250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party

On the evening of December 16, 1773, somewhere between 30 and 130 Colonists, calling themselves “The Sons of Liberty” and some disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded three ships of the British East India Company moored in Boston Harbor – the Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver – and threw 340 chests containing 92,000 pounds of tea worth £9,659 (equivalent to $1.6 million today) into Boston Harbor in protest at the taxes imposed on the 13 Colonies by the British Parliament under the Townshend Act.  A fourth ship, the William, had run aground on Cape Cod, and its tea was sold into private hands.  In March 1774, when the Sons of Liberty learned that that tea had arrived in Boston, they threw it into Boston Harbor too.

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Tea Party, the Massachusetts Historical Society, itself founded only 24 years after the Tea Party, has mounted an exhibition featuring a remarkable collection of artifacts and documents from the MHS collection.  The exhibition delves into this pivotal moment in American history through the perspectives of six individuals from diverse backgrounds – Paul Revere, Joseph Warren, Phillis Wheatley, Prince Hall, John Rowe, and Thomas Hutchinson – whose stories give insight as to why the Boston Tea Party happened.

We have arranged for the MHS to give OxCamNE a private guided tour of the exhibition on Saturday, February 10 at 10:45am.  The cost is $20 per person, and participation is limited to 26 people.  Sign up here. 

The Historical Society is located at 1154 Boylston Street.  The nearest T station is Hynes Convention Center on the Green Line.