Episode 16: The Tea

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Jim Ambuske: This episode of
Worlds Turned Upside Down is

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made possible with support from
a 2024 grant from the National

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Endowment for the Humanities.

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Captain Benjamin Lockyer's ship
was lost somewhere in the

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Atlantic. God knew where. In
early October 1773 his ship, the

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Nancy, had cleared out of the
Port of London and headed down

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the River Thames, the beginning
of a weeks long voyage to New

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York, laden with a heavy cargo.
The North Atlantic could be

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unforgiving with the onset of
winter and the journey out of

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London slow the Nancy lumbered
its way down the Thames to

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Gravesend on October 6, not far
from where the river meets the

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North Sea, before calling a deal
on England's southeast coast.

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There, the ship remained for
several days, with the winds

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blowing hard out of the
Southwest. By late October, the

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weather turned more favorable.
The Nancy headed west, hugging

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England's southern coast, until
October 22 when it reached

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Portsmouth, long the home of the
Royal Navy. But as any good

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sailor knew, the winds around
Portsmouth respected neither

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commoner nor king. Nearly 230
years earlier, King Henry the

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Eighth watched in horror from
the shore as a violent gust of

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wind tipped over his prized
warship, the Mary Rose during a

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battle with the French. Qater
poured into our open gun ports,

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sending the proud King's ship
and her crew to the bottom of

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the English Channel. If the
Nancy began its trek across the

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Atlantic within a day or two of
its arrival in Portsmouth, it

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didn't get very far. The Ocean
had other ideas, and the winds

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blew harder still in early
November, London newspapers

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reported the ship off the coast
of the Isle of Wight. By then,

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six other ships, like the Nancy,
were already well underway to

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Charleston, Philadelphia and
Boston. They carried a combined

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1353 chests of East India
Company tea. Over the course of

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more than a century, the East
India Company had grown from a

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lucrative trading venture in the
Indian Ocean to a nearly

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sovereign power in its own
right, and the de facto ruler

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over much of subcontinent India,
however much some members of

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Parliament bristled at the
company's power, charged it with

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corruption and lamented the
blurred lines between its

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shareholders and the British
state. Through it, the

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government could rule its
distant Indian empire and

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exploit its riches. From India,
the company sent home spices,

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textiles and curiosities from
China, the company sent tea. But

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by the early 1770s the East
India Company was teetering on

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the edge of collapse. The costs
of running an empire and an

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enterprise were very great. War
in Madras and famine in Bengal

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weighed on Indian communities
and the company's finances.

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Protests in British America over
the Townshend Acts turned into

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non importation movements,
crippling the company's ability

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to sell tea in the colonies,
smuggled tea only made manners

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worse. In early 1773 the
company's warehouses were

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bursting with 18 million pounds
of unsold tea. Parliament could

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not afford to let the company
fail, nor could it ignore the

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solution, British America
presented either by 1773 with

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most of the Townshend taxes
already repealed, British

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Americans proved more than
willing to purchase and drink

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legal duty tea if Parliament
allowed the company to sell its

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unwanted leaves directly to
Pennsylvanians, South

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Carolinians and other colonial
consumers that might help bring

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the company back from the brink
of bankruptcy and have an even

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happier effect, cheaper tea for
the King's subjects. The tea in

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the Nancy and in the other six
ships sailing for British

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America were part of this grand
experiment. In 1773 Parliament

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passed the Tea Act to begin this
work, but rough waters lay

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ahead. By mid November 1773 the
Nancy was finally under sale for

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North America with 698 chests of
Company tea in her cargo hold

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weighing an astonishing 106
tons. Captain Lockyer had given

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bond to deliver the tea safely
into the hands of its New York

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consignees. The voyage should
have taken at most nine weeks,

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but foul winds and foul weather
blew the Nancy far off course,

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damaging the ship and testing
the crew's faith in the

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almighty. Weeks later, the
battered Nancy managed to find

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safe haven at the sugar island
of Antigua, nearly 2000 miles

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south of where the ship and her
crew were supposed to be. Since

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the 17th century, Antigua had
been a critical waypoint for

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ships and information passing
between Great Britain and North

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America. When the Nancy arrived
at Antigua in mid February, 1774

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Captain Lockyer learned of
incidents in Charleston,

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Philadelphia and Boston. What
precisely Lockyer learned as he

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lingered in Antigua we do not
know. Was he told that

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Charlestonians stored their tea
in the town's merchant exchange

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while they debated what course
to set? Did he learn that

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Philadelphians had turned back
their ship and returned its tea

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to England? Did he catch wind of
the wreck of a tea ship off Cape

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Cod leaving its tea open for the
taking? Did someone whisper that

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a mob of men, some dressed as
Mohawk warriors, had boarded

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three tea ships in Boston
Harbor, broke into their cargo

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holds, smashed open the chests,
and spent hours jumping 46 tons

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of tea into the waves? Lockyer
may have learned from fellow

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Captains or from newspapers that
when the Nancy eventually

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arrived in New York, he will be
made acquainted with the

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sentiments of the inhabitants
respecting the tea. His ship

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would be resupplied, and he
would be strongly encouraged to

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sail for England. Immediately
following these "discrete

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intentions" would prevent "every
fatality, both to this colony

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and the honorable company."
Buchare might have chosen to

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unload his tea in Antigua, paid
the required customs duties and

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sailed home, washing his hands
of all of it. The tea would have

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found its way into the pots of
British Americans, but he had a

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contract to deliver his cargo to
New York. Still, the captain was

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no fool. He sent word by another
ship that he was willing to

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cooperate with the New Yorker's
demands, hoping that by the time

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the Nancy arrived, all would be
well and the tea could be landed

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with the ship repaired and re
provisioned. Captain Lockyer and

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his crew set sail for New York,
leaving the warm waters of the

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Caribbean behind, carrying the
tea at the heart of a tempest.

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It had been a rough crossing
already, and now in the early

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spring, as the Nancy approached
the mainland, buchare and his

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crew could feel the ship pitch
and roll as the waves grew

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higher, the winds blowing
harder, dark clouds gathered in

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the distance. A storm was on the
horizon. I'm Jim Ambuske, and

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this is Worlds Turned Upside
Down, a podcast about the

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history of the American
Revolution. Episode 16: The Tea.

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Nn March 5, 1770, hours before
the Boston Massacre, Parliament

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took its first steps to repeal
some of the Townsend duties. The

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taxes on imported paper, paint,
lead, glass and tea, were

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introduced three years earlier,
a key element of Charles

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Townshend strategy to reform
British America the late

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Chancellor of the Exchequer
intended for the revenue raised

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from his scheme to stay in North
America to fund the salaries of

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colonial governors and judges, a
plan to make them less beholden

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to the whims of provincial
legislatures and more

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accountable to Parliament and
the king. But many British

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Americans in Boston, New York,
Charleston, Philadelphia and

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beyond decried Townshend's
duties as unconstitutional

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infringements on their rights
and liberties as British

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subjects. In their view, it was
taxation without representation,

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and to some a diabolical plot to
erode legislative oversight of

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provincial officials. British
Americans responded with

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petitions, protests, rioting,
intimidation of customs

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officials and local boycotts of
British goods. These

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non-importation agreements
rattled British merchants, who

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watched as their exports and
their income sank with each

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passing month, they pressured
Members of Parliament to change

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course. In the spring of 1770
Parliament relented, but only

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just.

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James Fichter: Parliament did
partially repeal the Revenue Act

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in April of 1770 and this was in
the midst of the North American

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boycotts and protests against
this act. My name is James

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Fichter. I'm an historian. At
the University of Hong Kong,

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where I'm an associate professor
of global and Area Studies.

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Parliament took the tax off on
lead paint, glass and paper, not

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the tax on tea, which it left in
place simply to prove the point

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that it could and should
maintain some sort of tax. And

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the Customs Administration
Townshend had put in stayed in

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place as well.

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Jim Ambuske: Parliament left in
place the three pence per pound

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duty on tea, a token measure of
Parliament's sovereignty and

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power. British Americans who led
the boycott movements like the

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Sons of Liberty believed that
sustaining them required a

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patriotic spirit, if not
occasional threats and

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intimidation of fellow colonists
and customs officials.

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James Fichter: But the
non-importation movement was

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really leaky. Colonists stocked
up on goods before the

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non-importation movement began,
and they continued to import

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goods from Britain, even though
they promised each other that

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they wouldn't. So at the height
of the non importation movement

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in the early to mid 1770s some
colonists are still importing

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tea and other goods. In Boston,
for example, patriots find it so

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difficult to stop tea imports
that for merchants who refuse to

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abide by the non importation
movement, including Thomas and

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Elijah Hutchinson, they simply
have to lock their tea up. So

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patriots take the Hutchinson's
tea and lock it up to prevent it

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from being sold.

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Jim Ambuske: Although British
Americans celebrated the repeal

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of the taxes on paper, paint,
lead and glass.

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James Fichter: Colonists were
supposed to continue boycotting

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British tea even after they
resumed trade with Britain for

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other goods. But strikingly in
almost every colony, including

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major market colonies like
Virginia, South Carolina,

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Massachusetts, colonists resume
importing duty tea from England

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after the Revenue Act is
partially repealed and they do

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not faithfully adhere to the
continued boycott on tea. Only

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in two major market colonies is
the boycott on duty tea

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continued, and that's in New
York and Pennsylvania. It's

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effective there because
merchants there have trade

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networks with continental Europe
allowed them to get tea and

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other goods from European
sources. How do you make sense

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of this protest movement?
Patriots and Parliament can both

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see themselves as winners out of
this that it's only partially

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repealed and that the tea tax
remains and is paid after 1770

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looks like a victory to
Parliament that the other taxes

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are repealed and that the
Patriots have managed to

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continue not importing duty tea
in some colonies, looks like a

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victory to the Patriots. Both
sides look at this and tell

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themselves that they won, even
though in many ways they're also

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both losers.

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Jim Ambuske: British Americans
willingness to resume importing

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tax tea in 1770 gave Parliament
and the king's ministers a false

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sense of confidence that
colonists were beginning to

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accept what Parliament had long
claimed, that it could legislate

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for the colonies in all cases
whatsoever. In a very real

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sense, buying and drinking the
tea was an acknowledgement of

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that claimed right? But another
tea crisis was quickly coming to

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a boil. The boycotts in British
America over the Townshend

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duties reverberated on the far
side of the world, compounding

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the British East India Company's
mounting financial problems,

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pushing it ever closer to
disaster. So why did Parliament

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pass the Tea Act of 1773 and why
did some British Americans

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believe that East India Company
tea was a tool of tyranny? To

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begin answering these questions,
we'll first sail east to explore

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the East India Company's reign
over Britain's distant empire.

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We'll then begin the long voyage
back to London, back to

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Parliament to consider British
plans for resolving a crisis in

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one part of the empire without
provoking one in the other,

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before sailing west with the
doomed tea to British America to

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steep in the rhetoric and the
realities that led to its

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destruction. In the early 17th
century, just as the Virginia

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Company of London was drawing up
plans to settle Jamestown in

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Virginia, the British East India
Company began making inroads in

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Southeast Asia and most
especially the subcontinent of

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India.

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Deepthi Murali: The British East
India Company was established in

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1600 as a joint stock company
that the Queen Elizabeth the

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first gave them a royal monopoly
to go and trade in the quote

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East Indies. And this company
was given a really wide open

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charter to do whatever they
wanted in the East Indies in

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terms of trade. And as they
started in 1600s there were

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still competitors for them in
terms of the Portuguese, the

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French, the Dutch, but
essentially, they were still

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supposed to be a trade entity in
India. I'm Deepti Murali,

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Assistant Professor in the
Department of History and Art

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History at George Mason
University. In the early part of

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the 18th century, the British
East India Company is basically

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about four factories, and
factories essentially mean

224
00:15:07,435 --> 00:15:11,755
trading posts. They have Surat
in the West, a little south of

225
00:15:11,755 --> 00:15:14,815
Surat, they have Bombay. Then
further south, they have Madras.

226
00:15:14,875 --> 00:15:17,755
And in the east, they have
Calcutta. And essentially they

227
00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:21,760
have very limited ruling
authority in these trading

228
00:15:21,760 --> 00:15:25,840
posts. The French have the same
ruling authority in the areas

229
00:15:25,840 --> 00:15:30,100
that they control. The Dutch
have their own areas. There are

230
00:15:30,100 --> 00:15:34,360
Danish traders with the Danish
trading company there as well,

231
00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:38,140
even the Swedish at some point.
So there are a lot of Europeans

232
00:15:38,140 --> 00:15:41,485
and European trading companies,
and they have these areas over

233
00:15:41,485 --> 00:15:46,045
which they had absolute control,
but these are very small areas.

234
00:15:46,525 --> 00:15:49,045
Jim Ambuske: These trading posts
were minor footholds on a

235
00:15:49,045 --> 00:15:50,485
crowded subcontinent.

236
00:15:51,085 --> 00:15:53,785
Unknown: Unlike in the North
American context, in the Indian

237
00:15:53,785 --> 00:15:57,985
context, the British are one
among many. Even in the 18th

238
00:15:57,985 --> 00:16:02,005
century, they're one among many.
And India's rulers are used to,

239
00:16:02,065 --> 00:16:05,950
quote, unquote, foreigners
coming and becoming part of the

240
00:16:05,950 --> 00:16:11,950
system. In many cases, this idea
of India as a whole is still not

241
00:16:11,950 --> 00:16:15,550
present in the subcontinent.
They're still different groups,

242
00:16:15,550 --> 00:16:18,490
and they've always been sort of
multi ethnic, multicultural

243
00:16:18,490 --> 00:16:22,270
groups, or at least had been for
centuries. If you think about

244
00:16:22,270 --> 00:16:25,450
the Mughals, the Mughals are the
Central Asian dynasty that then

245
00:16:25,450 --> 00:16:29,755
comes and becomes Indian. If you
look at the Mughal world, the

246
00:16:29,755 --> 00:16:33,475
Mughals then integrate all these
other people who come from

247
00:16:33,655 --> 00:16:38,575
Central Asia, from other parts
of India into their system. They

248
00:16:38,575 --> 00:16:42,775
are all very multicultural. So
in many ways, the British, the

249
00:16:42,775 --> 00:16:45,775
French, the Dutch and the
Portuguese are sort of the new

250
00:16:45,775 --> 00:16:48,655
ones into an existing system of
trade.

251
00:16:49,015 --> 00:16:52,000
Jim Ambuske: To participate in
that trade, the East India

252
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:55,120
Company and its European
competitors had to work with

253
00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:57,280
local rulers in Indian
communities.

254
00:16:57,580 --> 00:17:00,640
Unknown: It is happening in
collaboration with Indians. But

255
00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:04,420
it depends from region to region
on how that is carried out. But

256
00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:09,280
across the East India Company
world, most of the people who,

257
00:17:09,340 --> 00:17:12,400
at least in the early stages,
work with East India Company are

258
00:17:12,460 --> 00:17:15,445
what they were called the
dubashis, or literally, the

259
00:17:15,505 --> 00:17:19,045
people who can speak two
languages, so the scribes, and

260
00:17:19,045 --> 00:17:22,585
they are the peons and the
clerks, and they are the Indians

261
00:17:22,585 --> 00:17:26,185
who run that administrative
unit, because there are not that

262
00:17:26,185 --> 00:17:29,845
many British people to go
around. There's a lot of Indians

263
00:17:29,845 --> 00:17:33,085
working with the British. In
that sense, you have the

264
00:17:33,085 --> 00:17:36,190
soldiers who are Indian, the
sepoys. You have a lot of

265
00:17:36,190 --> 00:17:39,850
middlemen that comes from
different caste and occupational

266
00:17:39,850 --> 00:17:44,230
groups for different kinds of
Industry and Trade. They're also

267
00:17:44,230 --> 00:17:48,250
working with rulers as well.
They're in partnership with many

268
00:17:48,250 --> 00:17:52,690
Indian rulers, and so they do
have friendly trade agreements

269
00:17:52,810 --> 00:17:54,910
and treatises with various
rulers.

270
00:17:55,390 --> 00:17:57,910
Jim Ambuske: By the second half
of the 18th century, the

271
00:17:57,910 --> 00:18:01,135
development of that trade
entangled British America and

272
00:18:01,135 --> 00:18:01,915
British India.

273
00:18:02,020 --> 00:18:05,500
Unknown: Cotton goods are the
biggest part of that trade. They

274
00:18:05,500 --> 00:18:08,860
are exported to Britain, and
they're exported directly to the

275
00:18:08,860 --> 00:18:12,640
Caribbean. And in the Caribbean
they're being used to clothe

276
00:18:12,700 --> 00:18:17,320
enslaved people. There is the
Indigo, which is the dye that's

277
00:18:17,380 --> 00:18:20,620
shipped from India to the
Americas to be used as a dye.

278
00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:24,880
There is also trade in the other
direction. They take Caribbean

279
00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:30,265
sugar rum through North America,
sell it in Britain, and then

280
00:18:30,325 --> 00:18:34,645
take that money to go to India
to buy goods. A lot of these

281
00:18:34,645 --> 00:18:37,825
ships are going to India and
China are made out of North

282
00:18:37,825 --> 00:18:41,185
American timber. And then
towards the end of the 18th

283
00:18:41,185 --> 00:18:45,205
century, you see them growing
opium, and then they're taking

284
00:18:45,265 --> 00:18:50,110
opium to China to buy tea from
China and bring them to the

285
00:18:50,110 --> 00:18:51,370
North American markets.

286
00:18:51,790 --> 00:18:54,490
Jim Ambuske: The company's
expanding presence soon brought

287
00:18:54,490 --> 00:18:57,850
the British into conflict with
local rulers and their European

288
00:18:57,910 --> 00:19:02,830
adversaries in the late 1750s
while British forces suffered

289
00:19:02,830 --> 00:19:06,010
repeated humiliations at the
hands of the French and their

290
00:19:06,010 --> 00:19:09,430
indigenous allies in North
America, the British East India

291
00:19:09,430 --> 00:19:13,435
Company recovered from an early
defeat to win a decisive victory

292
00:19:13,435 --> 00:19:15,535
in 1756

293
00:19:15,535 --> 00:19:19,435
Unknown: Siraj-ud-Daulah, who
was the Nawab of The Bengal

294
00:19:19,435 --> 00:19:23,875
Province, which is where
Calcutta is, attacks the British

295
00:19:23,875 --> 00:19:25,675
Trading Post, the factory in
Calcutta,

296
00:19:26,215 --> 00:19:29,215
Jim Ambuske: in response to
Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah's attack,

297
00:19:29,335 --> 00:19:32,695
the company mobilized an army of
British soldiers, hired

298
00:19:32,695 --> 00:19:36,820
Europeans, Sepoy Indian soldiers
and company men to retaliate.

299
00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:40,420
Unknown: In 1757, there's a
battle, which is called the

300
00:19:40,420 --> 00:19:44,980
Battle of Plassey or Palashi,
where Robert Clive defeats

301
00:19:44,980 --> 00:19:50,380
Siraj-ud-Daulah very decisively
and takes over the Bengal

302
00:19:50,380 --> 00:19:53,200
province. Now, Bengal is the
richest Mughal province at the

303
00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:58,045
time, so suddenly the British is
near. Company has a lot of money

304
00:19:58,405 --> 00:20:01,885
and a lot of land and. Anew from
these lands, even though they

305
00:20:01,885 --> 00:20:06,685
are administering these lands in
name for the Mughal emperor, and

306
00:20:06,685 --> 00:20:11,365
they just take over this nawabi
system and the diwani system

307
00:20:11,545 --> 00:20:12,865
that the Mughals practice.

308
00:20:12,865 --> 00:20:17,965
Jim Ambuske: In 1765, the Mughal
emperor, Shah Alam the Second,

309
00:20:18,025 --> 00:20:21,190
granted the diwani rights to the
British East India Company,

310
00:20:21,490 --> 00:20:25,030
empowering it to collect revenue
from lands in Bengal and two

311
00:20:25,030 --> 00:20:27,130
other territories in eastern
India.

312
00:20:27,610 --> 00:20:30,490
Unknown: And once again, they
are now swimming in cash. They

313
00:20:30,490 --> 00:20:34,510
are really wealthy, and that
starts their territorial

314
00:20:34,510 --> 00:20:36,910
conquest of the rest of the
subcontinent.

315
00:20:37,630 --> 00:20:41,530
Jim Ambuske: By the early 1770s
the company's successes in India

316
00:20:41,530 --> 00:20:45,355
and elsewhere in Asia left it in
control of vast territories,

317
00:20:45,355 --> 00:20:49,915
trade networks and wealth. But
those successes came at a price.

318
00:20:50,335 --> 00:20:53,995
Unknown: Well, they grew too big
for their boots. There are many

319
00:20:53,995 --> 00:20:58,315
different factors. One is the
territorial expansion itself. If

320
00:20:58,315 --> 00:21:00,715
you're expanding and if you're
conquering new territories, it

321
00:21:00,715 --> 00:21:03,535
costs money if you're
establishing new administrative

322
00:21:03,535 --> 00:21:07,480
units and creating this vast
administrative network that's

323
00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:13,060
going to cost you money. Towards
the end of the 18th century,

324
00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:15,880
Bengal, which is the richest
province, goes through a famine

325
00:21:16,180 --> 00:21:20,200
that really restricts how much
money they can make off the

326
00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:24,220
land, and then the Seven Years
War, the British and French are

327
00:21:24,220 --> 00:21:27,160
fighting the proxy wars in the
Americas as well as in South

328
00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:31,105
Asia. And one of the proxy wars
they had is with the state of

329
00:21:31,105 --> 00:21:35,365
Mysore. And those were some
very, very expensive wars. And

330
00:21:35,365 --> 00:21:39,505
most important thing,
corruption, the term nabobism

331
00:21:39,505 --> 00:21:42,385
comes from this British
officials start living like

332
00:21:42,385 --> 00:21:46,405
Indian Nawabs, living the life
of princes trading a lot of

333
00:21:46,405 --> 00:21:49,645
wealth and lot of the company's
money into their personal

334
00:21:49,645 --> 00:21:53,590
coffers, becoming really, really
rich, especially in that mid to

335
00:21:53,590 --> 00:21:57,550
late 18th century period. So
corruption is also draining the

336
00:21:57,550 --> 00:21:58,810
British East India Company.

337
00:22:00,430 --> 00:22:03,490
Jim Ambuske: The vast distances
between Great Britain and India

338
00:22:03,490 --> 00:22:06,190
meant that reports on the
company's activities in South

339
00:22:06,190 --> 00:22:10,510
Asia took six to eight months to
reach London, even as they

340
00:22:10,510 --> 00:22:13,810
celebrated the success of
British arms on the subcontinent

341
00:22:14,050 --> 00:22:17,695
and the wealth that came with
it, the king's ministers as well

342
00:22:17,695 --> 00:22:20,215
as members of parliament
questioned what role the

343
00:22:20,215 --> 00:22:23,275
government should play in
regulating the company and

344
00:22:23,275 --> 00:22:27,655
whether it was growing too
powerful. Benjamin Carp, the

345
00:22:27,655 --> 00:22:30,715
Daniel M. Lyons Professor of
American history at Brooklyn

346
00:22:30,715 --> 00:22:32,095
College, explains,

347
00:22:32,755 --> 00:22:35,095
Benjamin Carp: aA lot of them
were invested in the East India

348
00:22:35,095 --> 00:22:38,275
Company directly. They also felt
that they represented

349
00:22:38,275 --> 00:22:41,920
shareholders who expected their
dividends to keep rolling in.

350
00:22:42,100 --> 00:22:45,700
They also knew that the
territorial gains that the East

351
00:22:45,700 --> 00:22:49,300
India Company had made had
encroached upon British

352
00:22:49,300 --> 00:22:52,720
diplomatic relations with other
countries, and that it was

353
00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:55,120
obvious that the British
government was going to have to

354
00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:58,480
get directly involved. And so
the East India Company's

355
00:22:58,540 --> 00:23:02,665
extension into all these various
places east of the Cape of Good

356
00:23:02,665 --> 00:23:06,145
Hope had made it unavoidable
that Parliament would have to be

357
00:23:06,145 --> 00:23:08,905
involved one way or another in
the doings of the East India

358
00:23:08,905 --> 00:23:09,385
Company.

359
00:23:09,985 --> 00:23:13,525
Jim Ambuske: In the mid 1760s,
Prime Minister William Pitt,

360
00:23:13,585 --> 00:23:17,245
Earl of Chatham argued that some
of the company's revenue ought

361
00:23:17,245 --> 00:23:20,965
to be made available for the
public benefit. Chatham believed

362
00:23:21,025 --> 00:23:24,205
it could help reduce the debt
that Britain had incurred to win

363
00:23:24,205 --> 00:23:29,290
the Seven Years War. King George
the Third concurred. In 1767the

364
00:23:30,490 --> 00:23:33,910
company committed to
contributing £400,000 pounds to

365
00:23:33,910 --> 00:23:38,470
the government annually, a value
of over £56 million pounds in

366
00:23:38,470 --> 00:23:41,770
our own time, in exchange for
maintaining its nearly

367
00:23:41,770 --> 00:23:46,630
autonomous control over Indian
Territory. Ironically, George

368
00:23:46,630 --> 00:23:50,515
Grenville, the architect of the
disastrous Stamp Act, argued

369
00:23:50,515 --> 00:23:53,935
against chatham's plans, calling
them a violation of the

370
00:23:53,935 --> 00:23:58,615
company's Charter rights. The
Anglo-Irish MP Edmund Burke

371
00:23:58,675 --> 00:24:01,675
feared that intervening in the
company's administration would

372
00:24:01,675 --> 00:24:04,795
entangle the British government
in an enterprise that would

373
00:24:04,795 --> 00:24:08,875
bring about the nation's ruin.
Some members did not like the

374
00:24:08,875 --> 00:24:12,940
idea of ruling over peoples they
saw only in aggregate, who they

375
00:24:12,940 --> 00:24:15,940
believed had no concept of
British liberty and would

376
00:24:15,940 --> 00:24:19,960
require a despotic hand to
govern them. Nor did they have

377
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:23,440
prove of the ways some British
subjects adopted South Asian

378
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:28,240
customs and culture. In their
view, these British nabobs were

379
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:32,680
degenerating from civility to
savagery. But in London, the

380
00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:35,665
king's ministers and Parliament
could see the totality of

381
00:24:35,665 --> 00:24:39,445
Britain's empire in ways that
British Americans often never

382
00:24:39,445 --> 00:24:43,525
could. British America and
British India were two key

383
00:24:43,525 --> 00:24:47,425
pillars of an interconnected
system of global trade in orbit

384
00:24:47,485 --> 00:24:48,685
around the mothercountry.

385
00:24:49,225 --> 00:24:51,745
Benjamin Carp: The East India
Company was supposed to pay some

386
00:24:51,745 --> 00:24:54,985
portion of its revenue to
Parliament in taxes, in the same

387
00:24:54,985 --> 00:24:58,030
way that Parliament is concerned
with tobacco growers in

388
00:24:58,030 --> 00:25:01,090
Virginia, because they got
taxes. From the tobacco trade.

389
00:25:01,330 --> 00:25:03,610
They're also interested in
what's happening with the East

390
00:25:03,610 --> 00:25:06,250
India Company, because they
expect the tap of money to the

391
00:25:06,250 --> 00:25:08,770
British Empire to support the
Navy and troops and all the

392
00:25:08,770 --> 00:25:11,590
other things that Britain wants
to spend money on. They expected

393
00:25:11,590 --> 00:25:12,790
that money to keep flowing.

394
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:17,760
Jim Ambuske: In November 1772,
one member of Parliament stated

395
00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:22,800
the paradox plainly. He lamented
that Britons ever had cause to

396
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:27,240
utter the words "our Indian
Empire," and that the wealth of

397
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:30,420
Bengal had never been "wrung
from the hands of its innocent

398
00:25:30,420 --> 00:25:32,460
possessors". But:

399
00:25:32,820 --> 00:25:34,620
Member of Parliament: “When we
recollect the riches brought

400
00:25:34,620 --> 00:25:38,445
from the East Indies, the duties
and excises on the imports, and

401
00:25:38,445 --> 00:25:41,265
what will be the fatal
consequence of the annihilation

402
00:25:41,265 --> 00:25:45,165
of them, let every creditor of
the public think and tremble…Let

403
00:25:45,585 --> 00:25:49,365
every one recollect, how
intimately his fortune and

404
00:25:49,365 --> 00:25:53,385
estate, his comfort, and if I
may so call them, his innocent

405
00:25:53,385 --> 00:25:57,045
luxuries, are connected with
this vast object of trade.”

406
00:25:57,945 --> 00:26:01,710
Jim Ambuske: And that vast
object of trade was in danger of

407
00:26:01,710 --> 00:26:08,010
faltering. In the early 1770s,
the company's directors received

408
00:26:08,010 --> 00:26:12,630
a series of troubling reports,
even as it continued to pay out

409
00:26:12,630 --> 00:26:15,930
generous dividends to its
shareholders, the company faced

410
00:26:15,930 --> 00:26:21,810
bills totaling more than £1.5
million pounds in 1772

411
00:26:21,870 --> 00:26:26,115
bankruptcy loomed. A Scottish
banker named Alexander Fordyce

412
00:26:26,175 --> 00:26:29,655
suffered serious losses when he
shorted the company's stock,

413
00:26:29,715 --> 00:26:32,895
triggering a wider financial
crisis in Britain that led to

414
00:26:32,895 --> 00:26:36,555
several bank failures with a
cascading effect on the Atlantic

415
00:26:36,555 --> 00:26:41,175
economy. To stay afloat, the
company requested a loan of 1.4

416
00:26:41,175 --> 00:26:45,375
million pounds from the British
government. The 9000 tons of

417
00:26:45,420 --> 00:26:49,680
unsold tea valued at £2 million
pounds sitting in the company's

418
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:54,000
London warehouses waiting to rot
didn't help matters, either. The

419
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:57,300
protests and non importation
movements in North America over

420
00:26:57,300 --> 00:27:00,240
the towns and acts cratered the
company's tea sales in the

421
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:06,240
colonies. In 1768, the company
exported nearly 150 tons of tea

422
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:10,185
to the New England colonies. Two
years later, it exported only

423
00:27:10,185 --> 00:27:14,625
about 43 tons. During the
boycotts, merchants sold legal

424
00:27:14,625 --> 00:27:17,685
tea they had stockpiled before
they took effect, lessening

425
00:27:17,685 --> 00:27:21,465
their need to purchase new
stocks of tea, even when British

426
00:27:21,465 --> 00:27:25,005
Americans in most colonies
resumed purchasing legal duty

427
00:27:25,005 --> 00:27:28,725
tea in the early 1770s New
Yorkers and Pennsylvanians

428
00:27:28,725 --> 00:27:32,010
continued the boycott London
wholesalers cut into the

429
00:27:32,010 --> 00:27:33,870
company's profits, and:

430
00:27:34,050 --> 00:27:36,450
Benjamin Carp: It had
competitors via smuggling. Some

431
00:27:36,450 --> 00:27:39,330
of this competition from
smugglers meant that tea was

432
00:27:39,330 --> 00:27:42,270
piling up in its warehouses. It
wasn't able to take the kinds of

433
00:27:42,270 --> 00:27:45,510
profits that it potentially
could have realized on tea,

434
00:27:45,510 --> 00:27:47,610
which is a particularly
important commodity.

435
00:27:49,170 --> 00:27:53,970
Jim Ambuske: In 1773 then the
British faced a series of

436
00:27:53,970 --> 00:27:57,615
questions with global
consequences, how far should the

437
00:27:57,615 --> 00:28:01,395
government intervene in the East
India Company's operations? How

438
00:28:01,395 --> 00:28:05,055
could it ensure better rule in
British India, and what role

439
00:28:05,055 --> 00:28:08,835
could British America play in
this puzzle? To address some of

440
00:28:08,835 --> 00:28:14,175
the problems, Parliament passed
the regulating act of 1773 the

441
00:28:14,175 --> 00:28:17,940
Act created a crown appointed
Governor General of Bengal and

442
00:28:17,940 --> 00:28:21,720
reorganized Madras and Bombay
beneath the wealthier province,

443
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:26,100
it also established a Supreme
Court based in Calcutta, with

444
00:28:26,100 --> 00:28:29,160
British judges appointed to
oversee the British legal system

445
00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:33,240
in place there. Parliament
limited the company's dividends

446
00:28:33,300 --> 00:28:37,140
until it repaid its loan to the
government, forbade company

447
00:28:37,140 --> 00:28:40,965
employees from conducting
private trade on the side, and

448
00:28:40,965 --> 00:28:45,105
limited the company's directors
to four year terms. It was the

449
00:28:45,105 --> 00:28:48,825
first step in a very long
history of more direct British

450
00:28:48,825 --> 00:28:53,685
rule in India. But what to do
about all that bloody Company

451
00:28:53,685 --> 00:28:59,505
tea festering in London
warehouses as the end of 1772

452
00:28:59,505 --> 00:29:02,865
neared, many British Americans
continued importing legal duty

453
00:29:02,865 --> 00:29:06,510
tea under the last surviving
provision of Charles Townshend's

454
00:29:06,510 --> 00:29:07,050
Revenue Act.

455
00:29:07,050 --> 00:29:10,770
Benjamin Carp: The 1767 Revenue
Act, popularly called the

456
00:29:10,770 --> 00:29:14,550
Townsend Act, is actually the
act that imposes the three penny

457
00:29:14,550 --> 00:29:18,630
per pound duty on tea. All of
the Townsend acts, except for

458
00:29:18,630 --> 00:29:25,287
the duty on tea, were repealed
in 1770 Parliament wanted to

459
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:25,395
James Fichter: One other thing
worth noting, the initial

460
00:29:25,287 --> 00:29:25,513
maintain the principle of
continuing to tax Americans.

461
00:29:25,395 --> 00:29:27,760
Revenue Act have a five year
sunset clause. They're going to

462
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:35,440
end in 1772 anyway. So there's a
need for a new act. Either they

463
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,200
revert to the old super high
tariffs and the smuggling

464
00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:41,140
network continues, or the three
pence a pound tax needs to be

465
00:29:41,140 --> 00:29:41,440
renewed.

466
00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:44,740
Jim Ambuske: Dumping company tea
on the North American market

467
00:29:44,740 --> 00:29:48,160
would not by itself, resolve the
company's immediate financial

468
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:52,885
woes, but a new Tea Act passed
alongside the Regulating Act

469
00:29:53,065 --> 00:29:55,945
could be an important part of a
global solution.

470
00:29:56,185 --> 00:29:58,225
James Fichter: Previously, the
company had been required to

471
00:29:58,225 --> 00:30:02,365
sell all of its tea at all.
Auctions in London. This

472
00:30:02,425 --> 00:30:06,325
introduced this new trance of
middlemen London wholesalers,

473
00:30:06,325 --> 00:30:09,145
who would add the cost for their
services to buying the tea at

474
00:30:09,145 --> 00:30:11,830
auction, putting it in with the
other goods that they shipped to

475
00:30:11,830 --> 00:30:15,010
North America on their seasonal
shipments across the Atlantic.

476
00:30:15,610 --> 00:30:17,350
Benjamin Carp: Then British
says, All right, well, our East

477
00:30:17,350 --> 00:30:21,550
India Company is in trouble.
What if we continue to maintain

478
00:30:21,550 --> 00:30:24,850
this duty on the Americans that
the Americans are paying, but

479
00:30:24,850 --> 00:30:27,790
simultaneously make it easier
for the East India Company to

480
00:30:27,790 --> 00:30:31,030
ship its tea to the American
colonies by eliminating the

481
00:30:31,030 --> 00:30:33,310
middlemen, setting up a
situation where they can

482
00:30:33,310 --> 00:30:36,715
handpick certain consignees to
receive tea shipments, pretty

483
00:30:36,715 --> 00:30:39,895
much directly from the East
India Company and sell it to the

484
00:30:39,895 --> 00:30:40,915
American colonists.

485
00:30:40,915 --> 00:30:45,295
James Fichter: So the main
innovation of the Tea Act is it

486
00:30:45,295 --> 00:30:48,235
allows the English East India
Company to directly ship its tea

487
00:30:48,235 --> 00:30:51,715
to North America. By allowing
the company to ship tea directly

488
00:30:51,715 --> 00:30:54,595
to North America without
auctioning, it could either cut

489
00:30:54,595 --> 00:30:58,300
out those wholesalers or put
them in competition with other

490
00:30:58,300 --> 00:31:02,140
wholesalers. So now the company
was empowered to sell tea

491
00:31:02,140 --> 00:31:05,560
directly in North America. It
hired merchants in North America

492
00:31:05,620 --> 00:31:08,380
to do this. We call these men
the consignees. They were the

493
00:31:08,380 --> 00:31:13,120
men to whom the company's tea
was sent in 1773 and the company

494
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:15,580
instructed them to wholesale
this tea at a fixed price, and

495
00:31:15,580 --> 00:31:19,540
it gave them a fixed percentage
commission rate that they could

496
00:31:19,540 --> 00:31:23,185
charge. They couldn't really
have any incentive to hold on to

497
00:31:23,185 --> 00:31:26,305
the tea and for prices to go up,
they just had to get it out

498
00:31:26,305 --> 00:31:29,425
there, and they were positioned
to be in competition with the

499
00:31:29,425 --> 00:31:33,625
London wholesalers. The Tea Act
is like the earlier Townsend

500
00:31:33,625 --> 00:31:36,805
act. Supposed to be a reform, a
benevolent, if marginal

501
00:31:36,805 --> 00:31:40,525
improvement, which is supposed
to be a win win, it would

502
00:31:40,525 --> 00:31:43,465
marginally benefit the crown by
increasing tax revenue,

503
00:31:43,765 --> 00:31:46,870
marginally benefit the East
India Company by increasing some

504
00:31:46,870 --> 00:31:49,810
tea sales, perhaps, and benefit
North American colonists by

505
00:31:49,810 --> 00:31:51,970
keeping tea costs down and tea
supplies up.

506
00:31:51,970 --> 00:31:54,790
Benjamin Carp: Why would the
colonists object? This is going

507
00:31:54,790 --> 00:31:56,290
to make tea cheaper for them.

508
00:31:58,750 --> 00:32:01,030
Jim Ambuske: Parliament might be
forgiven for believing that

509
00:32:01,030 --> 00:32:04,330
British Americans would
begrudgingly not happily accept

510
00:32:04,330 --> 00:32:07,450
the new Tea Act, despite their
dismay at earlier British

511
00:32:07,495 --> 00:32:12,115
reforms. Once the trade boycotts
collapsed, colonists resumed

512
00:32:12,115 --> 00:32:15,355
importing legal tea, even as
they continued smuggling in

513
00:32:15,355 --> 00:32:18,895
leaves from cheaper Dutch
sources, the Act would lower the

514
00:32:18,895 --> 00:32:22,975
cost of tea for all colonists,
and while British America wasn't

515
00:32:22,975 --> 00:32:24,895
the Empire's largest tea market:

516
00:32:25,255 --> 00:32:27,655
James Fichter: Tea was a part of
everyday consumer life. By the

517
00:32:27,655 --> 00:32:33,220
1770s most North American
colonists were in the economic

518
00:32:33,220 --> 00:32:36,820
range where they could afford to
drink tea. Most estimates of per

519
00:32:36,820 --> 00:32:39,820
capita tea consumption North
America suggests North Americans

520
00:32:39,820 --> 00:32:43,240
drank between a half to three
quarters of a pound of tea per

521
00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:47,140
person per year. Now that's less
than in Britain. In Britain, per

522
00:32:47,140 --> 00:32:51,160
capita consumption levels at
this time are about 1.4 pounds

523
00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:54,205
of tea per person per year.
These are estimates because so

524
00:32:54,205 --> 00:32:57,565
much tea was smuggled into both
locations. But nevertheless,

525
00:32:57,565 --> 00:33:00,385
what this indicates is that
North Americans didn't drink as

526
00:33:00,385 --> 00:33:01,765
much tea as their British
cousins.

527
00:33:02,545 --> 00:33:05,185
Jim Ambuske: But the tea they
did drink was an important part

528
00:33:05,185 --> 00:33:06,925
of tea culture. Tea

529
00:33:06,925 --> 00:33:09,745
Benjamin Carp: had become an
amazingly popular commodity

530
00:33:09,745 --> 00:33:14,125
among English speaking peoples,
both in Britain and in colonial

531
00:33:14,125 --> 00:33:17,890
America. It's not just about the
beverage itself, but all the

532
00:33:17,950 --> 00:33:21,430
ecopage or equipment that goes
along with it, the cups you

533
00:33:21,430 --> 00:33:24,430
drink out of the tea pot that
you pour out of the Sugar Bowl,

534
00:33:24,430 --> 00:33:28,210
the sugar tongs, beautiful
silver or ceramic sets. And

535
00:33:28,330 --> 00:33:30,730
then, in terms of wooden
furniture, the tea tables that

536
00:33:30,730 --> 00:33:33,490
you would drink on the chairs
that you would use to sit around

537
00:33:33,490 --> 00:33:33,610
it.

538
00:33:34,150 --> 00:33:36,250
Jim Ambuske: One Boston merchant
listed for sale, a fine

539
00:33:36,430 --> 00:33:38,230
Boston Merchant: “A fine
assortment of Tea-pots,

540
00:33:38,275 --> 00:33:42,475
Coffee-pots, Sugar-pots, Cups,
and saucers[,] several compleat

541
00:33:42,475 --> 00:33:46,075
Tea-table Sets of Childrens
cream-coloured Toys[,] English

542
00:33:46,075 --> 00:33:48,295
Loaf Sugar…Spices of all sorts,
fine Hyson and Souchong Tea.”

543
00:33:48,295 --> 00:33:50,695
James Fichter: And for North
Americans and for Britain's tea

544
00:33:51,115 --> 00:33:54,895
came in all sorts of grades from
low end Bohea, which was a black

545
00:33:54,895 --> 00:33:57,295
tea to high end Hyson, which was
a fine green tea.

546
00:33:58,015 --> 00:34:00,115
Benjamin Carp: I want to stress
that tea was not the kind of

547
00:34:00,115 --> 00:34:02,680
commodity by the 18th century
that was only available to the

548
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:06,100
very elite. It was inexpensive
enough that it was accessible to

549
00:34:06,100 --> 00:34:08,860
middle class and working class
people. They might not have all

550
00:34:08,860 --> 00:34:11,560
of the same fancy things to go
with it that wealthy people

551
00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:15,820
would have, but it was still a
way to aspire towards being a

552
00:34:15,820 --> 00:34:18,640
member of a more upper class
than the one that you actually

553
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:19,240
inhabited.

554
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:22,240
James Fichter: Hyson was
extremely pricey, for example,

555
00:34:22,240 --> 00:34:25,300
and would be something that'd be
difficult for average consumers

556
00:34:25,300 --> 00:34:30,160
to get. Pricing indicates that
you could get tea for 3-4-5,

557
00:34:30,220 --> 00:34:34,240
shillings a pound, and there's a
lot of range there as well,

558
00:34:34,240 --> 00:34:37,000
because you can get different
qualities of tea. You can even

559
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:40,600
just get older tea that might be
cheaper. I was surprised to

560
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:43,645
learn that in the poor houses in
New York and Philadelphia, where

561
00:34:43,885 --> 00:34:47,605
people were given lodging in
exchange for work by the town

562
00:34:48,025 --> 00:34:50,845
inmates, as they were referred
to, were served tea as part of

563
00:34:50,845 --> 00:34:53,005
their board and lodging in the
poor house,

564
00:34:53,605 --> 00:34:55,825
Benjamin Carp: Men and women
both drank tea, but the tea

565
00:34:55,825 --> 00:34:59,485
table was classically thought to
be ladies domain. This was a

566
00:34:59,485 --> 00:35:03,085
source of criticism and satire
sometimes, but it was also a

567
00:35:03,085 --> 00:35:06,670
chance for people to be sociable
in ways that they really

568
00:35:06,670 --> 00:35:09,790
appreciated. And so all of this
material culture and all of

569
00:35:09,790 --> 00:35:12,970
these rituals have come to
surround the tea table in a way

570
00:35:12,970 --> 00:35:14,410
that becomes really important.

571
00:35:14,890 --> 00:35:17,230
Jim Ambuske: One colonist
advised his sister that when she

572
00:35:17,230 --> 00:35:19,930
married, serving tea would
allowher to keep up with the

573
00:35:19,930 --> 00:35:20,710
latest news.

574
00:35:20,710 --> 00:35:24,010
Brother: “If you have tea you
will have visitors enough, you

575
00:35:24,010 --> 00:35:26,890
will see every old wife in the
neighbourhood each week, you

576
00:35:26,890 --> 00:35:28,615
will hear all the news that is
stirring.”

577
00:35:29,215 --> 00:35:31,795
Benjamin Carp: Tea becomes this
really exciting and aspirational

578
00:35:31,795 --> 00:35:35,215
beverage for people in America
and in Britain itself.

579
00:35:37,555 --> 00:35:40,975
Jim Ambuske: Aspirational as tea
might be, Parliament missed its

580
00:35:40,975 --> 00:35:44,995
guess. British Americans did
object to the new Tea Act.

581
00:35:45,595 --> 00:35:49,735
Colonists learned of it
beginning in September 1773 when

582
00:35:49,735 --> 00:35:52,675
the statute was published in
newspapers, though their initial

583
00:35:52,720 --> 00:35:56,920
reactions were muted, the Act's
befuddling language wasn't the

584
00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:01,120
easiest to parse, but as its
meaning became clear, would be

585
00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:03,640
protesters faced a rhetorical
problem.

586
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:05,860
Benjamin Carp: If you were going
to object to the Tea Act, you

587
00:36:05,860 --> 00:36:08,500
had to do so on the basis of
principle, because people could

588
00:36:08,500 --> 00:36:11,620
see that the cost of tea might
well go down. But it was the

589
00:36:11,620 --> 00:36:13,840
principle of thing that really
seemed to matter.

590
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:14,252
James Fichter: There were fears.
Many patriots expressed their

591
00:36:14,252 --> 00:36:18,445
fears that this was going to
encourage the East India Company

592
00:36:18,445 --> 00:36:21,925
to have a monopoly on tea in
North America. And of course,

593
00:36:21,925 --> 00:36:25,645
they talked a lot about taxation
without representation. These

594
00:36:25,645 --> 00:36:27,745
are serious, and this is
something that had been brewing

595
00:36:27,745 --> 00:36:30,685
for some time, implying they
would establish the precedent of

596
00:36:30,685 --> 00:36:32,965
raising a revenue in North
America without any

597
00:36:32,965 --> 00:36:36,325
representation or any mechanism
for colonists to consent to it.

598
00:36:37,105 --> 00:36:40,870
This isn't really true. In
reality, that precedent had been

599
00:36:40,870 --> 00:36:45,790
established in 1770 when the tea
boycott collapsed and colonists

600
00:36:45,790 --> 00:36:57,370
continued to pay for tea without
protest throughout 1771 and 1772

601
00:36:58,210 --> 00:36:59,961
and into 1773 in 1772 North
American colonists imported and

602
00:36:59,961 --> 00:37:01,075
consumed over a quarter million
pounds of taxed tea into North

603
00:37:01,075 --> 00:37:04,135
America. That's a quarter
million pounds of precedent

604
00:37:04,135 --> 00:37:05,155
that's already been set

605
00:37:05,755 --> 00:37:09,535
Jim Ambuske: Nevertheless, in
October 1773 when British

606
00:37:09,535 --> 00:37:12,775
Americans learned that ships
with cargos of company t would

607
00:37:12,775 --> 00:37:16,015
be sent to Boston, New York,
Philadelphia and Charleston,

608
00:37:16,135 --> 00:37:20,035
some began drawing up strategies
of protest and resistance to

609
00:37:20,035 --> 00:37:23,875
them. Parliament's latest reform
fit into a growing pattern of

610
00:37:23,875 --> 00:37:27,940
ministerial conspiracy and
corruption, first the Sugar Act,

611
00:37:28,300 --> 00:37:31,780
then the Stamp Act, followed by
the Quartering Act, the

612
00:37:31,780 --> 00:37:37,540
Townshend Acts, and now the Tea
Act. In Philadelphia, the Quaker

613
00:37:37,540 --> 00:37:40,660
merchant Thomas Mifflin drew
inspiration from the Stamp Act

614
00:37:40,660 --> 00:37:45,220
crisis. In a published
broadside, he advised consignees

615
00:37:45,220 --> 00:37:49,345
to refuse their appointments, or
perhaps face the wrath of angry

616
00:37:49,345 --> 00:37:54,745
mobs, much as stampdistributors
once had. The Scottish immigrant

617
00:37:54,745 --> 00:37:58,105
Alexander McDougall, a member of
the New York Sons of Liberty,

618
00:37:58,165 --> 00:38:00,265
raged in a series of broadsides

619
00:38:00,445 --> 00:38:02,605
Alexander McDougall: “That the
East-India Company obtained

620
00:38:02,605 --> 00:38:05,725
their exclusive Privilege of
Trade to that Country, by

621
00:38:05,725 --> 00:38:10,045
Bribery and Corruption: Wonder
not then, that Power thus

622
00:38:10,045 --> 00:38:13,390
obtained, at the Expence of the
national Commerce, should be

623
00:38:13,390 --> 00:38:16,270
used to the most tyrannical and
cruel Purposes.”

624
00:38:17,470 --> 00:38:20,110
Jim Ambuske: The Edinburgh
trained Philadelphia physician

625
00:38:20,110 --> 00:38:23,290
Benjamin Rush believed that
landing the tea would openly

626
00:38:23,290 --> 00:38:27,430
admit Parliament's right to tax
the colonies. If that happened,

627
00:38:27,430 --> 00:38:31,990
he wrote, "We are undone
forever." It would mark the end

628
00:38:31,990 --> 00:38:36,235
of British American liberty.
Philadelphians took the lead in

629
00:38:36,235 --> 00:38:39,715
organizing public resistance to
the Tea Act and to the inbound

630
00:38:39,715 --> 00:38:44,695
tea ships on October 16, members
of the city's elite gathered at

631
00:38:44,695 --> 00:38:48,235
the state house to debate
Parliament'sactions. They passed

632
00:38:48,235 --> 00:38:51,595
a series of resolutions later
published in newspapers that

633
00:38:51,595 --> 00:38:52,735
condemned the act

634
00:38:52,300 --> 00:38:56,260
Philadelphians: “That the duty
imposed by Parliament upon tea

635
00:38:56,260 --> 00:39:00,100
landed in America is a tax on
the Americans, or levying

636
00:39:00,100 --> 00:39:04,360
contributions on them without
their consent.” That a virtuous

637
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:08,020
and steady opposition to this
ministerial plan of governing

638
00:39:08,020 --> 00:39:12,280
America is absolutely necessary
to preserve even the shadow of

639
00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:16,120
liberty and is a duty which
every freeman in America owes to

640
00:39:16,165 --> 00:39:19,225
his country, to himself, and to
his posterity.”

641
00:39:19,225 --> 00:39:23,905
Jim Ambuske: The Philadelphians
deeds galvanized Boston Sons of

642
00:39:23,905 --> 00:39:25,285
Liberty into action.

643
00:39:25,765 --> 00:39:28,165
Benjamin Carp: They smell a rat.
Samuel Adams is like this is

644
00:39:28,165 --> 00:39:33,445
going to seduce us into paying a
duty on a commodity that's being

645
00:39:33,445 --> 00:39:36,865
sold by this monopoly company
that if we accept this, then

646
00:39:36,865 --> 00:39:39,790
what's going to follow is even
more taxes and even more

647
00:39:39,790 --> 00:39:42,610
monopolistic arrangements. This
is going to squeeze American

648
00:39:42,610 --> 00:39:46,630
traders. This is going to
extract pound sterling after

649
00:39:46,630 --> 00:39:49,510
pound sterling out of the
pockets of colonial Americans.

650
00:39:49,990 --> 00:39:53,650
So the Americans see it as a
measure that is directed at

651
00:39:53,650 --> 00:39:56,350
them, that violates the
principle of no taxation without

652
00:39:56,350 --> 00:40:00,928
representation, that offends
colonial Americans in a couple

653
00:40:00,928 --> 00:40:02,515
of other ways. Is and so the
Americans react badly to it,

654
00:40:02,515 --> 00:40:05,575
even though really what
Parliament was intending to do

655
00:40:05,635 --> 00:40:08,995
was use the measure as a way of
bailing out the East India

656
00:40:08,995 --> 00:40:09,415
Company,

657
00:40:11,335 --> 00:40:13,855
Jim Ambuske: As British
Americans, concocted a variety

658
00:40:13,855 --> 00:40:17,455
of arguments and strategies to
resist the Tea Act. The tea

659
00:40:17,455 --> 00:40:19,195
ships were approaching.

660
00:40:19,615 --> 00:40:22,075
Benjamin Carp: When parliament
passes the Tea Act, the East

661
00:40:22,075 --> 00:40:24,535
India Company decides to take
advantage of this new

662
00:40:24,580 --> 00:40:28,360
arrangement by sending four
groups of ships to the colonies.

663
00:40:28,780 --> 00:40:32,320
Four are intended for Boston and
then one each are intended for

664
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:34,720
New York City, Philadelphia and
Charleston.

665
00:40:35,140 --> 00:40:37,420
Jim Ambuske: The seven ships
sailed from England in late

666
00:40:37,420 --> 00:40:42,100
September and early October,
1773. With the New York bound

667
00:40:42,100 --> 00:40:45,940
ship Nancy lost somewhere in the
Atlantic, the remaining ships

668
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:49,660
headed west toward their
intended destinations. Colonial

669
00:40:49,660 --> 00:40:52,945
newspapers reported their
passage, but no one knew when or

670
00:40:52,945 --> 00:40:56,545
where the first ship would
arrive, nor what would happen

671
00:40:56,605 --> 00:41:00,925
once it got there. In Boston,
Ann Holton, the sister of

672
00:41:00,925 --> 00:41:04,465
Customs Commissioner Henry
Holten, waited with bated breath

673
00:41:04,465 --> 00:41:09,265
for the first ship's arrival on
November 25 Holton wrote of a

674
00:41:09,265 --> 00:41:12,730
standoff between Richard Clarke,
one of the East India Company's

675
00:41:12,730 --> 00:41:15,670
consignees, and angry
Bostonians.

676
00:41:15,670 --> 00:41:19,210
Unknown: “The Ships Laden with
Tea from the East India House

677
00:41:19,270 --> 00:41:24,070
are hourly expected, the People
will not suffer it to be landed

678
00:41:24,070 --> 00:41:27,910
at Boston, they demand the
Consignes to promise to send it

679
00:41:27,910 --> 00:41:32,890
back. Mr. Clark resolutely
refuses to comply, will submit

680
00:41:32,890 --> 00:41:36,835
to no other terms, than to put
it into warehouse till they can

681
00:41:36,835 --> 00:41:40,735
hear from England. They threaten
to tear him to pieces if its

682
00:41:40,735 --> 00:41:45,535
Landed. He says he will be tore
to pieces before he will desert

683
00:41:45,535 --> 00:41:47,395
the Trust reposed in him by the
Consignees.”

684
00:41:50,755 --> 00:41:53,695
Jim Ambuske: The Dartmouth,
captained by James Hall, arrived

685
00:41:53,695 --> 00:41:58,135
in Boston Harbor three days
later on, November 28. Once in

686
00:41:58,180 --> 00:42:00,760
port, the clock began ticking

687
00:42:01,420 --> 00:42:03,400
James Fichter: In Boston, four
ships are sent with the

688
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:07,900
company's tea. These ships
arrive in a staggered formation.

689
00:42:08,500 --> 00:42:11,800
The first vessel arrives in late
November. If after 20 days the

690
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:14,680
vessel's cargo has not been
unloaded, the customs officer

691
00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:18,460
can impound the tea and
potentially later sell it. The

692
00:42:18,460 --> 00:42:21,745
complicating factor is, while
the first vessel, the Dartmouth,

693
00:42:21,805 --> 00:42:25,645
has arrived with this tea five
days later, the second vessel,

694
00:42:25,645 --> 00:42:29,245
the Eleanor, arrives with the
next piece of the Boston Tea

695
00:42:29,245 --> 00:42:32,905
shipment. And so everyone knows
that whatever happens with the

696
00:42:32,905 --> 00:42:35,845
Dartmouth will set the precedent
for what happens with the

697
00:42:35,845 --> 00:42:39,745
Eleanor, and then whatever
happens with the Dartmouth and

698
00:42:39,985 --> 00:42:42,108
the Eleanor will lock in what
you can do with the beaver and

699
00:42:42,108 --> 00:42:43,150
the William, which will be the
last two ships.

700
00:42:43,450 --> 00:42:45,310
Jim Ambuske: Unbeknownst to
Bostonians,

701
00:42:45,520 --> 00:42:47,680
Mary Beth Norton: the tea ship
was in Charleston at exactly the

702
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:51,700
same time that tea ships were in
Boston. I'm Mary Beth Norton.

703
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:55,720
I'm the Mary Donlon Alger
Professor Emerita at Cornell

704
00:42:55,720 --> 00:43:01,380
University. The customs laws at
the time said that if the duty

705
00:43:01,380 --> 00:43:05,400
wasn't paid in 20 days, the
product would be confiscated by

706
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:06,660
the customs officers.

707
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:10,920
Jim Ambuske: The London arrived
in Charleston on December 2. The

708
00:43:10,920 --> 00:43:14,040
distance between Boston and
Charleston was too great for

709
00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:17,280
colonists in the one to know how
colonists in the other were

710
00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:19,800
dealing with the tea. In Boston.

711
00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:23,820
James Fichter: If patriots
concede and allow customs

712
00:43:23,820 --> 00:43:26,880
officers to impound the tea,
they'll probably have to allow

713
00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:29,505
that. With all of the vessels,
they have all the more reason to

714
00:43:29,505 --> 00:43:33,525
hold the line on the first one
customs officers. Likewise, the

715
00:43:33,525 --> 00:43:36,765
tea has been brought into the
customs area in Boston, and they

716
00:43:36,765 --> 00:43:39,645
say, Look, we're going to force
this tea to be landed and the

717
00:43:39,645 --> 00:43:48,345
tax paid. Even if you do want to
re ship it back to reship it

718
00:43:48,345 --> 00:43:52,008
back to England, we don't care,
you're still going to pay the

719
00:43:52,008 --> 00:43:52,192
darn tax, and we're going to
hold the line here, because we

720
00:43:52,192 --> 00:43:52,330
know there's another ship
coming. In fact, after five

721
00:43:52,330 --> 00:43:52,499
days, the two vessels are
sitting next to each other on

722
00:43:52,499 --> 00:43:55,050
the wharf. Each side has a
reason not to concede.

723
00:43:55,590 --> 00:43:57,030
Jim Ambuske: Meanwhile, in
Charleston:

724
00:43:57,030 --> 00:44:01,290
James Fichter: The London
arrives on December 2, 1773 and

725
00:44:01,290 --> 00:44:04,410
the Sons of Liberty immediately
organized against it. The Sons

726
00:44:04,410 --> 00:44:07,050
of Liberty organized for a
meeting, what they call a

727
00:44:07,050 --> 00:44:11,010
general meeting to happen the
next day. Charleston has this

728
00:44:11,070 --> 00:44:15,255
big new building, the exchange
which has been built on the

729
00:44:15,255 --> 00:44:17,955
Charleston waterfront just a
couple years earlier, at the

730
00:44:17,955 --> 00:44:21,735
beginning of the 1770s and on
the ground floor were the

731
00:44:21,735 --> 00:44:25,695
customs facilities. The customs
officers operated there. You

732
00:44:25,695 --> 00:44:29,295
would land your cargos there,
pay duties there, and the ground

733
00:44:29,295 --> 00:44:32,715
floor and underground basement
also provided warehousing space.

734
00:44:32,835 --> 00:44:36,615
As a customs warehouse, they
called a general meeting. A

735
00:44:36,615 --> 00:44:39,495
bunch of people showed up. They
came to the exchange. They

736
00:44:39,540 --> 00:44:43,200
debated what to do about the
tea, and eventually started to

737
00:44:43,200 --> 00:44:46,260
pass some resolves against
importing our consuming duty

738
00:44:46,260 --> 00:44:50,160
tea. And then the meeting
summoned the consignees that had

739
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:53,820
been tasked with landing the
company's tea. The consignees

740
00:44:53,820 --> 00:44:56,940
faced what they referred to as a
great majority of people opposed

741
00:44:56,940 --> 00:45:00,120
to the tea's landing there.
However, they stood fast. They

742
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:02,640
did not resign their role in
dealing with East India

743
00:45:02,640 --> 00:45:05,925
companies tea. And they also
noted that while South

744
00:45:05,925 --> 00:45:08,865
Carolinians seem to be against
the East India Company's tea,

745
00:45:08,985 --> 00:45:12,165
seemed to also be in favor of
continuing the importation of

746
00:45:12,165 --> 00:45:15,885
smuggle tea in large amounts.
And they did not take kindly to

747
00:45:15,885 --> 00:45:18,945
this, and the South Carolina
merchants community as a whole

748
00:45:18,945 --> 00:45:21,525
seemed to have been quite
divided about how to respond to

749
00:45:21,525 --> 00:45:21,705
it.

750
00:45:22,605 --> 00:45:25,185
Jim Ambuske: The other tea on
board the London contributed to

751
00:45:25,185 --> 00:45:29,190
the divide. The ship carried tea
from other London wholesalers,

752
00:45:29,310 --> 00:45:32,850
giving some Charleston merchants
an incentive to keep tea prices

753
00:45:32,850 --> 00:45:37,470
high by keeping Company tea off
the market. So while the Sons of

754
00:45:37,470 --> 00:45:41,250
Liberty declaimed against the
Tea Act upstairs in the exchange

755
00:45:41,490 --> 00:45:42,570
downstairs

756
00:45:42,690 --> 00:45:44,670
James Fichter: People were
actually doing things while

757
00:45:44,670 --> 00:45:48,870
politicians talked.
Downstairs,merchants landed tea

758
00:45:48,870 --> 00:45:53,955
from the London, landed it, paid
the duties at the exchange and

759
00:45:53,955 --> 00:45:56,715
carried it right past the
meeting to the individual

760
00:45:56,715 --> 00:46:00,135
merchant shops, because all the
people that would watch out for

761
00:46:00,135 --> 00:46:03,495
that sort of thing. Were busy in
the meeting room upstairs, not

762
00:46:03,495 --> 00:46:05,955
looking out the windows, and so
they missed what was going on.

763
00:46:06,675 --> 00:46:08,415
Mary Beth Norton: The big
difference between Charleston

764
00:46:08,415 --> 00:46:13,800
and Boston was that Boston put
up a watch on the wharfs so that

765
00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:17,400
nobody could unload the tea.
Charleston didn't do that. They

766
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:20,160
just had this meeting and they
said, well, we don't want the

767
00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:23,580
tea to be landed. The local
government in Charleston tried

768
00:46:23,580 --> 00:46:26,160
to stay out of it. The
Lieutenant Governor of South

769
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:28,500
Carolina tried to stay out of
the whole thing, and he let the

770
00:46:28,500 --> 00:46:32,100
merchants and the planters try
to figure out what to do. In the

771
00:46:32,100 --> 00:46:34,320
end, they did a negotiated
settlement.

772
00:46:34,980 --> 00:46:37,425
James Fichter: They have to call
a new meeting on December 17.

773
00:46:37,425 --> 00:46:40,665
This meeting eventually decides
that East India Company's tea

774
00:46:40,665 --> 00:46:44,325
will not be landed. The
consignees do agree to no longer

775
00:46:44,325 --> 00:46:47,805
have anything to do with it.
However, the ship captain,

776
00:46:48,105 --> 00:46:52,605
Captain curling, he has Devin
bond in England to land the tea

777
00:46:52,605 --> 00:46:55,365
in North America and return to
England with a certificate of

778
00:46:55,365 --> 00:46:58,485
its proper landing. And if he
doesn't, he's out a substantial

779
00:46:58,485 --> 00:47:02,190
amount of money, and so he's not
willing to return to England

780
00:47:02,190 --> 00:47:05,790
with this cargo. As a result,
even though the consignees had

781
00:47:05,790 --> 00:47:08,190
promised not to do anything with
it, it's a little bit of a

782
00:47:08,190 --> 00:47:12,510
question what's going to happen
then, on December 22 ultimately,

783
00:47:12,690 --> 00:47:16,830
the customs collectors decide to
impound the tea from the London

784
00:47:17,010 --> 00:47:19,470
and store it in the customs
warehouse under the exchange.

785
00:47:19,530 --> 00:47:22,455
Jim Ambuske: Officials spent
hours unloading more than 250

786
00:47:22,455 --> 00:47:27,195
chests of tea, landing the tea
meant that it could be sold. But

787
00:47:27,195 --> 00:47:30,255
Charleston merchants, now with
other stocks of tea and wanting

788
00:47:30,255 --> 00:47:33,375
to keep prices high, had no
incentive to buy it.

789
00:47:33,975 --> 00:47:35,955
Mary Beth Norton: The customs
officers wrote to England to

790
00:47:35,955 --> 00:47:39,195
say, what should we do with all
this tea? And of course, it took

791
00:47:39,195 --> 00:47:42,282
months and months and months to
get an answer from the East

792
00:47:42,282 --> 00:47:44,340
India Company, and by then,
events had moved on, and it was

793
00:47:44,340 --> 00:47:44,880
irrelevant.

794
00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:48,720
Jim Ambuske: Boston's Sons of
Liberty did not know how

795
00:47:48,720 --> 00:47:52,500
Charlestonians had dealt with
their tea, but by then, it

796
00:47:52,500 --> 00:47:56,520
didn't matter. They had already
made a profoundly different

797
00:47:56,520 --> 00:48:01,320
choice with profoundly
unforeseen consequences. The

798
00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:04,740
Dartmouth put into Boston Harbor
and docked at Griffin's wharf on

799
00:48:04,740 --> 00:48:09,285
November 28. The next day, the
Sons of Liberty called for a

800
00:48:09,285 --> 00:48:12,945
meeting at Faneuil Hall to
discuss its arrival. So many

801
00:48:12,945 --> 00:48:16,365
people came, they had to
reconvene at the Old South

802
00:48:16,365 --> 00:48:21,045
Meeting House. When the
Dartmouth entered the customs

803
00:48:21,045 --> 00:48:25,665
zone on the 28th the captain and
crew had 20 days to land the tea

804
00:48:25,665 --> 00:48:29,445
and pay the duty before customs
officials could impound and sell

805
00:48:29,490 --> 00:48:29,730
it.

806
00:48:30,150 --> 00:48:33,390
James Fichter: Boston is the
city that had imported more duty

807
00:48:33,390 --> 00:48:38,490
tea than any other city in North
America. 40% of all the duty tea

808
00:48:38,490 --> 00:48:41,130
imported into North America in
the five years for the Boston

809
00:48:41,130 --> 00:48:44,370
Tea Party went into
Massachusetts, there's a very

810
00:48:44,370 --> 00:48:48,690
real, plausible belief that if
you can land this tea, there'll

811
00:48:48,690 --> 00:48:52,875
be a market for it. This was
both why Boston patriots needed

812
00:48:52,875 --> 00:48:56,235
to push harder, because they
needed to stop this previous

813
00:48:56,235 --> 00:49:00,195
sale of duty tea, and why the
consignees and the customs

814
00:49:00,195 --> 00:49:03,135
officers felt that they could
continue to try to land this

815
00:49:03,135 --> 00:49:05,595
cargo, because they had landed
these other ones for the

816
00:49:05,595 --> 00:49:06,675
previous several years.

817
00:49:07,320 --> 00:49:09,000
Jim Ambuske: 20 days to make
choices

818
00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:11,220
James Fichter: The Dartmouth,
the only vessel for which the

819
00:49:11,220 --> 00:49:14,940
countdown is expiring, they have
to land the tea for the Eleanor

820
00:49:14,940 --> 00:49:17,760
and the Beaver. There are many
days left on their countdown.

821
00:49:18,300 --> 00:49:21,000
It's possible that you could
just destroy the tea on the

822
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:24,420
Dartmouth. If you really do
respect property, leave the tea

823
00:49:24,420 --> 00:49:27,960
on the Eleanor alone, and hope
that encourages the importing

824
00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:30,525
merchants to think twice and
send the tea back to England

825
00:49:31,005 --> 00:49:33,285
Jim Ambuske: 20 days to fear
different fates.

826
00:49:33,885 --> 00:49:36,345
James Fichter: The wharf where
those ships are docked is

827
00:49:36,405 --> 00:49:39,945
guarded by a paramilitary group
under control of the Sons of

828
00:49:39,945 --> 00:49:42,765
Liberty to prevent the tea being
landed. What's going to happen

829
00:49:42,765 --> 00:49:46,665
is the soldiers that are in
Boston, the naval vessels and

830
00:49:46,665 --> 00:49:49,665
men that are in Boston, are
going to secure the tea on the

831
00:49:49,665 --> 00:49:52,305
remaining ships. So that will
inevitably create a

832
00:49:52,305 --> 00:49:56,430
confrontation between these two
armed groups, which would likely

833
00:49:56,430 --> 00:49:59,970
result in bloodshed that would
make the Boston Massacre pale.

834
00:49:59,970 --> 00:50:04,410
By comparison, and is to be
avoided. It also might end in

835
00:50:04,410 --> 00:50:07,230
victory of Parliament's cause by
getting the tea impounded and

836
00:50:07,230 --> 00:50:10,830
landed, knowing that this is a
repeated game that whatever

837
00:50:10,830 --> 00:50:14,070
happens with the first vessel
will have to be reenacted with

838
00:50:14,070 --> 00:50:17,115
the next one. Patriots think,
well, we want to shortcut the

839
00:50:17,115 --> 00:50:19,215
repeated game. Just get all the
vessels at once.

840
00:50:19,215 --> 00:50:22,455
Jim Ambuske: 20 days to avoid
confrontation.

841
00:50:22,995 --> 00:50:25,935
Benjamin Carp: In Boston, they
feel that if the tea is landed,

842
00:50:25,935 --> 00:50:29,775
that it will somehow be sold.
Theyare under immense pressure

843
00:50:29,775 --> 00:50:33,315
from the Sons of Liberty in New
York and Philadelphia. They

844
00:50:33,315 --> 00:50:36,015
don't feel that they can land
the tea. They don't want to pay

845
00:50:36,015 --> 00:50:39,015
the duties on it. But the
governor of Massachusetts,

846
00:50:39,015 --> 00:50:42,360
Thomas Hutchinson, is stubborn
and will not allow the tea ships

847
00:50:42,360 --> 00:50:45,540
that were headed to Boston to
just turn around and bring the

848
00:50:45,540 --> 00:50:49,200
tea back to London, because that
was illegal, and Hutchinson felt

849
00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:52,380
that he had to do his duty.
Bostonians are pretty much

850
00:50:52,380 --> 00:50:55,680
between a rock and a hard place,
with officialdom on one hand and

851
00:50:55,680 --> 00:50:58,020
peer pressure from their fellow
Sons of Liberty on the other.

852
00:50:58,740 --> 00:51:02,865
Jim Ambuske: On December 16, a
Thursday, more than 5000

853
00:51:02,865 --> 00:51:06,165
Bostonians, more than a quarter
of the town's population,

854
00:51:06,465 --> 00:51:09,405
gathered at the Old South
Meeting House under a very

855
00:51:09,525 --> 00:51:13,605
"heavy, dull weather" to discuss
the crisis. Samuel Adams and

856
00:51:13,605 --> 00:51:16,965
John Hancock led the meeting.
The clock for the Dartmouth

857
00:51:16,965 --> 00:51:18,465
expired that night.

858
00:51:19,305 --> 00:51:22,845
Benjamin Carp: This is a last
resort. On December 16, the body

859
00:51:22,845 --> 00:51:26,190
of the people in Boston tries
one more time to avoid the

860
00:51:26,190 --> 00:51:30,630
problem of the tea landing. They
send Francis Roach, part owner

861
00:51:30,630 --> 00:51:33,690
of one of the tea ships. They
send him to walk seven miles to

862
00:51:33,690 --> 00:51:36,390
Milton, Massachusetts, to meet
with Governor Thomas Hutchinson

863
00:51:36,390 --> 00:51:38,970
at his country house and say,
Governor Hutchinson, can I

864
00:51:38,970 --> 00:51:42,090
please have special permission
to leave the harbor with the tea

865
00:51:42,090 --> 00:51:46,590
on board. If I don't, then, in a
day or two, customs officers

866
00:51:46,590 --> 00:51:49,995
will have the right to seize my
ship for non payment of a duty

867
00:51:49,995 --> 00:51:52,455
on tea, because the ships had
been in the harbor for 20 days

868
00:51:52,455 --> 00:51:55,455
at that point. If you don't let
me go, I'm going to lose my

869
00:51:55,455 --> 00:51:58,515
shirt because the ship and all
of the goods aboard, I will be

870
00:51:58,515 --> 00:52:01,095
held liable for that. I'd really
like to avoid that problem,

871
00:52:01,695 --> 00:52:05,175
Governor Hutchinson says, No,
I'm sorry, I can't help you. So

872
00:52:05,175 --> 00:52:07,635
Roche walks back to the Old
South Meeting House where the

873
00:52:07,635 --> 00:52:10,335
body of the people were meeting.
Roche walks up and says, Here's

874
00:52:10,335 --> 00:52:12,855
my report. And this is when,
supposedly, Samuel Adams says,

875
00:52:13,140 --> 00:52:16,200
well, there's nothing more that
we can do to save our country.

876
00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:19,140
Jim Ambuske: And in the opinion
of some of the people in

877
00:52:19,140 --> 00:52:20,340
attendance that night.

878
00:52:20,520 --> 00:52:22,680
Benjamin Carp: We can't land the
tea and we can't send the tea

879
00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:25,320
back, so the only proper
destination for it is to dump it

880
00:52:25,320 --> 00:52:26,220
into Boston Harbor.

881
00:52:26,820 --> 00:52:29,760
Jim Ambuske: Shortly after Adams
finished speaking, about 100

882
00:52:29,760 --> 00:52:33,180
men, some dressed as Mohawk
warriors, with their faces

883
00:52:33,225 --> 00:52:36,405
darkened to conceal their
identities, let out fake

884
00:52:36,405 --> 00:52:38,565
indigenous war cries, and then:

885
00:52:38,540 --> 00:52:41,239
Benjamin Carp: Marches down from
the Old South Meeting House to

886
00:52:41,295 --> 00:52:44,782
Griffin's Wharf to hoist the tea
off of these three ships that

887
00:52:42,680 --> 00:52:51,740
Jim Ambuske: The tea destroyers
dragged the wooden chests lined

888
00:52:44,838 --> 00:52:48,325
had docked at Griffin's Wharf,
throw the tea over the side and

889
00:52:48,381 --> 00:52:49,000
destroy it.

890
00:52:51,740 --> 00:52:55,220
with lead weighing as much as
400 pounds out of the cargo

891
00:52:55,220 --> 00:52:58,280
holds, carried them onto the
decks of each of the three

892
00:52:58,280 --> 00:53:01,880
ships, broke them open and
dumped their contents into the

893
00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:09,905
water, 46 tons. In all, it took
hours. The tide was out that

894
00:53:09,905 --> 00:53:14,465
night, as the men dumped chest
after chest into the harbor, the

895
00:53:14,465 --> 00:53:17,705
mountains of tea began to rise
above the waves.

896
00:53:21,020 --> 00:53:23,780
Benjamin Carp: Who was involved
in the Boston Tea Party? Our

897
00:53:23,780 --> 00:53:27,380
ability to know the names of the
men for certain is a little bit

898
00:53:27,380 --> 00:53:30,920
difficult. Nobody really came
forward and said they were part

899
00:53:30,920 --> 00:53:33,860
of the Boston Tea Party for
almost 50 years. It was a

900
00:53:33,860 --> 00:53:37,220
closely held secret. But of the
100 names that I find most

901
00:53:37,220 --> 00:53:40,460
reliable, I tried to put
together a social and political

902
00:53:40,460 --> 00:53:43,145
profile of these men, and they
ranged from a couple of guys who

903
00:53:43,145 --> 00:53:45,905
were Harvard educated, a couple
of guys who were pretty wealthy,

904
00:53:46,085 --> 00:53:48,905
all the way to teenaged
apprentices who were just

905
00:53:48,905 --> 00:53:52,745
starting out in life. There were
a lot of artisans and retailers,

906
00:53:52,865 --> 00:53:56,225
a lot of people who had been
politically involved in previous

907
00:53:56,225 --> 00:53:59,765
acts, four guys that the bullets
had just missed at the Boston

908
00:53:59,765 --> 00:54:03,665
Massacre in 1770 it's this
really interesting mix of what

909
00:54:03,665 --> 00:54:07,190
seems to have been politically
involved Bostonians, although

910
00:54:07,190 --> 00:54:10,310
there were also rumors that they
used men from out of town so

911
00:54:10,310 --> 00:54:12,770
that they wouldn't be
recognized. That's a little bit

912
00:54:12,770 --> 00:54:16,670
unclear. But it seems clear that
they were politically connected,

913
00:54:16,670 --> 00:54:19,010
not necessarily the most
powerful people in town, and in

914
00:54:19,010 --> 00:54:21,830
fact, the most powerful people
in town, like Samuel Adams and

915
00:54:21,830 --> 00:54:24,890
John Hancock ostentatiously
stayed behind at the Old South

916
00:54:24,890 --> 00:54:27,110
Meeting House while the
destroying was happening on

917
00:54:27,155 --> 00:54:30,215
Griffin's Wharf, so that the
most powerful Boston leaders

918
00:54:30,395 --> 00:54:34,115
wouldn't necessarily be blamed.
But Thomas Melville is there.

919
00:54:34,115 --> 00:54:36,875
Paul Revere is there. William
Molineux is there. There was a

920
00:54:36,875 --> 00:54:39,635
guy named James Swan who had
authored an anti slavery

921
00:54:39,635 --> 00:54:43,115
pamphlet as well. So it's an
interesting mix of people who

922
00:54:43,115 --> 00:54:46,595
are said to have participated in
the Boston Tea Party, but I see

923
00:54:46,595 --> 00:54:49,115
them as a relatively
representative cross section of

924
00:54:49,115 --> 00:54:51,275
the kinds of people that were
objecting to the Acts of

925
00:54:51,275 --> 00:54:56,660
Parliament in the years leading
up to 1773 historians have long

926
00:54:56,660 --> 00:54:59,900
puzzled over why some of the tea
destroyers dressed as Mohawk.

927
00:54:59,900 --> 00:55:03,380
Warriors, though we do have
several theories. Boston is a

928
00:55:03,380 --> 00:55:07,100
town of 16,000 people. You knew
how your cousin walked or how

929
00:55:07,100 --> 00:55:09,980
his neighbor carried himself,
even if everybody had smudged

930
00:55:09,980 --> 00:55:13,340
faces and it was a little bit
dark, I think everybody knew who

931
00:55:13,385 --> 00:55:17,465
all of these people were, but
the disguise was meant to send a

932
00:55:17,465 --> 00:55:21,005
message. You'd better not tell
that is the message that's being

933
00:55:21,005 --> 00:55:23,765
put out. But still, that doesn't
quite answer the question. Why

934
00:55:23,765 --> 00:55:26,405
Native Americans? We know that
there was a history of people in

935
00:55:26,405 --> 00:55:29,045
Boston dressing up as priests or
women or black people or Native

936
00:55:29,045 --> 00:55:32,645
Americans in order to protest.
That might be one reason.

937
00:55:32,825 --> 00:55:35,127
Another reason is that there was
a sort of fascination with

938
00:55:35,127 --> 00:55:37,670
Native American iconography.
There was a Native American that

939
00:55:37,670 --> 00:55:42,410
was part of the colony of
Massachusetts's seal America was

940
00:55:42,410 --> 00:55:45,350
often represented as a Native
American man or woman in

941
00:55:45,350 --> 00:55:49,010
political cartoons. And
Bostonians had actual respect

942
00:55:49,010 --> 00:55:53,450
for real Mohawks as being fierce
and independent and brave. And

943
00:55:53,450 --> 00:55:57,410
so in a weird way, adopting a
mohawk identity or a Native

944
00:55:57,410 --> 00:56:01,295
American identity, had all these
really interesting meanings of

945
00:56:01,295 --> 00:56:05,375
we are showing our independence.
We are showing our Americanness,

946
00:56:05,375 --> 00:56:08,795
and therefore our separation
from Europe. But at the same

947
00:56:08,795 --> 00:56:11,375
time, it's also a way of saying,
hey, but you know that these

948
00:56:11,375 --> 00:56:13,715
aren't real Native Americans.
You understand that these are

949
00:56:13,715 --> 00:56:17,195
white people underneath a white
American was supposed to be the

950
00:56:17,195 --> 00:56:20,735
best of both worlds, more
civilized in their minds than

951
00:56:20,735 --> 00:56:24,740
Native Americans, but also not
as corrupt as Europeans, a sort

952
00:56:24,740 --> 00:56:28,100
of happy medium in between that
could draw upon the civilizing

953
00:56:28,100 --> 00:56:32,180
influences of Europe, but also
retain the independence from

954
00:56:32,180 --> 00:56:35,540
Europe that colonists half
admired in the indigenous people

955
00:56:35,540 --> 00:56:36,260
of America.

956
00:56:36,860 --> 00:56:39,560
Jim Ambuske: With the tea
destroyed, the men vanished into

957
00:56:39,560 --> 00:56:43,400
the night, some of them into
history in the leaves, washed

958
00:56:43,460 --> 00:56:44,660
out into the sea.

959
00:56:45,080 --> 00:56:46,565
James Fichter: But they don't
get the tea on the fourth

960
00:56:46,565 --> 00:56:49,265
vessel, and we've completely
missed this fourth vessel. The

961
00:56:49,265 --> 00:56:52,985
William is wrecked in a storm
off Cape Cod in early December,

962
00:56:53,105 --> 00:56:57,905
and the consignees send out a
son to go and rescue this cargo.

963
00:56:58,025 --> 00:57:01,385
So he rides out on horseback
from Boston out to Wellfleet,

964
00:57:01,565 --> 00:57:06,065
assesses the situation, hires
some men to rescue the cargo,

965
00:57:06,065 --> 00:57:09,650
which is extremely dangerous
work to get cargo from rocks in

966
00:57:09,650 --> 00:57:12,050
stormy weather and to bring it
on shore.

967
00:57:12,710 --> 00:57:13,970
Jim Ambuske: Here's Mary Beth
Norton.

968
00:57:14,150 --> 00:57:17,390
Mary Beth Norton: There were
lots of things bound for Boston

969
00:57:17,390 --> 00:57:21,530
on that ship, including street
lamps that they've been waiting

970
00:57:21,530 --> 00:57:26,090
for. There were 50 some odd
chests of tea on it. Most of

971
00:57:26,090 --> 00:57:29,630
them were undamaged, but three
of them were sufficiently

972
00:57:29,630 --> 00:57:32,795
damaged that they kept them on
the cape. They just couldn't

973
00:57:32,795 --> 00:57:36,995
send those up to Boston easily.
There was this big debate then

974
00:57:37,055 --> 00:57:41,195
on the Cape, what to do about
this tea? Some people want to

975
00:57:41,195 --> 00:57:44,495
buy it and drink it because,
hey, after all, it hasn't paid

976
00:57:44,495 --> 00:57:48,275
any duty because it's a
shipwreck on our shores. Other

977
00:57:48,275 --> 00:57:51,035
people said no. Now it's from
the East India Company, so we

978
00:57:51,035 --> 00:57:54,455
can't buy it at all. We can't
pay any attention to it. Two

979
00:57:54,500 --> 00:57:59,180
local grandees took over two of
the cases. One of the chests was

980
00:57:59,180 --> 00:58:03,680
used to pay the guys who
unloaded the ship, they then got

981
00:58:03,740 --> 00:58:07,580
attacked by other people for
having earned this tea, and

982
00:58:07,580 --> 00:58:12,080
indeed, we have stories of them
being forced to apologize in the

983
00:58:12,080 --> 00:58:16,400
Truro town meeting for having
done this, and others having the

984
00:58:16,400 --> 00:58:20,045
tea that was in their houses
taken away by people who came

985
00:58:20,105 --> 00:58:22,865
and raided the houses looking
for this tea.

986
00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:26,620
Jim Ambuske: The consignee sent
the remaining rescue chests to

987
00:58:26,620 --> 00:58:30,220
Boston for safe keeping. They
restored in Castle William in

988
00:58:30,220 --> 00:58:34,060
the harbor, then home to the
64th Regiment of Foot and the

989
00:58:34,060 --> 00:58:39,100
Royal Navy vessels anchored
around it. The Sons of Liberty

990
00:58:39,100 --> 00:58:42,820
dispatched Paul Revere to carry
the news of what Bostonians had

991
00:58:42,820 --> 00:58:47,305
done to New York. He left on
December 17 and reached New York

992
00:58:47,305 --> 00:58:51,325
City five days later. The New
York ship, the Nancy, was still

993
00:58:51,325 --> 00:58:55,045
nowhere to be found. He carried
the news further south to

994
00:58:55,045 --> 00:58:58,525
Philadelphia, where the Polly
was expected at any moment.

995
00:58:59,245 --> 00:59:02,485
Revere's mission was as much
about constructing a narrative

996
00:59:02,545 --> 00:59:04,525
as it was delivering
information.

997
00:59:05,245 --> 00:59:08,365
James Fichter: The Boston Tea
Party was both excessive and

998
00:59:08,365 --> 00:59:12,370
inadequate. It was seen by many
patriots as an overreach and

999
00:59:12,370 --> 00:59:14,890
created much division, even
amongst patriots, as well as

1000
00:59:14,890 --> 00:59:17,710
between other colonists. But
also, it didn't get all the tea,

1001
00:59:18,190 --> 00:59:22,210
and Boston patriots uniquely had
to destroy all the tea, because

1002
00:59:22,210 --> 00:59:25,570
Boston cargos were the most
likely ones to be used, to have

1003
00:59:25,570 --> 00:59:28,330
that last cargo of tea
surviving, and to have it

1004
00:59:28,390 --> 00:59:32,170
threatening a future landing,
could threaten to undermine the

1005
00:59:32,170 --> 00:59:35,215
Boston patriot movement. This
means that if the tea gets

1006
00:59:35,215 --> 00:59:38,935
landed and sold, it would make
it look like everything Boston

1007
00:59:38,935 --> 00:59:41,755
Patriots are saying is
completely false that they don't

1008
00:59:41,755 --> 00:59:44,815
speak for the public, because
the public buys duties India

1009
00:59:44,815 --> 00:59:49,795
Company tea. So this tea has to
be kept out as a result lost and

1010
00:59:49,795 --> 00:59:53,995
patriots both downplay talk of
this fourth cargo and obscure it

1011
00:59:54,115 --> 00:59:57,520
in the letter that Paul Revere
takes to Philadelphia, they let

1012
00:59:57,520 --> 00:59:59,980
Philadelphians get the
impression that the tea was.

1013
00:59:59,980 --> 01:00:02,860
Destroyed even when it wasn't.
And other newspapers will report

1014
01:00:02,860 --> 01:00:05,980
news that it was destroyed even
though it survived, because news

1015
01:00:05,980 --> 01:00:08,980
that it survived could be very
corrosive to any commonality,

1016
01:00:08,980 --> 01:00:10,780
any common cause, between the
colonies.

1017
01:00:11,200 --> 01:00:14,740
Jim Ambuske: The Polly arrived
on Christmas Day. Over a month

1018
01:00:14,740 --> 01:00:17,200
earlier, a group of
Philadelphians calling

1019
01:00:17,200 --> 01:00:20,425
themselves the committee for
tarring and feathering published

1020
01:00:20,425 --> 01:00:24,025
a broadside warning all Delaware
River pilots that if one of

1021
01:00:24,025 --> 01:00:27,265
their number chose to help the
poly navigate up the river to

1022
01:00:27,265 --> 01:00:30,985
the city's docks, "then tar and
feathers will be his portion."

1023
01:00:31,405 --> 01:00:33,565
To the Polly's captain, Ttey
menaced

1024
01:00:34,165 --> 01:00:39,025
Committee: “You are sent out on
a diabolical Service; and if you

1025
01:00:39,025 --> 01:00:44,470
are so foolish and obstinate as
to compleat your Voyage; by

1026
01:00:44,470 --> 01:00:49,930
bringing your Ship to Anchor in
this Port; you may run such a

1027
01:00:49,930 --> 01:00:56,470
Gauntlet, as will induce you, in
your last Moments, most heartily

1028
01:00:56,470 --> 01:01:01,870
to curse those who have made you
the Dupe of their Avarice and

1029
01:01:01,870 --> 01:01:07,135
Ambition. What think you
Captain, of a Halter around your

1030
01:01:07,255 --> 01:01:13,015
Neck—ten Gallons of liquid Tar
decanted on your Pate—with the

1031
01:01:13,015 --> 01:01:18,475
Feathers of a dozen wild Geese
laid over that to enliven your

1032
01:01:18,475 --> 01:01:24,475
Appearance? Only think seriously
of this—and fly to the Place

1033
01:01:24,475 --> 01:01:29,980
from whence you came—fly without
Hesitation—without the Formality

1034
01:01:29,980 --> 01:01:35,200
of a Protest—and above all,
Captain Ayres let us advise you

1035
01:01:35,200 --> 01:01:38,140
to fly without the wild Geese
Feathers.”

1036
01:01:39,220 --> 01:01:40,720
Jim Ambuske: Whether the
committee would have gone

1037
01:01:40,720 --> 01:01:44,260
through with their threats, we
cannot know. Knowledge of the

1038
01:01:44,260 --> 01:01:47,320
violence in Boston inspired
Philadelphians to make a

1039
01:01:47,320 --> 01:01:48,400
different choice.

1040
01:01:48,520 --> 01:01:50,065
Mary Beth Norton: In
Philadelphia, they knew what had

1041
01:01:50,065 --> 01:01:53,305
happened, and so they said, Ah,
the best thing to do is not let

1042
01:01:53,305 --> 01:01:57,445
the tea ship get here at all. So
they intercepted the tea ship as

1043
01:01:57,445 --> 01:02:01,465
it came up the river, and
persuaded, shall we say the

1044
01:02:01,465 --> 01:02:04,405
captain that it would be wise to
turn around and leave.

1045
01:02:04,885 --> 01:02:07,825
James Fichter: That ship arrived
at the mouth of the Delaware

1046
01:02:07,825 --> 01:02:11,425
River. The ship captain
exitedhis vessel, went up to the

1047
01:02:11,425 --> 01:02:15,550
city of Philadelphia. There, he
was greeted with an 8000 person

1048
01:02:15,550 --> 01:02:18,790
crowd opposing the tea was
convinced by the consignees in

1049
01:02:18,790 --> 01:02:21,550
Philadelphia that it wasn't
going to work to land the tea

1050
01:02:21,970 --> 01:02:24,850
and therefore they said to him,
Look, we'll help you resupply

1051
01:02:24,850 --> 01:02:27,610
your ship. You keep it out of
the customs area, which is easy

1052
01:02:27,610 --> 01:02:30,070
to do in Philadelphia, because
there's a very long river

1053
01:02:30,070 --> 01:02:33,130
separating the city from the
ocean, and then you go back to

1054
01:02:33,130 --> 01:02:35,410
England. No one will hurt you.
You'll be left alone, and

1055
01:02:35,590 --> 01:02:36,670
everyone will be happy.

1056
01:02:37,200 --> 01:02:40,380
Jim Ambuske: With his ship
resupplied, Captain Ayers and

1057
01:02:40,380 --> 01:02:43,980
the Polly sailed back down the
Delaware River and headed back

1058
01:02:43,980 --> 01:02:48,780
across the sea. Ayers may have
escaped histar and feathering,

1059
01:02:49,140 --> 01:02:52,860
but British America would not
escape the consequences of the

1060
01:02:52,860 --> 01:02:55,380
destruction of the tea in
Boston.

1061
01:02:55,800 --> 01:02:59,100
James Fichter: The Boston Tea
Party was widely disliked by

1062
01:02:59,100 --> 01:03:02,685
many after it happened because
of its violence. It was

1063
01:03:02,685 --> 01:03:06,045
extremely divisive. Many people
felt the Tea Party was an

1064
01:03:06,045 --> 01:03:09,585
excessive act. It was an
overreach. Many other colonists

1065
01:03:09,585 --> 01:03:12,105
supported the Boston Tea Party
and thought it was wonderful.

1066
01:03:12,465 --> 01:03:17,325
The result of the Boston Tea
Party was colonial division, not

1067
01:03:17,325 --> 01:03:20,685
just among colonists, but within
the patriot movement itself and

1068
01:03:20,685 --> 01:03:23,625
within the Patriot leadership
about what had happened, it

1069
01:03:23,625 --> 01:03:26,370
seemed to many like it was an
overreach, and they didn't need

1070
01:03:26,370 --> 01:03:29,730
to be so destructive and
violent. Even John Adams is

1071
01:03:29,730 --> 01:03:33,330
often quoted for talking about
it was this sublime event and

1072
01:03:33,330 --> 01:03:37,230
such a wonderful epoch in
history. But after that, he goes

1073
01:03:37,230 --> 01:03:40,470
on to say, I really hope this
doesn't happen again, though,

1074
01:03:40,710 --> 01:03:44,070
because when you have a crowd
this big and it gathers to do

1075
01:03:44,070 --> 01:03:47,835
something like this, it's really
easy next time for somebody to

1076
01:03:47,835 --> 01:03:50,715
get killed, and we're just lucky
that no one got killed this

1077
01:03:50,715 --> 01:03:54,495
time. That is the real fear,
that even though the kind of

1078
01:03:54,495 --> 01:03:57,615
crowd you need to gather to get
this done, things can go south

1079
01:03:57,615 --> 01:04:01,515
really fast, and things do
that's kind of how revolutions

1080
01:04:01,515 --> 01:04:01,815
happen.

1081
01:04:07,755 --> 01:04:12,660
Jim Ambuske: The Nancy limped
into New York on April 19, 1774.

1082
01:04:13,320 --> 01:04:17,400
Captain Benjamin Lockyer's
vessel was a broken ship, an apt

1083
01:04:17,400 --> 01:04:22,080
metaphor for all that was soon
to come. The tea ship left

1084
01:04:22,080 --> 01:04:25,740
Antigua in late February,
heading for NewYork, months

1085
01:04:25,740 --> 01:04:30,000
after it was already supposed to
be there. It had been a rough

1086
01:04:30,000 --> 01:04:35,745
crossing, and now they sailed
into another storm. As the winds

1087
01:04:35,745 --> 01:04:38,925
and the currents carried the
Nancy north along the mainland,

1088
01:04:39,165 --> 01:04:43,245
another gale sprung up,
thrashing the ship. She lost an

1089
01:04:43,245 --> 01:04:47,685
anchor. Her mizzen mast snapped
and fell overboard. Her top mast

1090
01:04:47,685 --> 01:04:52,725
sprung loose and the ship was
"thrown on her beam ends still."

1091
01:04:53,025 --> 01:04:57,570
Captain Lockyer was determined
to see his cargo of 698 chests

1092
01:04:57,570 --> 01:05:01,590
of tea safely delivered to New
York. York, hoping that

1093
01:05:01,590 --> 01:05:06,990
temperatures had cooled and the
tea could be landed, but the

1094
01:05:06,990 --> 01:05:12,150
choice had already been made for
him. When the Nancy dropped its

1095
01:05:12,150 --> 01:05:15,690
remaining anchor off Sandy Hook
outside the customs area,

1096
01:05:15,870 --> 01:05:19,695
Lockyer received a letter from
the tea's consignees dated

1097
01:05:19,695 --> 01:05:24,435
December 27 apprising him of the
fate of the tea ships in Boston,

1098
01:05:24,435 --> 01:05:29,295
Philadelphi and Charleston. They
believed the tea should not be

1099
01:05:29,295 --> 01:05:34,455
landed and that he should sail
for home. That advice was now

1100
01:05:34,455 --> 01:05:38,595
months old. Lockyer requested a
river pilot to bring him into

1101
01:05:38,595 --> 01:05:43,200
the city to lodge a protest and
inquire about landing the tea, a

1102
01:05:43,200 --> 01:05:46,920
request the pilot initially
refused until he gained

1103
01:05:46,920 --> 01:05:51,540
permission from the vigilance
committee. Once on shore,

1104
01:05:51,720 --> 01:05:56,580
Lockyer learned he would not be
landing his tea. Before Boston,

1105
01:05:56,760 --> 01:06:00,780
the city's Sons of Liberty,
merchants, consignees, members

1106
01:06:00,780 --> 01:06:03,780
of the Provincial Council and
the colony's new governor,

1107
01:06:03,780 --> 01:06:07,185
William Tryon, all disagreed on
what to do when the Nancy

1108
01:06:07,185 --> 01:06:13,125
arrived.But after Boston, a
strange unity. Most all agreed

1109
01:06:13,125 --> 01:06:16,065
it was in the interest of
everyone to send the tea back to

1110
01:06:16,065 --> 01:06:20,565
England, as they had promised to
do. New Yorkers repaired and

1111
01:06:20,565 --> 01:06:24,585
resupplied the Nancy for her
voyage home. The ship gained a

1112
01:06:24,585 --> 01:06:29,010
passenger in the process.
Captain Chambers and his vessel

1113
01:06:29,070 --> 01:06:34,350
arrived in New York on April 21.
Despite Chambers' early denials,

1114
01:06:34,410 --> 01:06:37,470
he finally admitted to the
Vigilance Committee that he had

1115
01:06:37,470 --> 01:06:42,390
on board 18 chests of tea. The
next night, a mob appeared,

1116
01:06:42,630 --> 01:06:46,410
boarded the ship, broke open the
chest and dumped the tea into

1117
01:06:46,410 --> 01:06:50,910
the river. When the Nancy sailed
for England, Soon thereafter,

1118
01:06:51,255 --> 01:06:56,055
Chambers was aboard, as the
Nancy headed east to bring its

1119
01:06:56,055 --> 01:07:00,675
rough crossing, finally to an
end, other ships were heading

1120
01:07:00,675 --> 01:07:05,355
west from London. They bore news
of Parliament's reaction to

1121
01:07:05,355 --> 01:07:10,035
Boston's crimes. New Acts of
Parliament meant to be coercive,

1122
01:07:10,635 --> 01:07:13,575
new Acts of Parliament British
Americans would find

1123
01:07:14,055 --> 01:07:15,015
intolerable.

1124
01:07:22,980 --> 01:07:26,520
Thanks for listening to Worlds
Turned Upside Down. Worlds is a

1125
01:07:26,520 --> 01:07:29,400
production of our two studios,
part of the Roy Rosenzweig

1126
01:07:29,400 --> 01:07:33,780
center for history and new media
at George Mason University. I'm

1127
01:07:33,780 --> 01:07:38,640
your host. Dr. Jim Ambuske. This
episode is made possible with

1128
01:07:38,640 --> 01:07:42,165
support from a 2024 grant from
the National Endowment for the

1129
01:07:42,165 --> 01:07:46,125
Humanities. Head to
r2studios.org, where you'll find

1130
01:07:46,125 --> 01:07:49,125
a complete transcript of today's
episode and suggestions for

1131
01:07:49,125 --> 01:07:52,905
further reading. Worlds is
researched and written by me,

1132
01:07:52,905 --> 01:07:55,785
with additional research writing
and script editing by Jeanette

1133
01:07:55,785 --> 01:07:59,385
Patrick. Jeanette Patrick and I
are the executive producers.

1134
01:07:59,445 --> 01:08:03,405
Grace Mallon is our British
correspondent. Our lead audio

1135
01:08:03,450 --> 01:08:07,830
editor for this episode is Curt
Dahl of cdSquared. Annabelle

1136
01:08:07,830 --> 01:08:10,590
Spencer is our
GraduateAssistant. Special

1137
01:08:10,590 --> 01:08:14,670
thanks to Bridget Bukovic and
Hannah Knox Tucker. Our thanks

1138
01:08:14,670 --> 01:08:18,150
to Benjamin Carp, James Fichter,
Deepthi Murali and Mary Beth

1139
01:08:18,150 --> 01:08:20,490
Norton for sharing their
expertise with us in this

1140
01:08:20,490 --> 01:08:24,030
episode. Thanks also to our
voice actors, Craig Gallagher,

1141
01:08:24,075 --> 01:08:27,495
Margaret Hughes, Grace Mallon,
Norman Roger Annabelle Spencer

1142
01:08:27,555 --> 01:08:31,155
and John Turner. Subscribe to
Worlds on your favorite podcast

1143
01:08:31,155 --> 01:08:38,415
app. Thanks, and we'll see you
next time you.