Tea & the American Revolution

In our pursuit of Teaching and Guiding our clients to the health benefits of Teas and Chinese Herbs we are always researching topics of interest, such as how our country was borne. Please to read below interesting facts of how tea played the most important role of all in shaping our country with a few interesting notes about some of our beloved fore-fathers.

It all started way back with:

The Pilgrims & the Mayflower

Pilgrims
The Pilgrims were English Separatists who founded (1620) Plymouth Colony in New England. In the first years of the 17th century, small numbers of English Puritans broke away from the Church of England because they felt that it had not completed the work of the Reformation. The Pilgrims committed themselves to a life based on the Bible.
The Pilgrims immigrated to Amsterdam in 1608 to escape harassment and religious persecution. The next year they moved to Leiden, where, enjoying full religious freedom, they remained for almost 12 years. In 1617, discouraged by economic difficulties, the pervasive Dutch influence on their children, and their inability to secure civil autonomy, the congregation voted to emigrate to America.

Research shows that the Pilgrims did not bring tea with them on the journey as it was too expensive and only first starting to be introduced into Holland when they left. Instead Tea actually started to arrive in the late 1600’s on board the East India Ships.

A small ship, the Speedwell, carried them to Southampton, England, where they were to join another group of Separatists and pick up a second ship. After some delays and disputes, the voyagers regrouped at Plymouth aboard the 180-ton Mayflower. It began its historic voyage on Sept. 16, 1620, with about 102 passengers--fewer than half of them from Leiden.

Mayflower in Open Water

The Mayflower:
After a 65-day journey, the Pilgrims sighted Cape Cod on November 19. Unable to reach the land they had contracted for, they anchored (November 21) at the site of Provincetown. Because they had no legal right to settle in the region, they drew up the Mayflower Compact, creating their own government. The settlers soon discovered Plymouth Harbor, on the western side of Cape Cod Bay and made their historic landing on December 21; the main body of settlers followed on December 26.

The Pilgrims arrived in America in 1620 on a boat named the Mayflower, but few of us know that they'd chartered the boat from the East India Company, at the time the world's largest and most powerful multinational corporation. The Mayflower, in fact, had already made the crossing between England to North America three times when the Pilgrims chartered it.

The East India Company was most responsible for the rise of England from a weak still-feudal state in the late 1500s to an international powerhouse by the mid-1600s. The Company was Queen Elizabeth I's second attempt to use a corporation to catch up with the other European seafaring powers who at the time were filling up the governments accounts with the riches from the East.

By the mid-1700s, the East India Company had become, to North America, the Wal-Mart so to speak of its day. It imported into North America vast quantities of products, including textiles, tools, steel, and tea, and exported to Europe tons of fur and tobacco, as well as many thousands of Native American slaves. Protesters and competitors were put down ruthlessly,

French Indian War
England had recently completed the French and Indian War, fought, from England's point of view, to free the colony from French influence and stabilize trade. The French Indian War, without the efforts of England would have handed the Colonies over to France who was the world power at the time.

It was the feeling of Parliament that as a result, it was not unreasonable that the colonists shoulder the majority of the cost. After all, the war had been fought for their benefit. The victory came at a steep price: Between 1754 and 1763, the British national debt rose from £75 million to £133 million. In London, leaders of the empire looked to the American colonies for help in paying the tab.

Tea Tax:
Charles Townshend presented the first tax measures, which today are known by his name. They imposed a higher tax on newspapers (which they considered far too outspoken in America), tavern licenses (too much free speech there), legal documents, marriage licenses, and docking papers. The colonists rebelled against taxes imposed upon them without their consent and which were so repressive. New, heavier taxes were leveled by Parliament for such rebellion. Among these was, in June 1767, The Tea Tax that was to become the watershed of America's desire for freedom. (Townshend died three months later of a fever never to know his tax measures helped create a free nation.)

The colonists rebelled and openly purchased imported tea, largely Dutch in origin. Colonial leaders responded with another organized protest, mobilizing popular support for nonimportation and nonconsumption agreements. As historian T.H. Breen argued in The Marketplace of Revolution, those boycotts played a vital role in radicalizing the colonial population in the lead-up to war.

The John Company, already in deep financial trouble saw its profits fall even further. By 1773, the John Company merged with the East India Company for structural stability and pleaded with the Crown for assistance. The Tea Act was designed to rescue the ailing East India Company, which was struggling against a crushing debt load, that new legislation granted the company a virtual monopoly over colonial tea sales. Drawing on a huge inventory of unsold tea in its London warehouses, the company prepared to ship 600,000 pounds of tea to the colonies. The company would assign that tea to a few chosen consignees, leaving most American merchants -- including those with a thriving trade in smuggled tea -- completely out of the loop.

Tea exported from Great Britain was usually subject to an export tax, but Parliament agreed to exempt the company from that duty. Lord North again refused to repeal the remaining Townshend duty on tea, still devoted to its symbolic value. But even so, the exemption from export duties would allow the East India Company to sell the tea at rock-bottom prices, undercutting smugglers. American consumers would have enjoyed a windfall: a happy influx of cheap, high-quality British tea.

If Lord North and the East India Company expected a warm reception, they were in for a rude awakening. Colonists agreed with Lord North that the tea tax held great symbolic importance, and they reacted violently to the Tea Act. Foes threatened anyone who might be inclined to cooperate. As one rabble-rouser warned in a New York newspaper, "A thousand avenues of death would be perpetually open to receive and swallow you, and ten thousand uplifted shafts, ready to strike the fatal stroke whenever a favourable opportunity offered for the purpose."

Additionally, in plotting this strategy, England was counting on the well-known passion among American women for tea to force consumption, it was a major miscalculation. Throughout the colonies, women pledged publicly at meeting and in newspapers not to drink English sold tea until their free rights (and those of their merchant husbands) were restored.

Under such pressure, the consignees in several American cities refused to accept the tea shipments once they arrived in the colonies. But in Boston, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to back down, insisting that the tea be offloaded into warehouses. In response, a crowd of patriots gathered on the night of December 16. Organized by Sam Adams and his radical cadre, the Sons of Liberty, the protestors boarded the Dartmouth, a cargo ship loaded with 342 chests of tea. They were joined by onlookers who blackened their faces with soot to mimic the Indian disguise of the original protestors. That large but surprisingly disciplined crowd methodically dropped the entire tea shipment into Boston Harbor. Losses totaled almost £10,000 -- a vast sum for the era.

Reaction to the protest varied dramatically. Royal officials were predictably outraged, but even many colonial leaders were aghast at the organized criminality.

Benjamin Franklin, among others, insisted that the tea owners should be compensated for their losses. But the British reaction swept aside those concerns. A series of punitive measures, known as the Coercive Acts, swept through Parliament. One act closed the port of Boston to all commercial activity until the tea losses had been repaid. Colonists were outraged by that heavy-handed lawmaking, and soon enough, colonial leaders were organizing a broad-based, powerful response.

A True Account: quoted from Thom Hartmann's book What Would Jefferson Do?

There are few books in print about the Boston Tea Party. One of the reasons is that the men who participated swore a 50-year oath of silence, and few of them were alive 50 years later.

One, however, survived and went on to write a memoir that was published by a small New York press, S. S. Bliss, in 1834. To the best of my knowledge, it's the only existing account of the Boston Tea Party by an eyewitness, and it's been out of print for over 160 years. The book is by George Robert Twelvetree Hewes and is title Retrospect of the Boston Tea Party with a Memoir of George R.T.Hews, a Survivor of the little Band of Patriots Who Drowned the Tea in Boston Harbor in 1773.

George Hewes was no stranger to scraps and fights on behalf of the colonists against the British in the 1770s. Originally a fisherman, he'd apprenticed as a shoemaker around the time of the Tea Party and appears repeatedly in Esther Forbes's class 1942 biography of Paul Revere. Forbes notes that when young Paul Revere went off to join the Continental army in 1756, Hewes tried to join him in Rachard Gridley's regiment. But, she notes, "All must be able-bodied and between seventeen and forty-five, and must measure to a certain height. George Robert Twelvetree Hewes could not go. He was too short, and in vain did he get a shoemaker to build up the inside of his shoes."

In anecdotes that recall how small the American communities were in that day (New York City had only 30,000 inhabitants at the time of the Revolutionary War), Forbes chronicles Hewes borrowing money from John Hancock and having dinner with George Washington. "Hewes says that, 'Madam Washington waited upon them at table at dinner-time and was remarkably social,”

Reading the hand-typeset brittle pages of Hewes's memoir brought the Boston Tea Party (a phrase which he apparently coined- prior to his book, it was referred to as "that incident in Boston harbor") and the struggle of the colonists against corporate rule fully to life. Hewes notes that weak enforcement of the Act for Restraining Privateers "rendered the smuggle of [tea] an object and frequently practices, and their resolutions against using it, although observed by many with little fidelity, had greatly diminished the importation into the colonies [by the East India Company] of this commodity. Meanwhile an immense quantity of it was accumulated in the warehouses of the East India Company in England. This company petitioned the king to suppress the duty of three pence per pound upon it introduction into America."

The East India "super-ships" destroyed smaller competition.

Thus came about the Tea Act- a giant corporate tax cut- as Hewes notes: "The [East India] Company, however, received permission to transport tea, free of all duty, from Great Britain to America," allowing it to wipe out its small competitors and take over the tea business in all of America. "Hence," Hewes said, "it was no longer the small vessels of private merchants, who went to vent tea for their own account in the ports of the colonies, but on the contrary, ships of an enormous burthen, that transported immense quantities of this commodity.... The colonies were now arrived at the decisive moment when they must cast the dye, and determine their course."

But it wasn't just the America tea merchants who were upset. England was filled with small business people who wanted to import and sell their own tea, and they offered encouragement to the colonist in letters published in newspapers. "Even in England individuals were not wanting, who fanned this fire; some from a desire to baffle the government, others from motives of private interest, says the historian of the event, and jealousy at the opportunity offered the East India Company, to make immense profits to their prejudice."

Boston 1770

Hewes continues: "These opposers of the measure in England [the Tea Act of 1773] wrote there fore to America, encouraging a strenuous resistance. They represented to the colonists that this would prove their last trial, and that if they should triumph now, their liberty was secured forever; but if they should yield, they must bow their necks to the yoke of slavery. The materials were so prepared and disposed that they could easily kindle."

"At Philadelphia," Hewes writes, "those to whom the teas of the [East India] Company were intended to be consigned, were induced by persuasion, or constrained by menaces, to promise, on no terms, to accept the proffered consignment.

"At New-York, Captain Sears and McDougal, daring and enterprising men, effected a concert of will [against the East India Company], between the smugglers, the merchants, and the sons of liberty [who had all joined forces and in most cases were the same people]. Pamphlets suited to the conjecture, were daily distributed, and nothing was left unattempted by popular leaders, to obtain their purpose"

The broad consensus was that boycotts and acts of civil disobedience would be enough to make the British rescind the tax breaks and rebates that were now allowing the East India Company to sell its tea below market value. But as newspapers began to expose the ways the East India Company has used monopoly control in other nations where it had put all the local small companies out of business, anger rose. Consider this pamphlet, which appeared on trees and buildings all over Philadelphia and Boston in the fall of 1773. It was titled The Alarm and signed by an enigmatic patriot who called himself only "Rusticus."

Are we in like Manner to be given up to the Disposal of the East India Company, who have now the Assurance, to step forth in Aid of the minister, to execute his Plan, of enslaving America? Their Conduct in Asia, for some Years past, has given simple Proof, how little they regard the Laws of Nations, the Rights, Liberties, or Lives of Men. They have levied War, excited Rebellions, dethroned lawful Princes, and sacrificed Millions for the Sake of Gain. The Revenues of Mighty Kingdoms have centered in their Coffers. And these not being sufficient to glut their Avarice, they have, by the most unparalleled Barbarities, Extortions, and Monopolies, stripped the miserable Inhabitants of their Property, and reduced whole Provinces to Indigence and Ruin. Fifteen hundred Thousands, it is said, perished by Famine in one Year, not because the Earth denied its Fruits; but [because] this Company and their Servants engulfed all the Necessaries of Life, and set them at so high a Rate that the poor could not purchase them.

The pamphlets and newspaper stories galvanized the populace, who succeeded in turning back the Company's ships when they tried to land in New York and Philadelphia harbors. "In Boston," Hewes wrote, "the general voice declared the time was come to face the storm.... Now is the time to prove our courage, or be disgraced with our brethren of the other colonies, who have their eyes fixed upon us, and will be prompt in their succor if we show ourselves faithful and firm."

Hewes adds, "This was the voice of the Bostonians in 1773. The factors who were to be the consignees of the tea, were urged to renounce their agency, but they refused and took refuge in the fortress. A guard was placed on Griffin's wharf, near where the tea ships were moored. It was agree that a strict watch should be kept: that if any insult should be offered, the bell should be immediately rung; and some persons always ready to bear intelligence of what might happen, to the neighbouring towns, and to call in the assistance of the country people."

"Rusticus" added his voice in the May 27, 1773, pamphlet saying: "Resolve therefore, nobly resolve, and publish to the World your Resolutions, that no Man will receive the Tea, no Man will let his Stores, or suffer the Vessel that brings it to moor at his Wharf, and that if any Person assists at unloading, landing, or storing it, he shall ever after be deemed an Enemy to his Country, and never be employed by his Fellow Citizens."

A new edition of The Alarm, published on October 27, 1773, said, "It hath now been proved to you, That the East India Company, obtained the monopoly of that trade by bribery, and corruption. That the power thus obtained they have prostituted to extortion, and other the most cruel and horrible purposes, the Sun ever beheld."
But despite the protests, on a cold winter day the Company sailed its ships into the port of Boston.

"On the 28th of November, 1773." Hewes writes, "the ship Dartmouth with 112 chests arrived; and the next morning after, the following notice was widely circulated:

Friends, Brethren, Countrymen! That worst of plagues, the detested TEA, has arrived in this harbour. The hour of destruction, a manly opposition to the machinations of tyranny, stares you in the face. Every friend to his country, to himself, and to posterity, is now called upon to meet in Faneuil hall, at nine o-clock, this day, at which time the bells will ring, to make a united and successful resistance to this last, worse, and most destructive measure of administration.

The pamphlet galvanized the citizens of Boston. Hewes write, "Things thus appeared to be hastening to a disastrous issues. The people of the county arrived in great numbers, the inhabitants of the town assembled. This assembly which was on the 16th of December, 1773, was the most numerous ever known, there being more then 2000 from the country present."

Hewes continues: "This notification brought together a vast concourse of the people of Boston and the neighbouring towns, at the time and place appointed. Then it was resolved that the tea should be returned to the place from whence it came in all events, and no duty paid thereon. The arrival of other cargoes of tea soon after, increased the agitation of the public mind, already wrought up to a degree of desperation, and ready to break out into acts of violence, on every trivial occasion of offense....

"Finding no measures were likely to be taken, either by the governor, or the commanders, or owners of the ships, to return their cargoes or prevent the landing of them, at 5 o'clock a vote was called for the dissolution of the meeting and obtained. But some of the more moderate and judicious members, fearing what might be the consequences, asked for a reconsideration of the vote, offing no other reason, than that they ought to do every thing in their power to send the tea back, according to their previous resolves. This, says the historian of that event, touched the pride of the assembly, and they agreed to remain together one hour."

During that hour, there was a strong and vigorous debate about whether or not they should take on the world's mightiest corporation, back up by the greatest military force the planet had ever seen.
And then came a call for a vote: "The question was then immediately put whether the landing of the tea should be opposed, and carried in the affirmative unanimously. Rotch [a local tea seller], to whom the cargo of tea had been consigned, was then requested to demand of the governor to permit to pass the castle [return the ships to England]. The latter answered haughtily, that for the honor of the laws, and from duty towards the king, he could not grant the permit, until the vessel was regularly cleared.

"A violent commotion immediately ensued; and... a person disguised after the manner of the Indians, who was in the gallery, shouted at this juncture, the cry of war; and that the meeting disolved in the twinkling of an eye, and the multitude rushed in a mass to Griffin's wharf."

"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 march 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 paries, 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 Pit. 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 order 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 houses 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 by 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 measure 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. No disorder took place during that transaction, and it was observed at that time that the stillest night ensured that Boston had enjoyed for many months.

Hews and his associates destroyed and threw overboard 342 chests of tea - enough to make 24 million cups of tea- worth over a million dollars in today's money. Instead of realizing that that was an uprising that could be handled by allowing the colonists to have their own small businesses.

Parliament passed the Boston Port Act, which closed the port until Boston's citizens had repaid the Company for the tea. The colonists refused, leading to increasing tensions and leading, some say, directly to Paul Revere's April 18, 1775, ride that called out 77 Minutemen to face 700 British regulars (Redcoats) the next day on the Lexington Green.

The war was on!

Americans have been drinking coffee ever since. The English said that the reason the Americans lost their taste for tea was that they had a peculiar way of mixing it in the salt water.

It started in the Green Dragon Tavern. If a man ordered tea, he was a Tory. If he ordered coffee, he was a Patriot.

Patrician Orientalism:
America's founding fathers, as well as the Royalty of Europe used China as a means to developing a national personality. Patrician orientalism was driven primarily by social hierarchy. Status was conferred on those who possessed Chinese things and ideas; hence, George Washington's taste for fancy china tea sets, part and parcel of his strategy of "uplifting himself from his humble origins to the status of landed gentry." He constantly sought to emulate British elite culture. His tea-drinking and porcelain-collecting habits embodied these efforts.

Washington was a man not from a wealthy family and who had no formal schooling, but was a very intelligent man as a result of his own readings.

Enjoy your tea!

Dr. Tea, Tea Expert & Proprietor
Tea Garden & Herbal Emporium