The Boston Tea Party took place on this day, December 16, 250 years ago today. History often has its way of twisting facts over time to simplify tales, and that is true here. The protest was not over a new tax on tea, but instead over Parliament’s repeal of most of the Townsend Act’s import taxes. It failed though to repeal its tax on tea. Instead it allowed the British East India company to import cheap tea to the colonies, which was seen as an effort to acclimatize colonists to British rule (and perhaps lesser quality tea). Importantly, the same move also undercut American tea smugglers.
The three ships attacked were actually American ships. The “party” referred to was not an event, but actually the group involved, as in a political party. The perpetrators did dress like Indians, not as a disguise, but rather to add to the revelry. Other colonies had simply refused tea imports, forcing its return to England, but Massachusetts’s governor, whose sons were tea importers, stood firm, leading to the “party.” Sam Adams may or may not have helped plan the attack, but he did much to publicize it and to stir resentment against the British through it.
One possible consequence of the tax, the event, and the ire stirred by it all (other than ultimately the American Revolution), was that Americans, then and today, largely still spurn tea, unlike most of the world, but instead embrace coffee.
