The Boston Tea Party: Why Did It Occur and Who Was Involved?
Why did the Boston Tea Party Occur? Who was involved? We cover these facts and more on this page on one of the most momentous events of the American Revolution.
The broadside below was posted all over Boston on November 29, 1773, shortly after the arrival of 3 ships carrying tea owned by the East India Company.
This is the original handbill that was passed out to organize the Boston Tea Party. It reads ...
Brethren, and Fellow Citizens!
You may depend, that those odious Miscreants and detestable Tools to Ministry and Governor, the TEA CONSIGNEES, (those traitors to their Country, Butchers, who have done, and are doing every Thing to Murder and destroy all that shall stand in the Way of their private Interest,) are determined to come and reside again in the Town of Boston.
I therefore give you this early Notice, that you may hold yourselves in Readiness, on the shortest Notice, to give them such a Reception, as such vile Ingrates deserve.
JOYCE, jun.
(Chairman of the Committee for Tarring and Feathering.
If any Person should be so hardy as to Tear this down, they may expect my severest Resentment.
J. jun.
Why Did the Boston Tea Party Occur?
The most direct cause of the protest was the Tea Act, passed by the British parliament on May 10, 1773. This act was an attempt by the British government to prop up the failing East India Company. It reduced taxes and removed all duties on the exportation of East India Company tea.
The colonists, however, saw it as an attempt to undermine colonial businesses. Nor were they in a compromising mood. They were still angry over the Boston Massacre, which had occurred 3 years earlier, and they were already boycotting British tea because of taxes imposed by the Townshend Acts in 1767. While the Townshend Acts had been rescinded earlier in the year, its duties on tea were still in force.
In New York and Philadelphia, the colonists refused to let the boats land, and they returned to England. In Charleston, protests were so rampant that customs officials were able to seize all the tea.
The biggest shipment arrived in Boston on or just before November 29, 1773.
The royal governor had no intention of letting the colonists force the ships to return to England. He held the ships in port, demanding that the cargo be unloaded and customs duties paid.
But the colonists, already stirred to action, were unwilling to bear the stalemate ...
Boston Tea Party picture by Sarony and Major, 1846; public domain
The Events of the Boston Tea Party
On December 16, 1773, over 100 men quietly stalked into the harbor of Boston, Massachusetts. All were dressed as Indians with tomahawks in their hands.
Accounts actually vary from 30 to 130. Bostonteapartyship.com maintains a list of 116 names culled from various historical reports.
Three ships with their cargo of precious teas lay in Boston harbor, their captains unaware of the colonists' approach.
They divided into three groups, and soon the chopping of boxes could be heard on the sleeping ships. The chests were torn open and the contents thrown into the ocean. Tea leaves scattered everywhere.
Just as quickly as they had come, the men were gone.
In their wake lay almost 100,000 pounds of teas from all the boats dumped wastefully into the ocean. The tea was worth 9,000 pounds sterling, or almost $1 million in today's money.
This act became known as the Boston Tea Party.
By W.D. Cooper in his book The History of North America from 1789
Public domain
Who Was Involved in the Boston Tea Party?
The most well-known name involved in the Boston Tea Party was that of Paul Revere. However, several other participants were noteworthy.
Samuel Cooper, just 16 in 1773, would go on to become a major in the continental army and fight numerous battles. George Hewes, age 31, had been injured in the Boston Massacre after being struck by a rifle. He led one of the parties and wrote an account of the raid ...
It was now evening, and 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. (The Boston Tea Party Historical Society, from which we obtained this quote, has extensive information on the colonial raid.)
George Hewes was rejected as a soldier and did not fight in the revolutionary war. Thomas Crafts, Jr., however, another participant in the Boston Tea Party, became a member of Major Paddock's famous Paddock's Artillery Company and attained the rank of colonel in the continental army.
The patriot organization, the Sons of Liberty, provided the most participants that November night. It's also fascinating that of those involved in the protest whose ages are known, two-thirds were under 20 years of age.
Final Comments
The Boston Tea Party was an act of rebellion from which the strained relationship between Britain and the colonies would never recover. The Coercive Acts (or "Intolerable") acts followed swiftly to punish the colony of Massachussets, and within a year the Americans would convene the first Continental Congress to organize the protest against Britain.
