Pursuing Liberty: The Boston Tea Party

December 16, 1773 – Boston Harbor in Massachusetts bears witness to an act of colonial defiance that will bring the American Colonies and the British a step closer to war. On that cold winter night, about one hundred men dress up as Mohawk Native Americans and climb aboard three British East India Company ships docked in the harbor. Then, they toss hundreds of boxes of tea into the water. By dawn, the harbor waters are stained with remnants of tea, and history will remember the event as the Boston Tea Party.

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The defiance of that night had begun many years prior. While it typically isn’t easy to define exact starting points in history, many argue that the heightened tensions between the American colonies and the British Government started soon after the French and Indian War ended in 1763. In that war, the British accrued significant debt from their participation and sought ways to replenish its treasury. They decided to pass taxes on the American colonies, asserting a right to collect revenue without the colonist’s consent. Among these was the Stamp Act of 1765, which imposed a direct tax on various printed materials.

The colonists reacted with outrage, claiming “No taxation without representation,” as they had no elected representatives in the British Parliament to voice their interests. The dissent had enough momentum to repeal the Stamp Act in 1766. But colonial trust in the British government had been damaged.

More discontent came shortly after with the Townshend Acts of 1767. These place duties on essential imports like glass, paper, and tea. Colonists organized boycotts in response, leading to simmering tensions and clashes between British soldiers and colonists. In one instance, British troops fired into a crowd, killing five colonists in what became known as the Boston Massacre of 1770. Colonist animosity towards the British government deepened.

Yet, even with all these happenings, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773, which allowed the struggling British East India Company to sell its surplus tea directly to the colonies at reduced prices. This move aimed to support the British East India Company, undercut smuggled Dutch tea coming into the colonies to avoid British taxes and reaffirm Parliament’s right to tax the colonies. Although the Tea Act lowered the price of tea, colonists saw it as a ploy to coerce them into once again accepting taxation without representation.

Resistance movements sprang into action to oppose the landing of taxed tea in American ports.

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The rallying cry for men participating in the Boston Tea Party became, “Let every man do his duty, and be true to his country.” On the night of December 16, they all gathered at the Old South Meeting House.

As one participant described,

“I immediately dressed myself in the costume of an Indian, equipped with a small hatchet, which I and my associates denominated the tomahawk, with which, and a club, after having painted my face and hands with coal dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin’s wharf, where the ships lay that contained the tea. When I first appeared in the street after being thus disguised, I fell in with many who were dressed, equipped and painted as I was, and who fell in with me and marched in order to the place of our destination.

When we arrived at the wharf, there were three of our number who assumed an authority to direct our operations, to which we readily submitted. They divided us into three parties, for the purpose of boarding the three ships which contained the tea at the same time. The name of him who commanded the division to which I was assigned was Leonard Pitt. The names of the other commanders I never knew.

We were immediately ordered by the respective commanders to board all the ships at the same time, which we promptly obeyed. The commander of the division to which I belonged, as soon as we were on board the ship appointed me boatswain, and ordered me to go to the captain and demand of him the keys to the hatches and a dozen candles. I made the demand accordingly, and the captain promptly replied, and delivered the articles; but requested me at the same time to do no damage to the ship or rigging.

We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of the water.

In about three hours from the time we went on board, we had thus broken and thrown overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship, while those in the other ships were disposing of the tea in the same way, at the same time. We were surrounded bv British armed ships, but no attempt was made to resist us.

We then quietly retired to our several places of residence, without having any conversation with each other, or taking any measures to discover who were our associates; nor do I recollect of our having had the knowledge of the name of a single individual concerned in that affair, except that of Leonard Pitt, the commander of my division, whom I have mentioned. There appeared to be an understanding that each individual should volunteer his services, keep his own secret, and risk the consequence for himself.”

The outraged British government responded with the Coercive Acts (known in the colonies as the Intolerable Acts) in 1774. These measures aimed to punish Massachusetts by closing Boston’s port and altering the colony’s governance. But far from subduing the rebellion, these actions galvanized other colonies to unify in support of Massachusetts, setting the stage for the First Continental Congress and, ultimately, the American Revolution.

The Boston Tea Party had become a symbol of defiance and a spark that helped ignite a path to independence.

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Note

Read about the history of the 1860 U.S. Presidential Election.

Sources

• “Boston Tea Party.” University of Houston Digital History, https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=1192
• N. Currier. Destruction of tea at Boston Harbor. [New York: N. Currier] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/91795889/>.
• Walker, Ida. The Boston Tea Party. United States, ABDO Pub., 2008.