Sons & Daughters of Liberty 

     On May 10, 1773, Parliament passed The Tea Act, which allowed the British East India Company to monopolize tea sales in the American colonies. This infuriated the colonists, especially the merchants who had originally purchased, or smuggled, their tea directly from British Markets. A tax on the tea had to be paid upon the unloading of the tea or within 20 days after the arrival of the shipment. The Dartmouth, which was carrying the first shipment of tea, arrived on November 28, 1773 in Griffin’s Wharf located in Boston, Massachusetts. Two other ships followed shortly after. The final deadline for the tax to be paid was to be December 17th. 

 

     In response, thousands of colonists, organized by the Sons of Liberty, met over the course of several days to try to decide what was to be done about the tea in the harbor. All legal course of actions were tried first. The shipmaster requested a pass from the Customs House, which would allow the Dartmouth to leave the harbor without unloading the shipment of tea. This was denied. On the morning of 12/16/1773, a final meeting of 5000-7000 gathered to try to come up with a solution. In a last ditch effort, they sent the ship’s owner to make a personal plea to Lieutenant Governor Chief Justice of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson. This request was also denied. The Sons of Liberty had an alternate plan in place, which was put into action once the news spread that the final plea was denied.

 

     On the night of 12/16/1773, over 100 members of the Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians, armed with axes, and boarded the three ships carrying the cargo of tea from the British East India Company. Over the next several hours, they proceeded to smash open the 340 chests of tea and dump their contents into the harbor. Over 92,000 pounds of tea were destroyed, with a worth of more than $1,700,000 in today’s money. No other damage was documented on the ships, other than one broken padlock which was replaced the next day by the Patriots. After the destruction of the tea, they swept the decks clean and moved anything out of place back to where it belonged. This night became known as The Boston Tea Party and was a catalyst to the American Revolution.