My Genealogy Hound

Boston, Massachusetts, The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor, Boston Tea Party, historic print

An historic print titled "The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor", Boston, Massachusetts. Note the title, this event was not referred to in print until 1834 as the "Boston Tea Party."

The Tea Act of 1773 passed by England's Parliament resulted in an tax upon imported tea into the colonies. The colonists who considered themselves to be fully British citizens and as such were being taxed without any representation in the decision to tax. As a result, the colonists demanded that arriving ships loaded with tea be returned without the tax being paid rather than be unloaded. While shipments were returned in several colonies, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts refused and demanded that the ships be unloaded and the tax be paid. The colonists responded in a mass rally estimated at 6,000 citizens in protest of the demands of the governor. On December 16, 1773, some 30 to 130 men (the actual number is dispute), some disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded three ships in Boston Harbor and dumped a total of 342 chests of tea into the harbor.

This is considered to be one of the key events in the chain of events that led to the colonies declaring independence and the resulting Revolutionary War.

It is said that many colonists afterward considered the drinking of tea to be unpatriotic and a transition was made by many to the drinking of coffee and thus became the predominate hot beverage of choice.

This historic print is by Sarony and Major, 1846.