Coffee or Tea?

by Roseanna M. White

I'm a coffee drinker. Oh, I love tea too, but when the day is new and I make my way out to the kitchen to start my morning, tea doesn't cut it. It's coffee who has my affections just then.

When traveling in England last autumn, I quickly learned that where the American culture has leaned heavily toward coffee in recent centuries, the same cannot be said for England. Though you can buy a cup of perked coffee from any restaurant or bakery, it's not made as often at home--and when it is, it's usually with a French press, which is lovely, but doesn't make a whole pot like American families might be accustomed to. Which meant that when I got home, one of the best parts was having my coffee again. ;-)

I knew from research, however, that coffee houses were actually all the rage in England of old. They are, in fact, responsible for its ever coming to America. So why did England then become the tea country, and America in love with coffee?

After doing some digging, it seems that the answer is two-fold.

First, England--though tea, hot chocolate, and coffee were all introduced around the same time in England, and hence in America, the East India Company was in the tea business, and they began pushing to make tea king.

This went according to plan in England, but their plans for New World Domination were foiled by the disastrous Stamp Act in the American colonies. Though most of these taxes were repealed, the one on tea remained--which made the Americans, bolstered by their cries of "no taxation without representation," turn to other sources for tea--and to coffee.

Coffee houses and taverns have existed here since the 1600s, but it was the strife with England that made coffee the choice of many Americans. Which is curious, since the beans were shipped green and often arrived musty and damp and, well, kinda gross. Still, Americans preferred to drink what might be a rather noxious brew rather than buy tea from England.

New York's first coffee roaster opened in 1793, which led to a rash of such places. Coffee continued to gain dominance in America, though it wasn't for another hundred and fifty years that they finally turned to quality beans being grown in Central America. They launched a serious ad campaign in the 1950s that revolutionized coffee in America by introducing the "coffee break." Suddenly coffee was about quality, which led to the rise of such institution as Starbucks.

But the coffee industry we know today--be it trendy or eco-friendly, designer or instant--all has its roots in the American cry for independence. Without that, we'd likely be sitting every morning sipping our tea, as they do in England.

~*~

Roseanna M. White pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two small children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels and novellas, ranging from biblical fiction to American-set romances to her new British series. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to make their way into her novels…to offset her real life, which is blessedly boring. Learn more about her and her books at www.RoseannaMWhite.com.

Brick Tea

By Roseanna M. White

It was nearly five years ago that Carrie Pagels made mention of "brick tea." I don't even remember now how it came up, but I believe she'd purchased some from a local plantation home and was offering it to one of us here at CQ as thanks for helping with a project. Now, I had no idea what in the world she was talking about. And so far as I could tell in my search, she's never talked to us about it on the blog. So I decided to resurrect the post I'd done on my own blog 5 years that talked about this fun tea and what I learned about it after this arrived in the mail:

The moment I withdrew this brick from its bag, the scent of tea wafted up to me. My daughter, who runs to the kitchen the moment she senses a package being opened, rushed out just then, saw the brown-paper-wrapped block, and said, "What's that?"

My answer was to hold it out and say, "Smell."

You should have seen her eyes light up with delight and disbelief as she squealed, "Tea?!"

Tea has been a staple of many societies for centuries. But loose leaf tea is hard to transport, so back in the days of the silk road in Asia, the Chinese discovered that if they use forms to press the tea into standard sized bricks, they can transport them with ease, and the tea lasts through the journey.

This became such a standard that tea bricks could be used as currency, and this was the way most tea was transported for hundreds of years, all the way into the 19th century. So the tea tossed into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party? That was bricks.

Naturally, when something is used so long, for so many purposes, there comes to be a rhyme and reason to each part of it.

I don't know if you can read the label on this, but if you do, you'll find its "translation"--what each part of it means.

The front of this particular brick has details that let buyers know that this tea comes from a company managed by more than one person, and is manufactured by Enterprise Company Tea and the Chinese Lee family.

The back of the brick is separated into squares that can be used as currency. One square, for instance, might equal the price of a chicken.

In addition to being brewed, the tea traditionally pressed into bricks can also be eaten. I don't intend to try that, gotta say.

I thought for sure, five years ago, that I would immediately start breaking bits off and using them. But I didn't. Because it was so pretty and interesting, my Brick Tea still occupies a place of honor on my hutch. Occasionally I pick it up and smell it. And tell myself that maybe someday I'll brew myself a cup with some real history.

But mostly, I just love looking at it and knowing what it represents.

~*~

Roseana M. White pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two small children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels and novellas, ranging from biblical fiction to American-set romances to her new British series. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to make their way into her novels…to offset her real life, which is blessedly boring. You can learn more about her and her stories at www.RoseannaMWhite.com.

Tea Equipage in 18th Century America

Photo from bauhausfrau on Flickr

In the 18th century tea drinking was an established social custom with a recognized etiquette and distinctive equipage as we know from the pictures and writings of the period. At teatime men and women gathered to pursue leisurely conversations and enjoy the sociability of the home.

Today I will continue the discourse of Taking Tea in Colonial America from yesterday's post (Part 1) and share on the topic of Tea Equipage. This information is highlighted from a public domain book entitled Tea Drinking in 18th-Century America: Its Etiquette and Equipage by Rodris Roth that can be found in its entirety at Project Gutenburg. Excerpts are in italics.

The Tea Table—

Throughout the 18th century the well-equipped tea table would have displayed most of the items seen in this painting: a teapot, slop bowl, container for milk or cream, tea canister, sugar container, tongs, teaspoons, and cups and saucers. These pieces were basic to the tea ceremony and, with the addition of a tea urn which came into use during the latter part of the 18th century, have remained the established tea equipage up to the present day.

Teapot stand, Chelsea, England, 1759-1769

 Tea furnishings, when in use, were to be seen upon rectangular tables with four legs, square-top and circle-top tripods, and Pembroke tables. Such tables were, of course, used for other purposes, but a sampling of 18th-century Boston inventories reveals that in some households all or part of the tea paraphernalia was prominently displayed on the tea table rather than being stored in cupboards or closets. The most popular type of tea table apparently was the circular tripod; that is, a circular top supported on a pillar with three feet. This kind of table is seen again and again in the prints and paintings and is listed in the inventories of the period. These tables, usually of walnut or mahogany, had stationary or tilt tops with plain, scalloped, or carved edges.

In addition, trays or teaboards of various sizes and shapes were sometimes used. They were usually circular or rectangular in form, occasionally of shaped or scalloped outline. Some trays were supported upon low feet; others had pierced or fretwork galleries or edges to prevent the utensils from slipping off. Wood or metal was the usual material, although ceramic trays were also used. At large gatherings a tray was often employed for passing refreshments. . . Whether placed on a bare or covered table, it arrived with the various pieces such as cups and saucers, spoons, containers for sugar and cream or milk, tongs, bowls, and dishes arranged about the teapot. 

Table cloths—usually square white ones that showed folds from having been stored in a linen press—were used when tea was served, but it is difficult to say with any certainty if their use depended upon the whim of the hostess, the type of table, or the time of day. A cloth probably was used more often on a table with a plain top than on one with scalloped or carved edges. However. . . it was perfectly acceptable to serve tea on a plain-top table without a cloth. 

The Tea Service—

Throughout the 18th century the well-equipped tea table would have displayed most of the items seen in this painting (below): a teapot, slop bowl, container for milk or cream, tea canister, sugar container, tongs, teaspoons, and cups and saucers. These pieces were basic to the tea ceremony and, with the addition of a tea urn which came into use during the latter part of the 18th century, have remained the established tea equipage up to the present day.

Such tea furnishings of ceramic were sold in sets; that is, all pieces being of the same pattern. Newspaper advertisements in the 1730’s specifically mention “Tea Setts,” and later in the century ceramic imports continue to include “beautiful compleat Tea-Setts”. In the early 18th century, tea sets of silver were uncommon if not actually unique. . .

English Pearlware Tea Bowl & Saucer 1790

The pieces of tea equipage could be purchased individually. For instance, teacups and saucers, which are differentiated in advertisements from both coffee and chocolate cups, regularly appear in lists of ceramic wares offered for sale, such as “very handsome Setts of blue and white China Tea-Cups and Saucers,” or “enamell’d, pencill’d and gilt, red and white, blue and white, enamell’d and scallop’d, teacups and saucers.” These adjectives used by 18th-century salesmen usually referred to the types and the colors of the decorations that were painted on the pieces.

Porcelain, however, had long been a part of China-trade cargos to Europe and from there to America. The early shipments of tea had included such appropriate vessels for the storage, brewing, and drinking of the herb as tea jars, teapots, and teacups. The latter were small porcelain bowls without handles, a form which the Europeans and Americans adopted and continued to use throughout the 18th century for tea, in contrast to the deeper and somewhat narrower cups, usually with handles, in which chocolate and coffee were served.

Whatever the ware, the teacups and saucers, whether on a tray, the cloth, or a bare table, were usually arranged in an orderly manner about the teapot, generally in rows on a rectangular table or tray and in a circle on a round table or tray. . . Generally, cups and saucers were not piled one upon the other but spread out on the table or tray where they were filled with tea and then passed to each guest.

Tea chest, sugar, creamer,
teaspoons, and tongs.

Teaspoons, when in use, might be placed on the saucer or left in the cups. . .Teaspoons also were placed in a pile on the table or in a silver “Boat for Tea Spoons,” or more often in such ceramic containers as “Delph Ware ... Spoon Trays,” or blue-and-white or penciled china “spoon boats.” Shallow dishes . . . and hemispherical bowls were used as containers for sugar. Often called “sugar dishes” or just “sugars,” they were available in delftware, glass and silver as well as in blue-and-white, burnt, enameled, and penciled china. … Tongs were especially suited for lifting the lumps of sugar from their container to the teacup.

Containers for cream or milk may be seen in many of the 18th-century teatime pictures and are found in the advertisements of the period under a variety of names…There were cream pails, urns, and ewers of silver plate, and plated cream basins “gilt inside.” Milk pots, used on some tea tables instead of cream containers. . .

Silver strainer made by James Butler,
of Boston, about 1750

Often a medium-sized bowl, usually hemispherical in shape, is to be seen on the tea table, and it is most likely a slop bowl or basin. According to advertisements these bowls and basins were available in silver, pewter, and ceramic. Before a teacup was replenished, the remaining tea and dregs were emptied into the slop bowl. Then the cup might be rinsed with hot water and the rinsing water discarded in the bowl. The slop basin may also have been the receptacle for the mote or foreign particles—then inherent in tea but now extracted by mechanical means—that had to be skimmed off the beverage in the cup. . . No doubt, tea strainers were also used to insure clear tea. The tea dregs might then be discarded in the slop bowl or left in the strainer and the strainer rested on the bowl. 

The teapot was, of course, the very center of the social custom of drinking tea; so, it usually was found in the center of the tray or table. At first, only teapots of Oriental origin imported with the cargos of tea were available, for the teapot had been unknown to Europeans before the introduction of the beverage. However, as tea gained acceptance as a social drink and the demand for equipage increased, local craftsmen were stimulated to produce wares that could compete with the Chinese imports. Teapots based on Chinese models and often decorated with Chinese motifs were fashioned in ceramic and silver. No doubt many an 18th-century hostess desired a silver teapot to grace her table and add an elegant air to the tea ceremony. 

Tea kettle with lamp stand.

By the end of the century “an elegant silver tea-pot with an ornamental lid, resembling a Pine-apple” would have been the wish of a fashion-conscious hostess. Less expensive than silver, but just as stylish according to the merchants’ advertisements were “newest fashion teapots” of pewter or, in the late 18th century, Britannia metal teapots. The latest mode in ceramic ware also was to be found upon the tea table.

Sometimes the teapot, whether ceramic, pewter, or silver, was placed upon a dish or small, tile-like stand with feet. These teapot stands served as insulation by protecting the surface of the table or tray from the damaging heat of the teapot. Stands often were included in tea sets but also were sold individually. . .The stands must have been especially useful when silver equipage was set on a bare table top; many of the silver teapots of elliptical shape with a flat base, so popular in the latter part of the 18th century, had matching stands raised on short legs to protect the table from the expanse of hot metal. On occasion the teapot was placed on a spirit lamp or burner to keep the beverage warm.

Urn for hot water.

In most instances it was the hot water kettle that sat upon a spirit lamp or burner rather than a teapot. Kettles were usually related to the form of contemporary teapots, but differed in having a swing handle on top and a large, rather flat base that could be placed over the flame. Advertisements mention teakettles of copper, pewter, brass, and silver, some “with lamps and stands.” The actual making of tea was part of the ceremony and was usually done by the hostess at the tea table. This necessitated a ready supply of boiling water close at hand to properly infuse the tea and, as Ferdinand Bayard reported, it also “weakens the tea or serves to clean up the cups.” Thus, the kettle and burner on their own individual table or stand were placed within easy reach of the tea table. According to 18th-century pictures the kettle was an important part of the tea setting, but it seldom appeared on the tea table. . . The square stands often had a slide on which to place the teapot when the hot water was poured into it.

The tea canister, a storage container for the dry tea leaves, was yet another piece of equipment to be found on the table or tray. Ceramic canisters of blue and white, and red and gold, could be purchased to match other tea furnishings of the same ware, and silver tea canisters often were fashioned to harmonize with the silver teapots of the period. Individual canisters were produced, as well as canisters in sets of two or three. A set of canisters usually was kept in the box in which it came, a case known as a tea chest or tea caddy, such as the “elegant assortment of Tea-caddies, with one, two and three canisters” advertised in 1796. Canister tops if dome-shaped were used to measure out the tea and transfer it to the teapot. Otherwise, small, short-handled spoons with broad, shallow bowls known as caddy spoons and caddy ladles were used. However handled, the tea could have been any one of the numerous kinds available in the 18th century.

Tea by George Dunlop Leslie (1835 - 1921)

Do you have a tea service or any special tea equipage? What is your favorite flavor of tea? Do you brew it from loose leaf leaves or do you use tea bags?

Please be sure to visit us for our next Colonial Quills New Book Release Tea Party Friday, October 16, 2015. You may join us in the salon (our Facebook event page) and then in our tea parlor here at Colonial Quills.

Taking Tea in Colonial America

Many of our visitors have been guests at our new book release tea parties here at Colonial Quills. So, I thought I'd share some highlights from a delicious book entitled Tea Drinking in 18th-Century America: Its Etiquette and Equipage by Rodris Roth that can be found in its entirety at Project Gutenburg. Some of the information is seen through the foreign observer of American customs. Today I will share some vignettes about the tradition and art of Taking Tea in Part 1. Tomorrow I will share a bonus post, Part 2, on Tea Equipage. Excerpts will be found in italics, while I supplement my own comments in regular text.



At first the scarcity and expense of the tea, the costly paraphernalia used to serve it, and the leisure considered necessary to consume it, limited the use of this commodity to the upper classes. For these reasons, social tea drinking was, understandably, a prestige custom.

In America, as in England, tea had a rather limited use as a social beverage during the early 1700’s. . . At this time ale and wine, in contrast to tea, were fairly common drinks. Colonial gentry in Virginia and in the Carolinas a preference was showed for "sober liqueurs," while the common partaking of tea caught on slower in New England.

English customs were generally imitated in this country, particularly in the urban centers. Of Boston, where he visited in 1740, Joseph Bennett observed that “the ladies here visit, drink tea and indulge every little piece of gentility to the height of the mode and neglect the affairs of their families with as good grace as the finest ladies in London.” . . English modes and manners remained a part of the social behavior after the colonies became an independent nation. . . During the 18th century the serving of tea privately in the morning and socially in the afternoon or early evening was an established custom in many households. . . This tea-drinking schedule was followed throughout the colonies. In Boston the people “take a great deal of tea in the morning,” have dinner at two o’clock, and “about five o’clock they take more tea, some wine, madeira [and] punch,”reported the Baron Cromot du Bourg during his visit in 1781.

The gracious art of brewing and serving tea was as much an instrument of sociability as was a bit of music or conversation. . . Tea seems to have been the excuse for many a social gathering, large or small, formal or informal. And sometimes an invitation to drink tea meant a rather elegant party. . . At tea parties, cakes, cold pastries, sweetmeats, preserved fruits, and plates of cracked nuts might also be served, according to Mrs. Anne Grant’s reminiscences of pre-Revolutionary America. . . Sometimes wine and punch were served at teatime, and “in summer,” observed Barbé-Marbois, “they add fruit and other things to drink.” Coffee too might be served. As the Frenchman Claude Blanchard explained.

Obviously, young men and women enjoyed the sociability of teatime, for it provided an ideal occasion to get acquainted. . . Tea was not only a beverage of courtship; it also was associated with marriage. Both Peter Kalm, in 1750, and Moreau de St. Méry, in the 1790’s, report the Philadelphia custom of expressing good wishes to a newly married couple by paying them a personal visit soon after the marriage. It was the duty of the bride to serve wine and punch to the callers before noon and tea and wine in the afternoon.

Susanna Truax, unknown painter, 1730. Many
paintings of the period of persons with their tea
equipage depict the importance of tea in society.

[Children's] tea sets were available for even the youngest hostesses. . . No doubt, make-believe teatime and pretend tea drinking were a part of some children’s playtime activities. Perhaps many a little girl played at serving tea and dreamed of having a tea party of her own, but few were as fortunate as young Peggy Livingston who, at about the age of five, was allowed to invite “by card ... 20 young misses” to her own “Tea Party & Ball.” She “treated them with all good things, & a violin,” wrote her grandfather. There were “5 coaches at ye door at 10 when they departed. I was much amused 2 hours.”

The tea ceremony, sometimes simple, sometimes elaborate, was the very core of family life. Moreau de St. Méry observed in 1795, during his residence in Philadelphia, that “the whole family is united at tea, to which friends, acquaintances and even strangers are invited.” . . . In the daily routine of activities when the hour for tea arrived, Moreau de St. Méry remarked that “the mistress of the house serves it and passes it around.” In the words of another late-18th-century diarist, the Marquis de Barbé-Marbois, those present might “seat themselves at a spotless mahogany table, and the eldest daughter of the household or one of the youngest married women makes the tea and gives a cup to each person in the company.”

Throughout the 18th century the well-equipped tea table would have displayed most of the items seen in this painting: a teapot, slop bowl (for tea dregs), container for milk or cream, tea canister, sugar container, tongs, teaspoons, and cups and saucers. These pieces were basic to the tea ceremony and, with the addition of a tea urn which came into use during the latter part of the 18th century, have remained the established tea equipage up to the present day.

While the Americans, as the Europeans, added cream or milk and sugar to their tea, the use of lemon with the beverage is questionable. Nowhere is there any indication that the citrus fruit was served or used with tea in 18th-century America. Punch seems to have been the drink with which lemons were associated.


Some of you may be surprised to learn that tea in the early 18th century was sipped from small porcelain tea bowls, not handled tea cups. Some even drank from the saucer. However, the practice of saucer sipping, while it may have been common among the general public, was frowned upon by polite society. The fact that Americans preferred and were “accustomed to eat everything hot” further explains why tea generally was drunk from the cup instead of the saucer. According to Peter Kalm, “when the English women [that is, of English descent] drank tea, they never poured it out of the cup into the saucer to cool it, but drank it as hot as it came from the teapot.” A “dish of tea” was an expression rather than a way of drinking tea in the 18th century. On the table a saucer seems always to have been placed under the cup whether the cup was right side up or upside down.
 

 

When one had satisfied their appetite for tea it needed to be done with grace. To politely decline another serving of tea without offending the hostess one must adhere to the ceremony of the spoon by turning the cup upside down and placing a spoon upon it. During his visit to Philadelphia in 1782, Prince de Broglie was advised by the French Ambassador that: "It is almost as ill-bred to refuse a cup of tea when it is offered to you, as it would [be] indiscreet for the mistress of the house to propose a fresh one, when the ceremony of the spoon has notified her that we no longer wish to partake of it."

As we know, at times tea was forsaken in the colonies, save for American grown substitutes, during the years of taxation from Britain. One expression of distaste for tea, prior to the American Revolution, was shared in a rhyme published in a colonial newspaper.

A Lady’s Adieu to Her Tea-Table

FAREWELL the Tea-board with your gaudy attire,
Ye cups and ye saucers that I did admire;
To my cream pot and tongs I now bid adieu;
That pleasure’s all fled that I once found in you.
Farewell pretty chest that so lately did shine,
With hyson and congo and best double fine;
Many a sweet moment by you I have sat,
Hearing girls and old maids to tattle and chat;
And the spruce coxcomb laugh at nothing at all,
Only some silly work that might happen to fall.
No more shall my teapot so generous be
In filling the cups with this pernicious tea,
For I’ll fill it with water and drink out the same,
Before I’ll lose LIBERTY that dearest name,
Because I am taught (and believe it is fact)
That our ruin is aimed at in the late act,
Of imposing a duty on all foreign Teas,
Which detestable stuff we can quit when we please.
LIBERTY’S The Goddess that I do adore,
And I’ll maintain her right until my last hour,
Before she shall part I will die in the cause,
For I’ll never be govern’d by tyranny’s laws.
 

Do you enjoy drinking tea or do you prefer another type of hot beverage? Do you have any tea traditions? How often do you drink tea?

Tomorrow please join me for a bonus post ~

Part 2, Tea Equipage in 18th Century America.  

Please be sure to visit us for our next Colonial Quills New Book Release Tea Party this Friday, October 16, 2015. You may join us in the salon (our Facebook event page) and then in our tea parlor here at Colonial Quills.

It's Tea Time

A Family of Three at Tea, 1727

Attributed to Johann Zoffany (German-born British painter, 1733-1810)

      Tea is served usually at four o’clock, but sometimes between two and five o’clock.

      There are several types of teas:
Elevensies – morning coffee hour
Cream Tea – simple tea served with scones, clotted cream, marmalade or lemon curd
Low Tea or Afternoon Tea (got its name because guests sat on low armchairs next to low side-tables) – various sweet teas served with tiny sandwiches (savones), scones, and pastries with clotted cream, and curd
Royal Tea – begins with champagne and ends with sherry
High Tea (also known as Meat Tea) – served around six o’clock in the evening and includes meat and potatoes, various other foods. Was for the working class, but also was usually served for the upper classes on Sundays to give servants time off from having to cook an evening meal.

 

     Items necessary for serving tea include:

China tea set – teapot, cups, saucers, and tea spoons
Stainless steel wire mesh infusers or tea balls
Tea strainer
Mote spoon (slotted spoon for straining stray tea leaves)
Caddy spoon (short spoon used to measure out the tea leaves)



Mote Spoon





Caddy Spoon













Sugar bowl
Creamer for milk
Pitcher of hot water (for those who prefer weak tea)
Plate for lemon slices Plates and forks, if serving cake
Knives or butter spreaders if serving jam
Napkins (Napkins have an etiquette of their own. Fold large napkins in half with the fold facing the body, but open completely smaller tea napkins. When leaving the table temporarily, place your napkin on your chair, not on the table. At the end of the tea, pick up the napkin by the center and place it to the left of the plate.)

Gaiwan – a Chinese covered cup (To drink from the gaiwan, use the thumb and index finger of your left hand to hold the lid by its knob, and let the other three fingers follow the curve of the gaiwan, Tilt the lid slightly away from your lips so that it serves as a filter holding back the leaves as you drink the liquid. The cup is never removed from the saucer.)

Proper way to hold a tea cup and saucer:
Place the saucer in the palm of your left hand and move it forward to rest on the four fingers, which are slightly spread apart. Steady the saucer with your thumb on the rim. Hold the cup by placing your index finger through the handle and grip the handle with your thumb, and, for added support, place a second finger below the handle. Curve the next two fingers around the bowl. Don’t raise the pinky finger, even the slightest little bit, which would be a no-no.

Susan F. Craft is the author of the SIBA award-winning Revolutionary War novel, The Chamomile.

The Role of Tea in the American Revolution by Cynthia Howerter

You may recall my post on February 5, 2014 about colonial tea tables (An 18th Century Tea Table). The research for that article prompted me to learn more about the role of tea in Colonial America. I hope you find this brief history about tea and the American Revolution as interesting as I do. 

During the French and Indian War (1756-1763) and Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763-1766), England’s national debt skyrocketed—in part, from the high cost of supplying its military to the American colonies to fight these two wars. After these wars ended, England recognized a need for the continued defense of its colony and kept an army on American soil.

England's red coated soldiers

Faced with paying for an astronomical national debt as well as the cost of keeping an army in America, Parliament needed to raise income. Because the British government believed the colonists should shoulder a considerable amount of the cost of their defense, Parliament created revenue-raising taxes for the American colonies. Lacking representation, the American colonists had no say in the taxes that Britain forced on them. 

In June 1767, the British imposed the Townshend Revenue Acts on the colonies. These Acts imposed taxes for necessities such as glass, lead (used in bullet-making), paper, and tea. Unfortunately, the colonies were experiencing economic hardships as a result of the two recent wars, and these new taxes did not sit well with the Americans. 

Provoked colonists began purchasing imported tea from sources other than England’s East India Company. The ripple effect was that East India Company’s tea sales plummeted, and the company asked the British government for help.

Loose black tea

The British government’s response was the establishment of the Tea Act of 1773.  This Act did not raise taxes on the colonists, but gave the East India Company a monopoly to trade tea in the American colonies and prevented other tea importers from doing business in the colonies. It also allowed East India Company agents to sell directly to the American colonies which meant that tea sales bypassed Colonial merchants and caused them severe financial distress. 

The colonists saw this Act as yet another means of England trying to control the American colonies. The result was that colonists refused to unload tea from East India Company ships in the ports of New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston.

Colonists in Boston took things one step further. On December 16, 1773, Patriots boarded the East India Company’s ships anchored in Boston Harbor and threw thousands of pounds of tea—costing about $1,000,000 in today’s money—into the water.  We know this action as “The Boston Tea Party.”

Outraged at The Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774 which were specifically designed to punish the citizens of Massachusetts for their role in ruining the tea in Boston Harbor. Incensed, the Americans renamed these "The Intolerable Acts." These Intolerable Coercive Acts removed Massachusetts’ self-governing rights, prompting the start of a colony-wide revolt that began the American Revolutionary War.

American soldiers of all ages joined in the fight for their independence

After refreshing my memory with the role tea played in our country’s history, I’ll never again be able to enjoy this beverage without acknowledging its part in my American citizenship. What about you? 

All photographs ©2014 Cynthia Howerter

Award-winning author Cynthia Howerter loves using her training in education, research, writing, and speaking to teach and inspire others about a time in America that was anything but boring. A member of the Daughters of the American revolution (DAR), Cynthia believes history should be alive and personal.

Visit Cynthia's website: Cynthia Howerter - all things historical

  

The Boston Tea Party: A December to Remember

There was a boatswain’s whistle, and in silence one group boarded the Dartmouth. The Eleanor and the Beaver had to be warped in to the wharf. Johnny was close to Mr. Revere’s heels. He heard him calling for the captain, promising him, in the jargon everyone talked that night, that not one thing should be damaged on the ship except only the tea, but the captain and all his crew had best stay in the cabin until the work was over.

Captain Hall shrugged and did as he was told, leaving his cabin boy to hand over the keys to the hold. The boy was grinning with pleasure. The ‘tea party’ was not unexpected.

Excerpt from Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

And thus began the most famous Tea Party in American history when the underground resistance group known as the Sons of Liberty dumped 90,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor on the 16^th of December, 1773. The group of dissenters, dressed up like Mohawk Indians, were spurred on by Samuel Adams as a protest against the Tea Act of 1773. This law, which was enacted by the British Parliament, gave the East India Tea Company a virtual monoply over tea sales in the colonies.

In the eyes of the Massachusetts colonists, who had already endured one tax after another, this was one tax too many. The efforts of Parliament to recoup monies lost in the French and Indian War had now backfired, as the Colonials believed their rights as British citizens were being lost one by one.

Resistance to the Tea Act was active throughout the colonies but the East India Tea Company proceeded to send 500,000 pounds of tea across the Atlantic in September, 1773. Due to pressure from local patriot groups in the cities of Charleston, New York and Philadelphia, shipments of tea from England were refused by the local merchants. But in Boston, several relatives of the Crown-appointed Governor Hutchinson ruled the marketplace and they did not concede to the local patriots who tried to send the tea back to England. The patriots refused to pay the tax on the cargo. But the Governor in Massachusetts insisted that the taxes be paid and the tea stay put.

  

The Sons of Liberty decided otherwise as 342 wooden crates holding tea leaves were hatcheted open in front of thousands of silent observers lining Griffin’s Wharf at midnight.  

 No one was injured in the protest and it is said that the rebels swept up the decks of the ship afterwards. Since the ships were actually owned by Americans, and not the British, the pseudo-Indians had no quarrel with the shipowners.

In The Boston Campaign, April 1775 – March 1776, Victor Brooks writes, “…when the ‘Mohawks’ in Boston responded to this direct challenge by dumping the hated tea in the harbor, each side correctly saw the event as a watershed in the history of Britain’s rule over the colonies and as a clear prelude to military confrontation between parliament and the American provinces.”

 It was just a little over a year later (April of 1775) when full-scale war broke out between the colonies and England. It was a conflict that lasted nearly eight years.

The people of Massachusetts and all the colonies soon acquired a taste for coffee.

The Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, in celebration of this occasion, allow costumed re-enactors to participate in throwing tea into the sea every year on December 16. Watch their video here.

Huzzah!