By: Heather Meadows and Jenna Koellner, Museum Guides
This year marks the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party! On December 16, 1773, The Sons of Liberty boarded three merchant ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea (valued at approximately $1.7 million in today’s currency) into the water.
John Adams’ diary entry from December 17, 1773 reads in part: “Last Night 3 Cargoes of Bohea Tea were emptied into the Sea. This is the most magnificent Movement of all. There is a Dignity, a Majesty, a Sublimity, in this last Effort of the Patriots, that I greatly admire.”
Following the 1773 rebellion, colonists faced a dilemma. What would they do to satisfy the tea habit that was so ingrained in society? Imagine not being able to not have your morning cup of coffee today.
Colonial women limited their household’s servings to what could be grown in an orchard or gardens. These teas came to be called “Liberty Teas,” which came from “Liberty Gardens,” which not only produced floral teas but herbal teas as well. They also renamed their teapots “Liberty Pots.”
Liberty Gardens produced peppermint, spearmint, wintergreen, orange bergamot, catnip, and chamomile. Colonists also liked leaves of raspberry, strawberry, and lemon balm. The flower garden gave them blossoms of linden, elder, red clover, lavender, and violet.
Herbs that were already popular in the garden for cooking or medicinal cures were also utilized. This included parsley, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, sage, and goldenrod. A bonus of Liberty teas was that most of them contained herbs with medicinal uses. Just like today, teas could be blended to treat ailments.
Women were in charge of household expenses and purchasing decisions within their domestic domain, and therefore it was women who led the campaign to maintain the ban of British tea through practical application. They refused to buy it, drink it, or serve it.
Not all of the women who undertook alternatives to imported tea were white. At the time of the American Revolution, slavery was legal in every colony. For instance, in 1773, Boston had an estimated 15,000 residents, of whom roughly 12 % (1,800) were enslaved African Americans. Throughout the colonies, likely, some of the women (and possibly men) who cultivated Liberty Gardens and took part in serving Liberty Teas were enslaved.
Women also circulated anti-tea pledges. One such pledge read:
“As we cannot be indifferent on any occasion that appears nearly to affect the peace and happiness of our country, and as it has been thought necessary, for the public good, to enter into several particular resolves by a meeting of Members deputed from the whole Province, it is a duty which we owe, not only to our near and dear connections who have concurred in them but to ourselves who are essentially interested in their welfare, to do everything as far as lies in our power to testify our sincere adherence to the same; and we do therefore accordingly subscribe this paper, as a witness of our fixed intention and solemn determination to do so.”
It was men who destroyed the tea, but it was women who kept it off the table.
Sources:
File:Tea Party (1905) by Louis Moeller.jpg – Wikipedia
Pettigrew, Jane and Richardson, Bruce, A Social History of Tea, Benjamin Press, 2015
https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/john-adams-boston-tea-party
https://emergingrevolutionarywar.org/2023/03/08/the-womens-tea-parties
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