Richard Jackson, only discovered the true nature of the "linen" while at sea. A few years before, an Annapolis precedent had been set when its customs officer refused to allow any ships to unload any portion of their cargo until the tax on all of it had been paid. This now alarmed Captain Jackson because most of the rest of the Peggy Stewart 's cargo consisted of 53 indentured servants.
The ship reached Annapolis on October 14, , and Williams's business partners decided they wanted nothing to do with his attempt at smuggling. Additionally, the shipment of British East India Company tea also contained green tea from the Chinese province of Anhui..
With the arrival of the three shipments of British East India Company tea to Boston, the tax on tea, which had been implemented with the passing of the Townshend Revenue Act, had to be paid the moment the tea was unloaded from the Beaver , Dartmouth , and Eleanor. The absolute deadline for payment of the tax was twenty days after the arrival of the tea.
The deadline to pay the tax on the tea the Dartmouth delivered to Boston was December November 29 to 30, Ask about our Virtual Tour programming! Farnsworth Street Garage. Stillings Street Garage. The Sons of Liberty were made up of males from all walks of colonial society, and among its membership were artisans, craftsmen, business owners, tradesmen, apprentices, and common laborers who organized to defend their rights, and to protest and undermine British rule. Joseph Warren.
Incited by the Sons of Liberty, over 5, people gathered at the Old South Meeting House, the largest public building in Boston at the time, at AM on December 16, , to decide what was to be done about the tea and to plan the Boston Tea Party. The American colonists believed Britain was unfairly taxing them to pay for expenses incurred during the French and Indian War. Additionally, colonists believed Parliament did not have the right to tax them because the American colonies were not represented in Parliament.
Since the beginning of the 18th century, tea had been regularly imported to the American colonies. By the time of the Boston Tea Party, it has been estimated American colonists drank approximately 1. Britain realized it could make even more money off of the lucrative tea trade by imposing taxes onto the American colonies. In effect, the cost of British tea became high, and, in response, American colonists began a very lucrative industry of smuggling tea from the Dutch and other European markets.
These smuggling operations violated the Navigation Acts which had been in place since the middle of the 17th century.
The smuggling of tea was undercutting the lucrative British tea trade. In response to the smuggling, in Parliament passed the Indemnity Act, which repealed the tax on tea and made British tea the same price as the Dutch.
The Indemnity Act greatly cut down on American tea smuggling, but later in a new tax on tea was put in place by the Townshend Revenue Act. The act also taxed glass, lead, oil, paint, and paper. Due to boycotts and protests, the Townshend Revenue Act taxes on all commodities except tea were repealed in The smuggling of tea grew rampant and was a lucrative business venture for American colonists, such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams. The Townshend Revenue Act tea tax remained in place despite proposals to have it waived.
American colonists were outraged over the tea tax. They believed the Tea Act was a tactic to gain colonial support for the tax already enforced. The direct sale of tea by agents of the British East India Company to the American colonies undercut the business of colonial merchants.
The smuggled tea became more expensive than the British East India Company tea. Smugglers like John Hancock and Samuel Adams were trying to protect their economic interests by opposing the Tea Act , and Samuel Adams sold the opposition of British tea to the Patriots on the pretext of the abolishment of human rights by being taxed without representation.
December 16, According to eyewitness testimonies, the Boston Tea Party occurred between the hours of and PM and lasted for approximately three hours. It is at this location where the December 16, destruction of the tea occurred. The original location of the Boston Tea Party no longer exists because of extensive landfills that destroyed the location. A historical marker commemorating the Boston Tea Party stands on the corner of Congress and Purchase streets.
It is estimated that hundreds took part in the Boston Tea Party. For fear of punishment, many participants of the Boston Tea Party remained anonymous for many years after the event. To date it is known that people are documented to have participated. Not all of the participants of the Boston Tea Party are known; many carried the secret of their participation to their graves. In , the UK passed what are known as the Intolerable Acts or the Coercive Acts, a series of punitive measures meant to teach the rebellious colonists who was boss.
Much of the tea that angry colonists dumped into the Boston Harbor was green tea. As uncomfortable as some colonists might have been with the Tea Party action itself, they were way more uncomfortable with the authoritarian reaction by Parliament. The Sons of Liberty famous masqueraded in Native American dress on the night of the Tea Party raid, complete with tomahawks and faces darkened with coal soot. But were they really trying to pass themselves off as local Mohawk or Narragansett tribesmen?
Not likely, says Carp. Secondly, the Sons of Liberty were cashing in on the image of the Native American as an independent spirit, the epitome of anti-colonialism. We are unbowed. And third, there was the practical reason for masking their identities.
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