The Boston Tea Party

From Bill Bennett's American Patriot's Almanac:

On the cold, damp night of December 16, 1773, a few dozen colonists wearing old clothing and blacked faces tramped through the streets of Boston toward three ships tied up at Griffin’s Wharf. The Mohawks, as they called themselves, clambered aboard the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver and began hoisting chests of tea from the vessels’ holds onto the decks. Working quietly and efficiently, they carried the chests to the rails, split them open, and dumped the tea into Boston Harbor.

The late-night raid came in response to the Tea Act passed by the British Parliament. That law gave the financially troubled East India Company, a British company, a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. The Americans were already unhappy that Britain had placed a tax on their tea. Now, they told themselves, Parliament was dictating where they must buy their tea. In the colonists’ eyes, tea had become a symbol of British oppression. So into the harbor went 342 chests.

In less than three hours, the Boston Tea Party was over. Their work done, the “Indians” swept the ships’ decks, bid the crews farewell, and marched into the night whistling “Yankee Doodle.” “Well, boys, you’ve had a fine pleasant evening for your Indian caper, haven’t you?” a British admiral who had watched the entire episode called. “But mind, you have got to pay the fiddler yet!”

Indeed, Boston would be made to pay. George III was outraged at the act of defiance. “We must master them or totally leave them alone!” he declared. Parliament responded with the Intolerable Acts, which, among other measures, closed the port of Boston and required colonists to give lodging to British troops. Infuriated patriots viewed the reprisals as outright tyranny and turned their thoughts toward independence.

Every day, Bill Bennett provides via email--for free--a reading from his American Patriot's Almanac. It's "a daily newsletter that will teach you key events that took place each day in American history." Click here to subscribe.