Volume 3, Chapter 57, The Other Colonies Resist Tea
The rebels had an easier time of it in the other colonies, with no Hutchinson or British
fleet to hinder them, and with the inspiring example of the Boston Tea Party before them,
the consignees and tea ships put up little resistance to popular pressure.
The first public meeting of protest in the colonies against the Tea Act took place in
in Philadelphia on October 16. The citizens of Philadelphia adopted a comprehensive set
of resolutions that served as a model for Boston and the other colonies. The Tea Act
and Tea Duty were denounced, and a committee was appointed to demand resignation of the
consignees. The consignees, including Thomas Wharton, saw the way the wind blew and soon
A second public meeting warned against the landing of the T. The T ship sailed up the
Delaware on December 25. The vessel was stopped four miles from Philadelphia, thus avoiding
the Boston problem of the customs duty. The captain was deeply impressed with the intense
feeling of the public against landing the T. Two days later, a huge public meeting of
In preparation for the tea-ship, an association of the Sons of Liberty was drawn up on November 29, which association called for a boycott against any enemies to its country.
Enemies were those who might aid in introducing the British tea into the country, or who might buy or sell the tea after it had landed.
A boycott was also called against those who had failed to boycott the transgressors.
The association was signed by the leading lawyers, merchants and merchant shipmasters,
landowners and mechanics of New York.
A committee of the newly formed sons then pressured the three New York consignees to
resign, aided by a public threat of violence issued by the radical Mohawks, a direct action
Group, formed by the Sons of Liberty. Under this pressure, and realizing that mass opinion
was solidly against them, the Consignees resigned their post on December 1. The Sons then held
a mass meeting of 2000 on December 17, headed by the veteran radical leader, the merchant
John Lamb. The meeting denounced the landing of NET and decided to appoint a committee
of Correspondence to Right to Other Colonies. Harbor pilots were warned against guiding
any tea ships into port. The meeting derisively spurned the mayor's suggestion that the British
tea be stored at the local fort. In reaction to this meeting, the conservative Isaac Lowe
launched a movement to renounce the use of force in opposing the landing of the tea,
But this movement was swept aside by popular enthusiasm upon receipt of the news of the
Boston Tea Party.
When a tea-ship arrived off New York, the following April the captain, heeding the counsel
of the Committee of Correspondence, promised not to enter the port and sailed away.
A few days later, however, another sea captain was planning to sneak eighteen chests of tea
into New York.
The angry citizens on discovering the ruse emulated the Bostonians by boarding the ship
and dumping the tea into the sea. The treacherous captain promptly fled to another vessel and
sailed back to England. The final port to be sent the tea was Charleston. There the radicals
were in more difficult straits than elsewhere, since Charleston had not been an important
The centre of the tea trade and the merchants were not as directly threatened.
The tea ship London arrived on December 2, precipitating a mass meeting the following day.
The meeting, headed by Christopher Gadsden, succeeded in persuading the tea consignees
to resign their commissions.
It further agreed to circulate among the merchants of Charleston a petition pledging the non-importation
of British Tea.
Gadson and the others found, however, that while the planters and artisans, soon to form
a John Wilkes Club, were eager to pledge a boycott of merchants importing doodiable tea,
the merchants themselves were reluctant to join the ranks.
A showdown meeting of merchants, planters and mechanics was held on December 17, each
Each of the three groups having privately caucused in preparation for the critical meeting.
The radicals passed a resolution for non-importation of dutyed teas, but the conservative merchants
managed to weaken the resolve by including all teas in the interdict, including smuggled
Dutch teas, and allowing six months for consumption of their current stocks of dutyable British
While the struggles continued over a boycott, the tea ships remained in the harbor. The
20-day period for payment of duty would soon expire, after which non-paying ships were
subject to seizure. Would the people of Charleston follow the Bostonians in a bold tea party?
On the contrary, the merchants' opposition discouraged the radicals, and the customs
Government officials seized and landed the tea on December 22 without any opposition.
Nothing happened thereafter. However, the easygoing government officials made no attempt
to sell the tea and it remained safely in the government warehouse until the outbreak
of the revolution. Thus, in every one of the four colonies, determined action by the resisting
17 Americans prevented any of the East Indian tea from reaching its consignees. Once again,
the rebellious Americans had been successful in forcibly thwarting British designs. Moreover,
tea parties continued during 1774, and the Americans soon radicalized their opposition
to include the tea tax and therefore all duty to tea, even that of private merchants. A
group of Boston mohawks destroyed a cargo of tea in March, and tea cargos were burned
during the year at Charleston, Greenwich, Annapolis, and in New Jersey. Indeed, so fiercely
did the Americans concentrate upon tea that all tea, even smuggled tea, soon became boycotted
Boycotted and shunned for fear that the tea might be English. Tea, which had been a staple
drink throughout America, soon vanished from the colonies. As early as January 30, the
Boston tea dealers agreed to suspend the sale of all tea, and the movement soon spread to
for Other Towns and Provinces.