Early History of Tea in America - Part 2

TEA LEADS THE WAY TO THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION In Part 1 we laid the ground work for explaining the role that tea played in uniting the colonists against British policies of taxation in the colonies. The colonists were dead set against the monopolization of the tea trade by the East India Company, which effectively cut American merchants, middlemen, and shoppers out of the tea trade . In May 1773 British Parliament passed the Tea Act which actually set the price of tea at the level it sold for in England, but they kept the 3 pence a pound tax. While small, this tax was provocative to colonists who saw it as taxation without representation. In October 1773 seven ships set sail for America carrying 2000 tea chests. Four ships, the Dartmouth, Eleanor, Beaver, and William were bound for Boston. The Nancy to New York, the Polly to Philadelphia, and the London to Charleston, SC. In each destination port, opposition to the cargo grew because the colonists believed the 3 penny tax was meant to assert Parliament’s rightful claim to tax Americans. Some of the colonies acted to stop the East India Company from docking in their ports. They intimidated East India agents into resigning their positions. When tea for New York was uploaded in Greenwich, NJ, it was discovered by patriots dressed as Indians who burned it. When the Polly’s Captain Ayres tried to upload in Philadelphia, he was invited to a public meeting at which the members voted to disallow the delivery of tea and the Captain set sail for Britain. The London unloaded its cargo in Charleston, whereupon it went into storage in a damp cellar and spoiled. It began to appear that the showdown between The Colonies and the British Parliament, represented by the East India Company, was going to take place in Boston. There were three ships headed to port (one, the William broke up off Cape Cod in a violent storm), no agents had been persuaded to leave their post, and Boston had a reputation for feistiness. Tempers were running high in Boston. On Sunday, November 28th the Dartmouth reached the outer islands of Boston Harbor with 114 chests of tea. On Thursday December 2nd the Eleanor approached the harbor, as did the Beaver on Wednesday, the 15th of December. The East India Company agents in Boston still refused to leave their posts. The Governor of Massachusetts ordered customs not to allow the ships to depart without paying the 3 penny tax. For days patriots had been meeting to discuss what to do. The standoff was in place and passions were high. On December 16th a citizens meeting packed with hundreds of people was held at the Old South Church. After 6:00 p.m. under the cover of darkness 3 groups of men emerged , their identities obscured by Mohawk paint and feathers, led by Samuel Adams, who 50 years later was to claim he did not know the identity of a single participant. The Dartmouth and the Eleanor were docked at Griffins wharf on the Boston waterfront and the Beaver was alongside. Two of the groups boarded the Dartmouth and the Eleanor. After the customs officers were forced ashore, some of the men dropped into the ship’s belly and set up the block and tackle to hoist the crates onto the deck. The third group axed open the crates and poured and shoveled the tea into the harbor and threw the chests in after it. It was low tide so the water was only 2 or 3 feet deep. The tea leaves piled up and expanded in the water and soon the tea threatened to slide back into the ships. Although a navy squadron rode at anchor in the Harbor, no governmental authority intervened. When the job was done, the men celebrated a bit and went home, undoubtedly proud of their night’s work. The British reply to this desecration of East India Company’s cargo was to pass laws that became known in America as the Intolerable Acts, one of which closed Boston Harbor until the destroyed tea was paid for. Angered by these forceful Acts, the colonists called for a convention to organize resistance. The First Continental Congress was held from 9/5/74 to 10/26/74 in Philadelphia. The first hostilities between Britain and the colonies began before the Congress ended.
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Early History of Tea in America Part 1

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