The price of tea

By Nancy Battick

Dec. 16 marks the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. While the American Revolution didn’t heat up until the events at Lexington and Concord, it was the reaction to a tea tax that led to events which caused the British to punish Boston and eventually the American colonists to rebel.  

Here’s a little background. Following what we Americans call the French & Indian War, which began in North America, Britain was victorious but saddled with an enormous war debt. Part of this debt was accumulated through actions on American soil. The British Parliament felt that American colonists should help pay. Americans said no. Various taxes were imposed only to be rescinded when the colonists boycotted taxed goods.

The crux of the tea tax was that one company, the British East India Company, facing financial problems, was given a monopoly on tea sales. To help pay for the company’s debts, a sizeable tax was allowed. Americans were outraged, and thus the first ships arriving in Boston Harbor laden with tea unwillingly hosted the tea party when a group of men disguised as Indians boarded the vessels and dumped all the tea chests and their contents into the harbor. 

You may not know that Maine hosted its own “tea party” in York. 

The identities of the men in the Boston Tea Party remained unknown due to the almost certain punishment that would have resulted. We still don’t know who all of them were.  This led to many people claiming they were part of the raid on the tea ships. 

When I researched Maine’s role in the Revolution for a book for the Maine Daughters of the American Revolution, I ran into accounts of men from Maine who claimed they’d arrived in Boston that Dec. 16 aboard vessels carrying lumber and were recruited to join the Tea Party. These were almost certainly tall tales to tell the grandkids. 

The action on the night of Dec. 16 in Boston Harbor was obviously disciplined and well-planned. The men wore disguises, the ships weren’t burned or damaged, none of the crews were injured.  The “Indians” came, dumped the tea chests into the harbor, and then left. Nothing got out of hand. I seriously doubt anyone scoured the waterfront picking up stray unknown just-arrived sailors from Maine to join them. But it’s a good story.

In Boston you can visit the new Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum on the waterfront, which has presentations on the entire American version of the tea party, exhibits, replica ships, reenactments, a museum which houses a surviving tea chest from the event, tours, a gift shop, and naturally a tearoom. A new lineage society has been formed for proven descendants of the Boston Tea Party and the other patriotic Boston rebels, namely the Loyal Nine, Boston Sons of Liberty, North End Caucus, St. Andrew’s Lodge, Ship Guard volunteers, and Signers of the November 1773 petitions to town selectmen. You can also join as a co-conspirator. 

For more information visit www.bostonteapartyship.com. 

Columnist Nancy Battick of Dover-Foxcroft has researched genealogy for over 30 years. She is past president of the Maine Genealogical Society, author of several genealogical articles and co-transcribed the Vital Records of Dover-Foxcroft.  Nancy holds an MA in History from UM and lives in DF with her husband, Jack, another avid genealogist. Reader emails are welcome at nbattick@roadrunner.com.