Chapter 5

What Really Happened . . .

A Ship Filled With Tea

Most of the tea merchants refused to give in to the Patriots. The merchants wanted to keep selling tea. That made things more tense. Then on November 28, 1773, the ship the Dartmouth sailed into Boston’s harbor. It carried a large cargo of tea.

Image Credit: Library of Congress

Tea was a very important part of everyday life to American colonists. This advertisement from the 1760s offers tea for sale.

Image Credit: Reproduced from The American Revolution: A Picture Sourcebook by John Grafton, Dover Publications, Inc., 1975

Protests were made against the Tea Act all over the colonies. This declaration made in New York talks about preventing tea ships from landing.

What Would YOU Do?

What would you do if you were the leader of a Patriot group?

• Would you talk to the tea merchants yet again? Maybe they would be willing to send the ships carrying tea back to England. They made their living selling tea. Or . . .
• Would you call a meeting of the colonists the very next morning? How many of the colonists would be willing to take action against England? Would they board English ships along with other rebel colonists? This would stop the merchants from unloading the tea.