The Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party. . , The Boston Tea Party was an act of resistance by colonists against the British government after passage of the Tea Act 1773. Colonists believed it violated their right to be taxed by only their own representatives. The boycott would embattle Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson, who, refusing to return rejected tea to Britain, would be harrassed; his home ransacked and burned by local organizers. Parliament responded in 1774 by closing Boston's port until the destroyed tea had been compensated for. Colonists continued to protest, and convened the First Continental Congress which petitioned King George for repeal of the acts, but the crisis escalated and by 1775 the American Revolution would begin at Lexington, MA., Re-enactment: An Event for the Ages , A plaque at 470 Atlantic Avenue (Immediately to your North) marks the site of Griffins Wharf. Here, on December 16, 1773, local revolutionaries led by Samuel Adams, some masquerading as Mohawk Indians, boarded three ships, and broke open the cargo of tea chests. To howls and cheers, they heaved their contents into the harbor. Modern reenactments of the Boston Tea Party are a Boston custom. The chests on this occasion (ca. 1957), were thrown from a vessel berthed at a site that would become the Boston Tea Party Ship and Museum. Tea from the original event still exists. This vial (seen below, right) is stored among the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society., Milk or Cream? , Visible across the Channel stands "The Milk Bottle", a locally beloved landmark. The wooden structure was built in the 1930's as a roadside concession stand in Taunton, Massachusetts. Here, a tug in Boston Harbor is escorted by a city fireboat, nudging the structure to its new home on Fort Point Channel. In 2007 the Milk Bottle was restored as part of an expansion of the Boston Children's Museum and Plaza, where adaptive reuse of adjacent warehouse buildings into commercial, and residential uses continues.