Front Matter

1. 1. “Rally Mohawks! …”: Drake, Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents Relating to the Shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the Year 1773, by the East India Tea Company, clxxvi. “For since … ”: Granger, Political Satire, 235.

2. 2. Note on Currency: For more, see McCusker, How Much Is That in Real Money?

Introduction

1. 1. On national identity: Parkinson, The Common Cause. McDonnell, “National Identity and the American War for Independence Reconsidered,” 3–17. Peskin, Captives and Countrymen. Waldstreicher, In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes. Young, Shoemaker and the Tea Party. Yokota, Unbecoming British.

2. 2. Truxes, Defying Empire, 2–5.

3. 3. Cont Assoc. LVa. Charles Steuart Papers Misc., Reel 3703, f291.

4. 4. On print culture: Adelman, Revolutionary Networks and Parkinson, The Common Cause. On performance and spectacle, see Waldstreicher, Perpetual Fetes.

5. 5. Breen, “Baubles of Britain,” 74, 75, 77, 88, 93, 96, 98.

6. 6. There is no evidence, pace Breen, that committees monitored home consumption. Breen, “Baubles of Britain,” 102. Carp, Defiance of the Patriots. “assumes …”: Castronovo, Propaganda 1776, 103.

7. 7. See, e.g., Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics, 50. The most important recent economic analysis of the Association remains Holton, Forced Founders, 121–124, upon which this analysis builds.

8. 8. Though some were Loyalists who got into trouble for their Loyalism more generally.

9. 9. Cont Assoc.

10. 10. This book does not address the imported material culture (tea tables, tea services, and other tea ware) surrounding tea consumption, for which see Yokota, Unbecoming British, 62–114.

11. 11. Hancock, Oceans of Wine, 95, 120–122. The other item to be specifically banned was foreign indigo. Bear and Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, 1: 408.

12. 12. Fichter, “Collecting Debts.” Norfolk Intelligencer, August 23, 1775. Colonial Williamsburg, John Norton and Sons Papers, MS 36.3, folder 102. Norfolk County committee orders to Mr. Andrew Sprowle, August 9, 1775. Sprowle was a personal friend of Dunmore. Butt, Portsmouth Under Four Flags, 8–15.

13. 13. Fichter, “Collecting Debts.”

14. 14. “Repatriated” is Merritt’s term. On tea in post-independence United States: Merritt, The Trouble with Tea, 125–146.

15. 15. His Majesty’s customs officers struggled to stop arms imports (PRO T 1/513, 20, 24–26, 28, 38–39). On the secret committee, see JCC, “Secret Committee Minutes of Proceedings,” various dates.

16. 16. Barck Jr., New York City, 99, 133. Smith, “Food Rioters.”

17. 17. Jane Merritt, The Trouble with Tea. Norton, 1774. Norton generously corresponded with the author, sharing her expertise and insight during the drafting of this manuscript, which has been further updated in light of 1774.

18. 18. Glickman, Buying Power, 56. “the People”: Sullivan, Disaffected, 36.

19. 19. The assumption of continuity between the 1769–1770 and 1775–1776 non-consumption movements is usually the product of a compressed discussion of the boycotts in a book focused on other matters.

20. 20. Ammerman, In the Common Cause, 5.

21. 21. Glickman, Buying Power, 35–36.

1. The Tea Party That Wasn’t

1. 1. Fraser Jr., Patriots Pistols and Petticoats, 52. Schafer, Zephaniah Kingsley Jr., 13. SCG, December 27, 1773.

2. 2. Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 129.

3. 3. “UNCONSTITUTIONAL” “WITHOUT …” “Several” “We, the underwritten …”: SCG, December 6, 1773. Rogers, “The Charleston Tea Party,” 158. Walsh, Charleston’s Sons of Liberty, 4–9, 60.

4. 4. Fraser Jr., Patriots Pistols and Petticoats, 53–54. PHL, 9: 593 n 3. Refusal: SCG December 6, 1773. Fraser Jr., Charleston! Charleston!, 136. In the Patriot version of events, Smith announced, “HE had determined some weeks before … not to have any concern” in the tea. However, when the consignees, including Smith, wrote the Company on December 4, they noted the large crowd opposing them, not Smith’s decision. Smith declined to sign the first draft of a letter written by Leger and Greenwood on December 3 but co-signed their second draft, written on December 4; it is unclear why. The first draft was more pessimistic; the second suggested that mercantile discontent with the meeting on December 3 might aid the Company, an addition which did not make sense if Smith were trying to duck having to deal with the tea. (L&G, 137–139). “Great majority” and “to Wink …” from PRO CO 5/133 f61 (old f40d). Consignees to Company December 4, 1773. “every thing …” “Inconsistency” “Merchants …”: L&G, 138–139. Timothy’s politics: Cohen, South Carolina Gazette, 244.

5. 5. “upwards of” “a little more …” “import …”: SCG, December 6, 1773. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 153. McDonough, Christopher Gadsden and Henry Laurens, 133.

6. 6. SCG, December 6, 1773.

7. 7. PRO CUST 16/1. “nothing …”: L&G, 138. “that will …” “a total disuse …” “made …”: SCG, December 6, 1773. Smith’s advertisement: SCG, October 25 to November 8, 1773. Other advertisements: Hawkins, Petrie & Co., John Benfield, and Alexander Gillon & Co. SCG, December 6, 1773.

8. 8. “Disputes …”: “Rules of the Charlestown Chamber of Commerce,” 4. Rogers, “The Charleston Tea Party,” 161. Fraser, Patriots Pistols and Petticoats, 55. Sellers, Charleston Business, 222. “when …” “the moment …” “every Man …”: L&G, 138–139. “unless …” “be …”: PRO CO 5/133 f61. Consignees to Company December 4, 1773. Though dated to December 4, this sentiment seems to be part of what was expressed at the Chamber of Commerce. Egnal, A Mighty Empire, 266, 366.

9. 9. “private” “parcels of tea” “the meeting …”: Drayton, Memoirs, 1: 98. PRO CO 5/133 f62. “had not desisted …”: SCG December 20, 1773. Emphasis original.

10. 10. “unpopular” “very few” “ought …”: SCG, December 20, 1773. “Many friends …” “always …” Drayton, Memoirs, 1: 98. Sellers, Charleston Business, 223. SCPRO Reel 11. Vol. 33, 350–354. Charles Town. December 24, 1773. Bull to Dartmouth.

11. 11. “unjust” “to the Company” “others …” “Injurious” “by depriving …” “every argument”: L&G, 140–141.

12. 12. “Enemys …”: PRO CO 5/133 f62. Smith: Higgins, “Charles Town Merchants.” Leger and Greenwood tried to enter the slave trade but remained marginal in it.

13. 13. “same footing” “to consume …” “no Teas …”: PRO CO 5/133 f62. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 297. “ought”: SCG, December 20, 1773. The exact number of months may have been unresolved. Leger and Greenwood left a blank in their letter book for the number of months and filled in “Six” later (L&G, 141). Timothy did not mention a six-month lag at the time (SCG, December 20, 1773), and the issue was revisited the following March. British exports: PRO CUST 17/1 and 17/2.

14. 14. “to be entered …” “no Teas …” “import …” “any”: SCG, December 20, 1773. PRO CO 5/133 f62. SCG March 21, 1774. Drayton, Memoirs, 1: 100.

15. 15. “Forfeiting”: L&G, 139–140. “Difficulties”: SCG, December 6, 1773. Curling’s bond was ultimately cancelled (IOR B/90, 196).

16. 16. Maier, “The Charleston Mob and the Evolution of Popular Politics in Revolutionary South Carolina, 1765–1784,” 180–181. Marguerite Steedman, “Charleston’s Forgotten Tea Party,” Georgia Review 21, no. 2 (Summer 1967): 247. Drayton, Memoirs, 1: 99.

17. 17. “There was not …”: Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 298. “the warmth …” “hasty”: SCPRO Reel 11, 33: 350–354. Charles Town. December 24, 1773. Bull to Dartmouth. Walsh, Charleston’s Sons of Liberty, 60. Steedman, “Charleston’s Forgotten Tea Party,” 248. Rogers, “The Charleston Tea Party,” 162. SCG, July 25, 1774. Weir, Colonial South Carolina, 313. Northernmost: L&G, 168.

18. 18. “greatest …”: PRO CO 5/133 f36. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 158. PRO CO 5/133 f43-44. DAR, 7: 27–28. Norton. “The Seventh Tea Ship,” 681–710.

19. 19. “embarrassed”: McDonough, Gadsden and Laurens, 133. Maier, “The Charleston Mob,” 179. “Since …” “Our People …” “under …”: L&G, 156. “were …” “did” “do still …”: SCG, December 27, 1773. Emphasis original. “the Bostonians …”: PHL, 9: 391.

20. 20. Rao, National Duties, chapter 1.

21. 21. Butterfield, ed., Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, 2: 86.

22. 22. “Huzzai”: Roche, The Colonial Colleges, 60. “No one …” “universally Resented here”: Baker Hancock family papers. Series II. Letterbook JH-6, 424. John Hancock to Hayley and Hopkins, December 21, 1773. Krusell, Of Tea and Tories, 8. Charlestown: Cunningham, ed., Letters and Diary of John Rowe, 259.

23. 23. “gross immoral” “malignant atrocious” “diabolical”: Gray, “The two congresses cut up,” 3–4. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 303–304. Weir, Colonial South Carolina, 313. “Not that we approve their conduct in destroy[in]g the Tea,” Washington wrote in June 1774 (Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 234). “an Act …”: Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 299. Dabney and Dargan, William Henry Drayton, 22–23. Scots factors noted Patrick Henry’s and Richard Henry Lee’s disapproval. Dabney, “Letters from Norfolk,” 116. Schlesinger suggests Henry was ambivalent (Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 331). “wily Cromwellians” “prudent”: McDonough, Gadsden and Laurens, 134. “discretion”: Norton, 1774, 37. “substantial thinking part”: Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 291. “generally condemned”: Adair and Schutz, eds., Peter Oliver’s Origins & Progress, 103.

24. 24. “the divided sentiments …”: Norton, 1774, 48. Brown sees New England towns united in support of the Tea Party (Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 167–168). Norton notes division in Masschusetts, Virginia, and elsewhere (Norton, 1774, 47–57). Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 331. “The affair …” “a Disastrous …”: Cunningham, ed., Letters and Diary of John Rowe, 258.

25. 25. Krusell, Of Tea and Tories, 9. Olson, “Pictorial Representations,” 18. Massachusetts Spy, February 23, 1774. Young, Shoemaker and the Tea Party. This myth is most recently encapsulated in Carp, Defiance of the Patriots, 161–181.

26. 26. Norton, 1774, 47–83.

27. 27. “bloodshed”: Norton, 1774, 49. “The people …”: Boyle, “Boyle’s Journal of Occurrences in Boston,” NEHGR, 84 (1930) 371. “because Governor Hutchinson …”: JCC 1: 98. Boston committee: NYPL. Boston Committee of Correspondence Records, 1772–1784 Boston committee to New York and Philadelphia, December 17, 1773.

28. 28. Anderson, The Martyr and the Traitor, 77. Parkinson, The Common Cause.

29. 29. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 156.

30. 30. Lincoln, ed. Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, 27–28. Ingersoll, The Loyalist Problem, 72 n 43, 166. Williams, A Discourse. Lyman, “A Sermon Preached at Hatfield.” Young, Shoemaker and the Tea Party, 108–120, 155–165. Norton, 1774, 240, 248–252.

31. 31. “COFFEE” “NO TEA”: “The One Hundredth Anniversary of the Destruction of Tea,” 231. Drake, Tea Leaves, cxi. Young, Shoemaker and the Tea Party, 88–89, 108–120, 155–165. “rascally” “Convened …”: PRO CO 5/133 f62.

32. 32. “advis’d …” “I would not …” “Noble spirit’d”: Roberts, March to Quebec, 265. “English gentleman” “lady of the house” “No, madam” Roberts, March to Quebec, 358–359. Some sources offer the alternative spelling, Dickson.

33. 33. “great …”: Meigs, Journal, 23. “agonies”: Stone, ed., Invasion, 20. Stone gives Dixon’s as the “first blood shed before Quebec,” though some men had died in the wilderness en route (Ibid., 20). Smith, Arnold’s March, 33–38. Hale and Wolfe: Guthke, Last Words, 21, passim. I am indebted to Virginia DeJohn Anderson for this reference. Hale: Anderson, The Martyr and the Traitor. Accounts of Dixon’s death by Barney (Darley, Voices Waiting to Be Heard, 17), Greenman (Ibid., 67), Meigs (Meigs, Journal, 23), Thayer (Stone, ed., Invasion, 20), Senter (Senter, Journal, 44), Haskell (Withington, ed., Caleb Haskell’s Diary, 13), Humphrey (Humphrey, “A Journal Kept by William Humphrey,” 101). Topham (Roberts, March to Quebec, 265) and Henry (Ibid., 358–359) mention the tea.

34. 34. “ideas …” “countrymen” “Hence …”: Roberts, March to Quebec, 359. Dixon and Henry both served in Smith’s Company (“Roll of Captain Matthew Smith’s Company,” 39–42). Ellis and Evans, History of Lancaster County, 43. On the use of the term “country,” Ingersoll, Loyalist Problem, 126–127.

35. 35. “English”: Humphrey, “Journal” 100. “died …” “worthy …”: Ibid., 108. “Provincials”: Ibid., 117. “Provincial” could describe many of the men defending Quebec as well. “old country men”: Darley, Voices, 71, 167. In 1776, when prisoners escaped to the Provincial siege lines around the city, deserters from His Majesty’s lines sometimes came along (Withington, ed., Caleb Haskell’s Diary, 17). Frost: “A Journal Kept by William Humphrey,” 99. Gilje, “Loyalty and Liberty.” William Tennent III likewise described Patriotic American women as having “the Soul of Englishwomen” (SCGCJ, August 2, 1774).

36. 36. Norton, 1774, 20. Ellison, “Montgomery’s Misfortune,” 602–614. Purcell, Sealed with Blood, 24–33.

37. 37. “Enslow the baker”: UPenn, Franks ledger. Zitt, “David Salisbury Franks,” 77–95. “Sugar …”: Darley, Voices Waiting to Be Heard, 72. On Frost, see Ibid., 310. “several …” “as the majority …”: Darley, Voices Waiting to Be Heard, 47–48. Henry on his and others’ tea purchases: Roberts, March to Quebec, 404, 417, 423.

38. 38. Conroy, In Public Houses, 262. Hartigan-O’Connor, The Ties That Buy, 2. Chesapeake indentured servants may have consumed little tea. Virginian Walter Jones thought “Vulgar” people “used none of it” (McDonnell, The Politics of War, 34. Also Rhys Isaac, Transformation of Virginia, 46). “even …”: Norton, “The Seventh Tea Ship,” 685. Shammas, The Pre-Industrial Consumer, 144, 183. Ligon, “The Fashionable Set.” Miller, Sam Adams, 285. Wharton, “Observations upon the Consumption of Teas,” 139. The Delaware Indians of Ohio. Yokota, Unbecoming British, 83. “tea, coffee and chocolate” Guild, Early History of Brown University, 274.

39. 39. Shammas, The Pre-Industrial Consumer, 78, 85. For the 0.5 pound estimate, see Mason, Road to Independence, 4.

40. 40. Shammas, The Pre-Industrial Consumer, 85, 137, 144. Mintz, Sweetness and Power, 115–117, 121, 141. James, Two Centuries, 4.

41. 41. Breen, “Baubles of Britain,” 73–104.

42. 42. “Boycott” as a term dates from the 1880s. In the 1770s the term was non-consumption, which meant not to use or buy. Glickman, Buying Power, 33.

43. 43. “If a Commodity …” Randolph and Nicholas, Considerations, 28. “why should …” “Many …”: Ibid., 52. “renounce”: Miller, Sam Adams, 285. Butterfield, ed., Letters of Benjamin Rush, 84. “if not …”: Scribner, 3: 130–131.

44. 44. “Our credit …”: Miller, Sam Adams, 288.

45. 45. CRI, 1: 451–452.

46. 46. “there was no tea …”: PRO CO 5/133 f136. “almost invincible temptation”: Akers, The Divine Politician, 164. “Temptation of …”: Randolph and Nicholas, Considerations, 52.

47. 47. “AN OLD PROPHET” “TO USE NO TEA” “any Person …”: PAG, December 8, 1773. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 157. Labaree gives a price of 3/6 but the Gazette, his source, gives 6/6. Norton, “The Seventh Tea Ship,” 688.

48. 48. “extortion”: Patterson, Political Parties, 114 n 46. Newport Mercury, February 14, 1774. Seabury, Free Thoughts, 10. Yet merchant Neil Jamieson still thought he needed to spell out the effects of supply on price to Thomas Jefferson in 1784 (Boyd, ed., Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 7: 365–375).

49. 49. MHS Misc. Bd. 1773 Dec 31. Many thanks to Mary Beth Norton for this reference. The customs commissioners also spent part of December in the castle (PRO T 29/43, 150) but seem to have returned to Boston by January. Quibbles: PRO CO 5/769, 48–49.

50. 50. “utterly …” “steps”: PRO T 1/505, 73. Thomas and Elisha Hutchinson, Richard Clarke & Sons and Benjamin Faneuil Jr. to Richard Harrison and Robert Hallowell. January 1, 1774.

51. 51. “gentlemen …”: Pennsylvania Chronicle, February 1, 1774. “our Duty …”: PRO T 1/505, 89. Richard Harrison and Robert Hallowell to Customs Commissioners, January 6, 1774.

52. 52. “unsafe …”: PRO T 1/505, 81. Richard Harrison and Robert Hallowell to Governor Hutchinson. “destroyed …” “the Key …”: PRO T 1/505, 89. Richard Harrison and Robert Hallowell to Customs Commissioners, January 6, 1774. “in the Custody …”: PRO T 1/505, 71. Samuel Mather to John Robinson, January 21, 2774. Montagu: PRO T 1/505, 75–77.

53. 53. News of the salvage on Cape Cod reached Boston on December 15 and appeared in the Massachusetts Gazette on December 16, the day of the Tea Party. At this time it was unclear what would happen to the William’s tea next. “most …”: Massachusetts Gazette, December 16, 1773. Norton, “Seventh Tea Ship,” 682 n4.

54. 54. “people” “immersed” “cast …”: NYPL Boston Committee of Correspondence Records, 1772–1784. Boston committee to New York and Philadelphia, December 17, 1773.

55. 55. “none”: SCG January 17, 1774. “How …” “Grand …”: NYPL. Boston Committee of Correspondence Records, 1772–1784. Boston committee to Charleston. January 20, 1774. The Boston committee did not specify that this was in reference to landing the London’s tea, but it remains the most plausible explanation. New York: Rogers, “The Charleston Tea Party,” 164.

56. 56. Norton, “The Seventh Tea Ship,” 681–710. Egerton 2661 f5. Reporting of storage at Castle William: Boston Evening-Post, January 17, 1774. Connecticut Courant, January 20, 1774. NYJ, January 27, 1774. RNYG January 20, 1774. “original design” “watchfulness …”: Boston Gazette, January 17, 1774. “seems …” “What shall …”: NYJ January 13, 1774.

57. 57. After the feint of customs seizing the William’s tea, perhaps the Boston consignees hoped to buy it back at auction. William tea: IOR B/91 290. London tea: SCAGG, October 2 to 9, 1776. Records of the South Carolina Treasury, Roll 1: Public Ledger, 1775–1777, “Money Received from the Commissioners on the Sales of Tea,” 152. Weights: Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 335. The tea consumed in Charleston included the 70,304 pounds shipped by the East India Company in 1773, plus several chests seized in 1774. Allan, John Hancock, 141–142. The London’s tea was said to have been damaged. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 335. Cf. invoice values in PRO CO 5/133, 101.

58. 58. Schafer, Zephaniah Kingsley, 17. Richard Walsh, Charleston’s Sons of Liberty, 4–9, 60. The use of “propaganda” as a term has been rehabilitated in, among others, Castronovo, Propaganda 1776, 87–115 and passim.

2. Before

1. 1. Mui and Mui, “Smuggling and the British Tea Trade before 1784,” 45, 48. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 6. Kent, War and Trade in Northern Seas, 113–114. Dillo, “Made to Measure?” 61.

2. 2. British home consumption of legal tea: House of Commons, “Returns …” Home consumption includes Great Britain but not Ireland and the Americas. Slightly different figures are derived in Mui and Mui, “Smuggling and the British Tea Trade before 1784,” 68. British smuggled tea: Cole, “Trends in Eighteenth-Century Smuggling,” 405 and Thomas, The Townshend Duties Crisis, 18. “growing consumption …”: Cross, ed., Eighteenth Century Documents, 237. The Company estimated 7.7 million pounds of smuggled tea to 6.7 million pounds legal tea a year (IOR L/AG/18/2/1, 11). British population estimate of 8.4 million: Rickman, “Observations,” 9–10. Lee and Schofield, “British Population in the Eighteenth Century,” 21. Lockwood, To Begin the World over Again, 14–19.

3. 3. Legal tea imports: PRO CUST 16/1. Calculations assume a population of 2.168 million. Were 75 percent of tea smuggled, it would use up much of the European supply. Hutchinson, Wharton, and Palmer: Thomas, Townshend Duties Crisis, 247.

4. 4. Kent, War and Trade, 119. Mui and Mui, “Smuggling and the British Tea Trade” 50. Hodacs, Silk and Tea in the North, 49.

5. 5. de Vries and van der Woude, First Modern Economy, 457–462. Mui and Mui, “Smuggling and the British Tea Trade,” 48. Writers claiming that Europeans did not drink tea rarely cite evidence about European consumption. VOC director Cornelis van Oudermeulen thought Frieslanders and Groningeners loved tea and coffee so much they drank the whole Dutch supply (De Vries and van der Woude, First Modern Economy, 458). On Amsterdam: McCants, “Poor Consumers as Global Consumers,” 182–185. German tea consumption was great enough for one author to recommend import substitution. Rumpf, Deutschlands Goldbrube. European demand helped make a deeper tea market.

6. 6. Dermigny, La Chine et l’Occident, 2: 616, 636. Dutch expatriates in other cities often had prominent roles trading tea. Ibid., 2: 613.

7. 7. Müller, “The Swedish East India Trade,” 32–33. Kent, War and Trade, 122. Kjellberg, Svenska Ostindiska Compagnierna, 218. Hodacs, Silk and Tea, 37. In 1770, two-thirds of Swedish East India re-exports by value (largely tea) went to the Netherlands, one-quarter to France and German states, and 3 percent went directly to Britain (Lind, Göteborgs Handel, 184. Lindblad, Sweden’s Trade with the Dutch Republic, 160. Nyström, De svenska ostindiska kompanierna, table 4. Cf. for 1771–1777: Dermigny, La Chine et l’Occident, 2: 605). Sweden exported little directly to North America in the 1760s and 1770s. Few ships sailed from Gothenburg directly to North America between 1771 and 1775. Högberg, Utrikeshandel, 63, 73. Arrivals to Sweden could come indirectly via the Caribbean, and departures were similarly circuitous (CRI, 1: 519).

8. 8. Heckscher, Economic History of Sweden, 195–196. Kent, War and Trade, 120. Dermigny, La Chine et l’Occident, 2: 604. On European tea consumption, see note 5. Some Lübeck tea was re-shipped to Britain. Müller, “Swedish East India Trade” 35. Hodacs, Silk and Tea, 2.

9. 9. Pourchasse, “Roscoff, un important centre de contrebande,” 147–156. “monied men”: HUNTER Archibald Hunter to James Hunter Jr., June 7, 1774, Dunkirk. “only time …”: HUNTER Archibald Hunter to James Hunter, May 13, 1774, Dunkirk. “all kinds …” HUNTER Archibald Hunter to James Hunter, June 10, 1774, Dunkirk. Smuggling from Iberia: PRO T 1/513, 16.

10. 10. “whole Navy of England”: South Carolina Gazette, December 27, 1773. Wharton, “Observations,” 140. Harrington, New York Merchant, 268. HUNTER Archibald Hunter to James Hunter Jr., Account, February 15, 1774. “I shall …”: HUNTER Archibald Hunter to James Hunter, March 4, 1774, Dunkirk. Box 1. Hammond: CRI 1: 332, 519–520.

11. 11. Smuggling to the British Caribbean is difficult to glean from shifts in legal British tea re-exports, as such shifts were as likely to be affected by changing naval and military deployments as by changes in smuggling (PRO CUST 17/8 and CUST 17/9). Westergaard, Danish West Indies, 250. Jensen, Maritime Commerce, 133. Vernons: Norton, 1774, 5–6.

12. 12. Norton, “The Seventh Tea Ship,” 686. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 10. Harrington, New York Merchant, 268. York, ed., Hulton, 115–116. Clark, “American Board of Customs,” 793–794.

13. 13. New York customs: DAR, 8: 224–225, Lt Gov Colden to Dartmouth, November 2, 1774. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 54–55. “Stoping …”: Hersey, “Tar and Feathers,” 462. Irvin, “Tar, Feathers, and Enemies of American Liberties,” 205 n 18, 210.

14. 14. “Weltring …” “very cruelly” “beating out …” “great Magnitude & Enormity”: Cross, ed., Eighteenth Century Documents, 308–313.

15. 15. Thomas, Townshend Duties Crisis, 26–28. Indemnity Act, 1767, 7 Geo. 3, c. 56. Bowen, Revenue and Reform, 109. Cole, “Trends in Eighteenth-Century Smuggling,” 401. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 13, 21. Clark, “American Board of Customs,” 781. York, ed., Hulton, 113.

16. 16. Hutchinson thought the Townshend duties still gave smugglers an advantage. Thomas, Townshend Duties Crisis, 11, 19, 247, 252. Bowen, Revenue and Reform, 121–123.

17. 17. Bowen, Revenue and Reform, 103, 122, 125.

18. 18. Nierstrasz, Rivalry for Trade, 55, 60, 54–66. Mui and Mui, “Smuggling and the British Tea Trade,” 55.

19. 19. IOR B/86, 344. Bowen, “ ‘So Alarming an Evil,’ ” 7, 12, 14. Mui and Mui, “Smuggling and the British Tea Trade,” 46, 47, 67. Some of the increase was actual Irish demand, which post-Commutation Act tea exports to Ireland show was real (PRO CUST 17/9).

20. 20. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 13, 22–24, 33–35. York, ed., Hulton, 126. Hoffman, Spirit of Dissention, 86. “obstinate”: Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 33.

21. 21. York, ed., Hulton, 142. Boston. “At a meeting …” Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 31–34.

22. 22. Irving and Mein, A State of Importations. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 26. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 159–170.

23. 23. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 25. Barbara Clark Smith, The Freedoms We Lost, 100.

24. 24. York, ed., Hulton, 138. Brown, “Shifting Freedoms,” 371–376. Martin, Free and Open Press, 80.

25. 25. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 25, 47–50. Patterson, Political Parties, 69. L&G, 1.

26. 26. “Mr. John Hancock …”: Stevens, Facsimiles, Document 2029, 5. Palfrey: New-York Journal, December 23, 1773. Palfrey denied that Hancock “paid the Revenue Duty” on tea, leaving the possibility that his ships carried dutied tea belonging to others. For ownership of vessels carrying tea: MHS British North American customs papers, 1765–1774, “An Account of what Tea has been imported into Boston since the year 1768.” Shared ownership linked these men across the Atlantic; thus, Bostonian Nathaniel Wheatley owned the Harmony with Nantucketer William Roach and Londoners Isaac Buxton and Samuel Enderby, into whose family he would later marry. Dennie: Day, “Another Look at the Boston ‘Caucus,’ ” 33, 36. Hancock imported tea from the Netherlands in 1772 as one-fourth owner of the Neptune. Hancock even named a vessel Undutied Tea. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 10. Akers, Divine Politician, 160. Miller, Sam Adams, 285. Hancock sold tea during the non-import agreement in April 1769, August 1769, and January 1770. Hancock also kept a mistress, Dorcas Griffiths, who had a “Grocery and Tea shop” on his wharf, selling tea probably supplied by him. Hersey, “The Misfortunes of Dorcas Griffiths,” 13–25. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 299. Reed, ed., Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, 1: 52, 56.

27. 27. L&G, 6, 128.

28. 28. Cole, Wholesale Commodity Prices … Statistical Supplement, 55–64.

29. 29. Miller, Sam Adams, 287–288.

30. 30. Thomas, Townshend Duties Crisis, 255. Jensen, Maritime Commerce, 198. The rebate of the 25 percent duty lapsed in 1772. Tea sent to the colonies that year paid a 10 percent re-export duty (Drawback Act, 1772, 12 Geo. 3, c 60. Bowen, Revenue and Reform, 125). Re-exported tea was fully rebated from this tax again in 1773 (Thomas, Townshend Duties Crisis, 248, 251). The drawback on tea re-exported to Ireland ceased. The Company instructed its consignees to sell singlo at 2/8 and hyson at 5/.. Labaree thinks the Company would not necessarily have undersold smugglers (Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 76–77). Thomas disagrees (Thomas, Townshend Duties Crisis, 255).

31. 31. Bowen, Revenue and Reform, 151, 159. The VOC’s shareholders were similarly reluctant to cut dividends. van Zanden and van Riel, The Strictures of Inheritance, 78.

32. 32. Bowen, Revenue and Reform, 152. While North America received smuggled tea from elsewhere, it was too far away to re-distribute smuggled tea back to Britain or Ireland. Ship captains had to give bond for the delivery of dutied teas in North America (whether shipped by the Company or not). To cancel the bond, they had to return to Britain with a certificate from a North American customs house verifying the tea’s landing. It was not worth smuggling tea from Britain to New York and then back to Ireland when smugglers could supply the Irish market from cheaper sources close by. This gave shipping to North America a particular appeal.

33. 33. Labaree, Tea Party, 335.

34. 34. Tea Act, 1773, 13 Geo. 3, c. 44, Article VI. Tea sales: Mui and Mui, “Smuggling and the British Tea Trade,” 68. Tea imports: Nierstrasz, Rivalry for Trade, 62 (chart) and data table, private correspondence with Nierstrasz, based on IOR sources. The Company reduced tea imports after 1773 because of London oversupply, not because it lost access to the thirteen colonies. IOR L/AG/18/2/1, 7, 11. Mui and Mui, “The Commutation Act,” 235. European purchases of tea for European use continued after 1784.

35. 35. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 76. Jensen, Maritime Commerce, 198. Drake, Tea Leaves, xii, 245. The Company shipped 598,659 pounds of tea to North America in 1773, of which the New York and Philadelphia shipments comprised 211,778 pounds each (Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 335). Doerflinger, Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise, 193.

36. 36. “lenient Principle”: Adair and Schutz, eds., Peter Oliver’s Origins & Progress, 101. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 282. Hutchinson tea sales: Allen, An Account, 5–7.

37. 37. Shammas, The Pre-Industrial Consumer, 66. “if the tea comes …”: Thomas, Townshend Duties Crisis, 257.

38. 38. “absolute Sovereign,” New-York Journal, October 22, 1772. Agents: Kammen, A Rope in the Sand. Tax in the form of port dues was paid in silver to the Swedish state (Kjellberg, Svenska Ostindiska Compagnierna, 317). Anti-monopoly sentiment: Fichter, So Great a Proffit, chapter 1. Mui and Mui, “Smuggling and the British Tea Trade,” 48. Kent, War and Trade, 113–114.

3. Tea Politics

1. 1. “It is Tea … ”: “To the LADIES of South Carolina,” SCGCJ August 2, 1774. Carp, Rebels Rising, 159. “the fatal cause …”: LDC, 1: 51. James Duane speech to Committee on Rights, September 8, 1774. Lester Olson, “Pictorial Representations,” 26.

2. 2. Schlenger, Colonial Merchants, 300–301. Dealers agreed to a maximum 4d/lb profit on tea until January 20 (Massachusetts Spy, December 30, 1773, cf. Boston Evening Post, January 17, 1774). “A True Whig” doubted whether Patriots could maintain this price control even until January 20 (Boston Evening Post, January 10, 1774). There may have been only six chests of tea in the city, which may have affected prices (Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 162–163).

3. 3. “if undutied …” “disperse” “the East India Company’s …” “different parts of America”: Boston Evening Post, February 7, 1774. On Massachusetts in 1774, see Norton, 1774. Bell, The Road to Concord. Raphael, First American Revolution. Colonists in Rhode Island towns resolved against dutied tea in early 1774, but left alone Dutch tea, which could have reached Boston. Bartlett, ed., Records of the Colony of Rhode Island, 272–279. Hedges, Browns of Providence Plantations, 210–211. Rappleye, Sons of Providence, 143.

4. 4. “by Uniting …”: NYPL Boston Committee of Correspondence Records, 1772–1784, Boston committee to Charleston, January 20, 1774. The Boston committee probably based this assessment upon information supplied by Gadsden or Timothy, both of whom occasionally corresponded with the Boston committee without formal sanction, expressing their frustration with moderate colleagues.

5. 5. Progation: SCG, January 17, 1774. Committee formation: SCG, January 24, 1774. Committee membership: NYPL Boston Committee of Correspondence Records, 1772–1784, Charleston committee to Boston, June 1774. “diligently”: SCG, January 24, 1774.

6. 6. McDonough, Christopher Gadsden and Henry Laurens, 133. “general meeting” “Every …”: SCG, February 28, 1774. “NO TEAS” “Agreement”: SCG, March 21, 1774. The import ban allowed tea ordered before December 3, 1773 and arriving before April 16, 1774 to be landed and sold (SCG, March 21, 1774). The January 7, 1774 meeting was postponed until March 16 (SCG, December 20, 1773; December 27, 1773; January 24, 1774; March 7, 1774). Fraser, Patriots Pistols and Petticoats, 56. Notice by Timothy printed on March 15 for meeting that evening. The March 16 meeting also ordered the Company’s tea remain in the Exchange, and that anyone who imported, bought, or sold tea be shunned (SCG, March 21, 1774). Rogers, “The Charleston Tea Party,” 164–165. For a list of committee members: NYPL Boston Committee of Correspondence Records, 1772–1784, Charleston committee to Boston committee, June 1774. The one-month delay for non-importation may have been because dutied tea was imported on March 15 (SCG, March 21, 1774).

7. 7. “publick Meetings” “separated themselves …” “overvirtuous” “treasonous”: Walsh, ed., Writings of Christopher Gadsden, 93. Christopher Gadsden to Samuel Adams May 23, 1774. PRO CO 5 133 f62.

8. 8. “Association …”: Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 292.

9. 9. Ammerman, Common Cause, 10.

10. 10. Ryerson, Revolution Is Now Begun, 43. Aspinwall 2: 703, 718. SCG, June 13, 1774. On Franklin: Dabney and Dargan, William Henry Drayton & the American Revolution, 22–23. Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 199.

11. 11. Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 188. Gross, Minutemen and Their World, 50–51. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 323. Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 200–201, 213. Some towns and counties had their own covenants.

12. 12. Jensen, Maritime Commerce, 208. Ryerson, Revolution Is Now Begun, 40–41. “risque …”: Olton, Artisans for Independence, 58, citing Pennsylvania Gazette, August 14, 1774. Rosswurm, Arms, Country, and Class, 21.

13. 13. Port Act: SCG, June 3, 1774. “overhasty …” “Principal …” “deter …”: NYPL Boston Committee of Correspondence Records, 1772–1784. Christopher Gadsden to Samuel Adams, June 5, 1774. “even …”: NYPL Boston Committee of Correspondence Records, 1772–1784. Charleston committee to Boston committee, June 13, 1774. Emphasis original. “the people …”: NYPL Boston Committee of Correspondence Records, 1772–1784. Charleston committee to Boston committee, June 28, 1774. July 6 meeting: SCG, July 11, 1774. Donnan, Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America 4: 470 n1.

14. 14. “Fasting …”: Labaree, Tea Party, 233. “recommend it strongly”: Kennedy, Journals of the House of Burgesses, 13: xiv. “tyrannically” “Bostonians”: Poston, “Ralph Wormeley V of Rosegill,” 35. “tea of any kind”: “Association of the Virginia Convention, Aug 1–6, 1774.” The North Carolina provincial congress (August 25–27, 1774) declared non-importation to begin on January 1, 1775, and a cessation of tea consumption on September 10, 1774 (CRNC, 9: 1046). The Massachusetts provincial congress declared non-importation of “all kinds of East India teas” on October 28, having not yet heard of the Continental Congress’s Association. (Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 324). On Fredericksburg: James Robinson to W. Cuninghame & Co. June 7, 1774, in Devine, ed., Scottish Firm in Virginia, 142. Labaree, Tea Party, 251.

15. 15. “no legal authority”: Marston, King and Congress, 77. The New York committee of fifty-one did include some conservatives, including tea consignee Benjamin Booth (Labaree, Tea Party, 228). Gage wrote to the Massachusetts provincial congress, “Whilst you complain of acts of parliament that make alterations in your charter … by your assembling, you are yourselves subverting that charter, and now acting in direct violation of your own constitution” (Lincoln, ed., Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, 21). On delegate selection: Norton, 1774, 148–159. Marston, King and Congress, 74–77.

16. 16. “We don’t …”: Marston, King and Congress, 113. Scribner, 2: 104–105. No tea was bought back. Henry Fleming described buying back canvas at “prime cost” with “no further expense” than the auctioneer’s commission. (British Records Relating to America … Papers of Henry Fleming. Fleming to Turners & Woodcock, Norfolk, January 26, 1775.) If there was a bid-up, profits went to Boston relief. Virginia had previously set non-importation for November 1. South Carolina also imposed non-consumption of tea on that date (Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 525).

17. 17. “we can …”: PRO CO 5/160 Copy of proceedings of the committee of correspondence at Worcester, August 9, 1774. “by their sufferings”: PRO CO5/396 Bull to Dartmouth July 31, 1774. Maier, From Resistance to Revolution, 235, 252–255.

18. 18. Sosin, Agents and Merchants, 199. Maryland State Archives, Port of Entry Book, SE 71-1, 220, 228–229, 304, 314–315.

19. 19. “especially …” Suffolk Resolves, http://www.masshist.org/database/696.

20. 20. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, p. 428, called the Association a “quasi-law.” Marston, King and Congress, 100–130. Norton, 1774.

21. 21. “no tea …” “What right …” “acceptable & pleasing” “Sounds …”: PHL, 9: 428. Emphasis original. “Violent, Arbitrary & Unjust,” McDonough, Gadsden and Laurens, 135. “Surely some Judas …”: PHL, 9: 434–435. Schafer, Zephaniah Kingsley, 14. “him or herself”: SCG, December 20, 1773. “private Persons …” “what is lawfull …” “Indian Liberty Sons” “Liberties destroyd”: Norton, “The Seventh Tea Ship,” 702.

22. 22. Phillips, 1775, 309. Countryman, People in Revolution, 101. Norton, 1774, 249–252.

23. 23. “could never last” “refuse …”: Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, 139.

4. Paying for the Tea

1. 1. Bailyn, Ordeal, 262–263. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 146, 221. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 289, 300. “justice demanded …”: Adair Schutz, eds., Peter Oliver’s Origins & Progress, 103. “sober …” “disclaimed” “no steps” “show …”: Gray, “The two congresses cut up …” 4. “compulsive”: PBF, 21: 75–76. PBF, 21: 153. Olson, “Pictorial Representations of British America Resisting Rape,” 17, 27. “the Province …” “the Town …” “acting …”: Boston Post-Boy, January 31, 1774. Krusell, Of Tea and Tories, 9.

2. 2. “Attack upon Property”: Butterfield, ed., Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, 2: 86.

3. 3. Labaree, Tea Party, 144, 149. Allison, The Boston Tea Party, 39. Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 166. “solemnly Protest”: PRO CO 5/133 f89. Young, Shoemaker, 43. Lemisch, “Jack Tar in the Streets,” 371–407. “the People”: NYPL Boston Committee of Correspondence Records, 1772–1784, Boston committee to New York and Philadelphia committees, December 17, 1773.

4. 4. PRO CO 5/133 f64–65. Hersey, “Tar and Feathers,” 442. “hardships …”: IOR B/90, 339.

5. 5. Irvin, “Tar, Feathers, and Enemies of American Liberties,” 205 n 18, 210. “drenching Horn”: Hersey, “Tar and Feathers,” 452. Respectable Patriots disavowed the assault. Young, Shoemaker, 50–51. “in Stakes”: Cunningham, ed., Letters and Diary of John Rowe, 261. Hulton, Letters of a Loyalist Lady, 70–72.

6. 6. “pelted …” “I took …” “And I …” York, ed., Henry Hulton, 282. “There is no spirit …” DAR, 8: 27. Walmsley, Thomas Hutchinson, 151. “likely …” “for the Mob …”: PRO T 1/505, 109. “very cold place”: Kamensky, Revolution in Color, 215. “not one …”: Egerton 2661 f18 Hutchinson to Company Directors, March 19, 1774. “Mill-Stone …”: Boston Gazette, January 10, 1774. “base treatment” “My friends …” “generally …”: Egerton 2659 f62.

7. 7. “very silent” “I think …”: Egerton 2661 f14. On Fortune: Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 164–167. DAR 8: 62–63. Cunningham, ed., Letters and Diary of John Rowe, 264. Mass Spy, March 10 and 17, 1774. The owners offered to send the tea back, but wanted to wait for a full cargo for the return trip. Loyalist Henry Lloyd was the recipient of sixteen chests and also a supplier for British troops in Boston. Tyler, Smugglers and Patriots, 207–208. Sabine, 2: 24. Akers, The Divine Politician, 172–173. The “Massacre” was marked on March 4 because some considered the evening of March 5 a Sabbath. Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, 46. Bailyn, Ordeal, 265–266, 270. Kamensky, A Revolution in Color, 215–220. DAR, 8: 115–116. Jonathan Clarke left the castle briefly in January. DAR, 8: 23–24. Only with Gage’s arrival could John Greenough safely travel to Boston for business. Norton, “The Seventh Tea Ship,” 726. Bailyn, Ordeal, 263. Adair and Schutz, eds., Peter Oliver’s Origins & Progress, 115.

8. 8. Younger, “Grand Juries and the American Revolution,” 257, 261. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 146, 149. PBF, 21: 137 n 9. Thomas, Townshend Duties, 226–230. Thomas, Tea Party, 24. “Grand Jurors …”: Egerton 2261 f10. Hutchinson, ed., Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson 1: 114. A few sources give the story of a man, Eckley or Ackley, arrested for the Boston Tea Party and released for lack of evidence. (Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 149–150. Drake, Tea Leaves, cx.) No evidence of this appears in Massachusetts newspapers or Suffolk court records (Suffolk County Court of General Sessions of the Peace. Supreme Judicial Court Archives, Massachusetts Archives).

9. 9. Younger, “Grand Juries,” 258. Longley, “Mob Activities in Revolutionary Massachusetts,” 114–115. Brown’s claim that “regular criminal procedures were available” is thus moot. Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 199.

10. 10. Baxter, House of Hancock, 285. IOR B/89, 961. Massachusetts Archives, Supreme Judicial Court Archives, Washburn, Sketches of the Judicial History of Massachusetts, 168–169, 319–320, 332, 335. The East India Company’s Court of Directors sent its Boston consignees instructions on recovering compensation through the Boston Port Act. The instructions were forwarded to Thomas Gage on April 11, 1774; however, only the covering letter survives (PRO CO 5/765, 308 and University of Michigan, Clements Library, Thomas Gage papers, J. Pownall to Thomas Gage, April 11, 1774).

11. 11. Ubbelohde, Vice-Admiralty Courts, 13, 16.

12. 12. “Screen …” “flame …” “it is thought …”: Edgerton 2659 f70. “prevent …” Dartmouth 1: 348. Catalog of the Records, 93. Bailyn, Ordeal, 265–266, 270. Adair and Schutz, eds., Peter Oliver’s Origins & Progress, 110, 112.

13. 13. Staples, Destruction of the Gaspée, 102–107.

14. 14. “Dependence …”: PRO CO 5/396 Dartmouth to Bull, February 5, 1774. “reducing …”: PRO CO 5/763 f77 Dartmouth to Gage, April 9, 1774. Simmons and Thomas, Proceedings and Debates, 4: 211.

15. 15. DAR, 8: 37–41. Thomas, Tea Party, 72.

16. 16. Thomas, Tea Party, 24. “insult …” DAR, 8: 45. “private …”: DAR, 8: 103.

17. 17. “an attempt …” “concerted …”: Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 174–175. Donoughue, British Politics, 54. DAR, 8: 47–48. Akers, The Divine Politician, 161. “were of such …”: PRO CO 5/763 f78–79. Dartmouth to Gage, April 9, 1774. Warner, Protocols of Liberty, 113–119.

18. 18. “Tea …”: PRO CO 5/763 f99. PRO CO 5 763 f105. “what more …”: PRO CO 5/763 f95–96. Raphael, “The Signal of Sam Adams.”

19. 19. “mark out …”: Labaree, Tea Party, 178. Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, 44.

20. 20. Donoughue, British Politics, 57–59, 61. Depositions at PRO CO 5/763 f175–216. PRO CO 5/763 f85–89, 95–96, 98–99, 105. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 174–178. PBF, 21: 153 n 5. Captain Scott of the Hayley helped bring the news of the Tea Party to England. Donoughue, British Politics, 29, 57.

21. 21. Marston, King and Congress, 40.

22. 22. “full satisfaction” “reasonable satisfaction”: Boston Port Act, 1774, 14 Geo. 3, c. 19. 4 Am Arch, 1: 362. May 28, 1774. “sum …”: Patterson, Political Parties, 78.

23. 23. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 222–223. Dartmouth’s July note was similarly unclear. PRO CO 5/763 f191 Dartmouth to Gage, July 6, 1774. Whitehall. Real losses: PRO CO 5/133 f101.

24. 24. “peace …” “the trade …”: Boston Port Act, 1774, 14 Geo. 3, c. 19. Cobbett, Parliamentary History, 17: passim.

25. 25. Norton, “Seventh Tea Ship,” 691, Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, 61. The Port Act passed on March 31, 1774. The Treasury, with North in attendance, read a report on the tea’s survival on March 17, 1774 (PRO T 29/43 f165), though it dated the item itself as received April 2, 1774 (PRO T 1/505, 72). Hutchinson wrote Dartmouth of the tea’s survival on January 4, 1774, though when Dartmouth received Hutchinson’s letter is unclear (Dartmouth, 1: 346.) IOR B/90.

26. 26. Dartmouth, 2: 246–247.

27. 27. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 219. “suffer”: 4 Am Arch, 1: 361. “If your …”: PHL, 9: 533.

28. 28. The merchants were Hayley and Hopkins, Alexander Champion and Thomas Dickason, Lane, Son & Fraser, [Thomas or Henry] Bromfield, and a Mr. Harrison. Sellers, Patience Wright, 64–65. Sosin, Agents and Merchants, 175–176. “the future …”: PRO PRO 30/8/97, 260–61.

29. 29. Patterson, Political Parties, 82. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 317–318. “to pay …”: JCC, 1: 114.

30. 30. “has had …” “persons …” “have been …”: Winslow, 100.

31. 31. PRO CO 5/247, 186. Memorial of Court of Directors to Lord Dartmouth, February 16, 1774. “of a bad Quality” “Out of Time …” “and so often refused” “could …”: PRO PRO 30/8/97, 261. “Damagd …” “not merchantable” “Many …”: Charles Coleman Sellers, Patience Wright, 65. “three …” “mouldy …”: PAG, February 9, 1774. Labaree, Tea Party, 335. DAR, 7: 46. There was no discussion then, or since, about the security merchants who had guaranteed the Company’s tea shipments could be asked to pay for the lost cargo.

32. 32. The teas would have been several years older than the usual shelf life of black and green teas today. Green tea oxidizes as it ages, and so the greens would likely have tasted blackish. Yet what “normal” bohea or hyson was thought to taste like remains unclear, making it hard to determined how different these teas would have seemed.

33. 33. “most,” “silent approval”: Labaree, Tea Party, 144.

34. 34. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 187–188. O’Shaughnessy, Empire Divided, 129. “lenity”: Thomas, Townshend Duties, 258. The Company’s losses included £9659 6s 4d for the tea in Boston, £1168 10s 3d in shipping costs and damages for the Philadelphia tea, and £1458 4s 9d for New York. DAR, 7: 46, 280. DAR, 8: 72–73. PRO CO 5/115 f37–39. Porteous Riots: Phillips, 1775, 251. “rotten and useless” “damp cellar”: Cobbett, Parliamentary History of England, 17: 1180. Rumors of the Charleston tea being destroyed by damp continued in the colonial press in 1774. Tea Act: PHL, 9: 421 n 2.

35. 35. Berkin, Jonathan Sewall, 101. Massachusetts Government Act, 1774, 14 Geo. 3, c. 45. art. V, VIII. Adair and Schutz, eds., Peter Oliver’s Origins & Progress, 114. Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, 42–43.

36. 36. Coleman, Thomas McKean, 88. The Reed correspondence lasted from December 1773 to February 1775. Reed, ed., Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, 1 (1847).

37. 37. “ringleaders …”: DAR, 7: 58. March 9, 1774. Whitehall. Dartmouth to Gov Hutchinson. Carter, ed., The Correspondence of General Thomas Gage, 2: 161. “one thing …” “punishment …”: Donoughue, British Politics, 62. “difficult …” “in the ordinary …” “there is a probability …” “a very necessary …” “prejudices of the people” “disgraceful”: PRO CO 5/763 f79–80. Dartmouth named individuals sometimes only by a surname, and sometimes with a misspelling, indicating the striking ignorance of personages and facts around which charges of treason were considered.

38. 38. “not yet favorable”: DAR, 8: 137. Gage furnished Oliver with the Attorney and Solicitor General’s reports on the February 5 narrative, which included Dartmouth’s interrogatories and their replies. Carter, ed., Correspondence of General Thomas Gage, 1: 358–359. “tho’ …” “the usurpation …” “free and impartial …” “the chief thing wanting” PRO CO 5/763 f212–213. “thousands” “spectators of it” “only one …”: Gage, “Queries of George Chalmers, with answers of General Gage …,” 371. It is unclear who this witness was. Adair and Schutz, eds., Peter Oliver’s Origins & Progress, 114. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 224.

39. 39. “obedience …” Dartmouth, 1: 358. Dartmouth to Gage, August 3, 1774. “Civil government …” DAR, 8: 181. September 2, 1774 Boston Gage to Dartmouth. “civil authority …”: DAR, 8: 191. Benjamin Hallowell to Grey Cooper, September 5, 1774. Adair and Schutz, eds., Peter Oliver’s Origins & Progress, 117–118, 152–153. York, ed., Henry Hulton, 178. “no Obedience”: Suffolk Resolves. http://www.masshist.org/database/696. “refuse obedience to the law”: Dartmouth, 1: 365 Dartmouth to Gage, October 17, 1774. “This is very …”: Brown, Revolutionary Politics, xvi.

40. 40. “the general sense …”: Gray, “The two congresses cut up …,” 4–5. Boston Town Records, 173. “the revenge …” Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 221. Cunningham, ed., Letters and Diary of John Rowe, 8, 256, 278. On merchant meetings, see “The merchants and traders of this town …” May 24, 1774. Rowe owned one of the tea ships but not the tea. He served on a committee in December 1773 to determine a Patriotic response to the tea’s arrival. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 152. He is sometimes credited with suggesting the tea be thrown in the water. Drake, Tea Leaves, lxiii. Patterson, Political Parties, 76.

41. 41. “many among us …” “though he urged …”: Sargent, ed., Letters of John Andrews, 16. Patterson, Political Parties, 76. Labaree, Tea Party, 222. Boston Town Records, 174–176.

42. 42. Boston Town Records, 175. Griffin, Old Brick, 153. Patterson, Political Parties, 79. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 315. “whose importance …”: Gray, “The two congresses cut up,” 5.

43. 43. “disavowed” “lawless” “outrage” “yet considering …”: Stark, Loyalists of Massachusetts, 123–125. Patterson, Political Parties, 76–78. 4 Am Arch, 1: 361–363. “all the Colonies …”: Boston Post-Boy, May 16, 1774.

44. 44. Signers who advertised tea: Benjamin Davis, Gilbert Deblois, William Jackson, James Perkins, both Isaac Winslows. Sometimes described as written by merchants, the address was written by merchants and others. 4 Am Arch, 1: 362–364. Patterson, Political Parties, 79. “Whereas a great number of people …” Evans. 13767.

45. 45. “We have found …” “their own …” “not buying …”: Thomas and Peach, eds., The Correspondence of Richard Price, 1: 170. Emphasis original. Patterson, Political Parties, 80–81. Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 198.

46. 46. “wanting to pay …”: Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 194. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 225. Cunningham, ed., Letters and Diary of John Rowe, 276–277. Carter, ed., Correspondence of General Thomas Gage, 1:358–359. Boston Town Records, 176–178. “not one” “unanimity”: Boston Gazette, June 20, 1774. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 218, 236. Compare 4 Am Arch, 1: 429–430. Patriot members of the General Court may have discussed repayment of the tea by day to decoy conservatives, then discussed congressional delegates with committeemen by night. Tea repayment is not mentioned in Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts for May or June 1774. Alden, General Gage in America, 207. Tradesmen, meeting on June 15, were divided on the issue. (Cunningham, ed., Letters and Diary of John Rowe, 275)

47. 47. “that the Inhabitants …” “to sell …”: IOR B/90, 200. They had previously updated the Company in June (IOR B/90, 117).

48. 48. “silly”: 4 Am Arch, 1: 430.

49. 49. “controversy” “constitutional liberty”: Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 344. Ryerson, The Revolution Is Now Begun, 43. Doerflinger, Vigorous Spirit, 194. Champagne, Alexander McDougall, 52. “weighty …” “it would …” “agreed by most” “Restitution” “ought to be made”: Jensen, Maritime Commerce, 214.

50. 50. “an Invasion …” Rutland, ed., The Papers of George Mason, 1: 205, 210. Ragsdale, Planter’s Republic, 191–193. “I truly hope …” PHL, 9: 392. “an American cause” “from five …” PHL, 9: 387–388. McDonough, Christopher Gadsden and Henry Laurens, 135–136 n 11. PHL, 9: 389–92, 414–15. “at most a trespass” “healed …”: PHL, 9: 392. “must be paid for” “I say must …”: PHL, 9: 387–388.

51. 51. “what every …” “that you regard …” “pay for …” “ought to …” “virtue …” “hint given you” “have induced …” “are indeed …”: Massachusetts Gazette, July 14, 1774.

52. 52. “conscientious Americans”: “Address to the People of Boston.” June 27, 1774. 4 Am Arch, 1: 487–489. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 261.

53. 53. “chastisement …” “intimidation …” “suffering …”: DAR, 8: 142. Lee: Ford, ed., Letters of William Lee, 1: 87. “wasted” “now Say …”: Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 221. “it should be granted …”: Mays, Pendleton Biography, 1: 272. “warranted” “we know not …” “have made …”: Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 311. “we shall not …” “despotick Measures” “cause of Boston …”: Abbot, ed., The Papers of George Washington. Colonial Series, 10: 96. “UNITED …”: Virginia Gazette (Rind), July 28, 1774.

54. 54. “more an hand …”: Griffin, Old Brick, 154.

55. 55. Gervais: PHL, 9: 533.

56. 56. Quotations: “Address to the People of Boston.” June 27, 1774. 4 Am Arch, 1: 487–489. Emphasis original.

57. 57. “1. Because …”: BF to William Franklin PBF, 21: 287. September 7, 1774.

58. 58. SCG, June 27, 1774. PRO CO 5/763 f196. Coleman, Thomas McKean, 137. “We will …” “not pay …”: Walsh, ed., Writings of Christopher Gadsden, 95, 99. Breen, American Insurgents American Patriots, 110–127.

59. 59. Norfolk Intelligencer, March 9, 1775. Hamilton, John Ettwein, 146. “Minutes of the Committee of Safety of Bucks County,” 268. Scott, “Tory Associators of Portsmouth,” 508. “Their bountiful …” “Waggons …” “The cause …”: Thomas and Peach, eds., Correspondence of Richard Price, 1: 171–172. Marston, King and Congress, 318.

60. 60. “daily bread”: Thomas and Peach, eds., Correspondence of Richard Price, 1: 201.

61. 61. Boyle, “Boyle’s Journal of Occurrences,” 5–28.

62. 62. Marston, King and Congress, 71, 318. 4 Am Arch, 1: 551–552, 587–602, 624–625. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 353, 357. Though recently returned from England, Adams had already signed the May 27, 1774, Virginia declaration against the Coercive Acts (“Association of the Members of the Late House of Burgesses.” “Americans” “undoubtedly …”: VMHC Thomas Adams Papers. Thomas Adams to Thomas Hill, June 22, 1774.

63. 63. Lee Papers, 1: 126. Thomas Gamble to Charles Lee, July 1, 1774. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 407. “opinion …”: DAR, 8: 151. Gage to Dartmouth, Boston July 20, 1774. “might prevail …”: Upton, Revolutionary Versus Loyalist, 46. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 394. “accommodation”: DAR, 8: 222. “without …” Carter, ed., Correspondence of General Thomas Gage, 1:380.

64. 64. “expressly justify”: LDC, 1: 133. Scribner, 1: 233. Ragsdale, Planter’s Republic, 205. In New York’s case the boycott was to fight the tea tax. Ranlet, New York Loyalists, 46. Willard, Letters on the American Revolution, 4–5.

65. 65. “proposal to pay …”: Winslow, 109. Carter, ed., Correspondence of General Thomas Gage, 1:391 Boston. January 27, 1775. Gage to Dartmouth. Congressional knowledge of tea consumption: LDC, 1: 87.

66. 66. Pendleton: LDC, 1: 488–489. By this time North sought to stop trade at ports that tried to boycott Britain. “Trade of …” Boston Port Act, 1774, 14 Geo. 3, c. 19.

67. 67. “trespass” “committed …” “Even supposing …” “unauthenticated …” “persons …”: John Jay Papers, 1: 104. JCC, 1: 86.

68. 68. Barnes and Barnes, The American Revolution through British Eyes, 1: 8. PBF, 21: 366, 381, 383, 385, 444–445, 466, 492–493, 553–554. John Fothergill reported a private offer from Franklin to pay for the tea in early February (Dartmouth, 2: 266, 270). Sosin, Agents and Merchants, 208, 213, 214. “they never could …”: York, ed., Henry Hulton, 184–185. Thanks to Mary Beth Norton for this reference. Greene, History of Boothbay, 215. Bauman, Dent, et al., Lively Stones, 33–41, 58.

5. Toward Non-importation

1. 1. PRO CO 5/133, 101, 117–118.

2. 2. “it will cast …”: Egerton 2661 f6 Boston, January 7, 1774. “new tumults”: Egerton 2661 f18 Hutchinson to Court of Directors, March 19, 1774. Norton, “Seventh Tea Ship.”

3. 3. “by degrees …”: Thomas, Tea Party, 29. Thomas, Tea Party, 14, 29, 31.

4. 4. Tryon: PRO CO 5/1105 f47–48d Tryon to Dartmouth, January 3, 1774. “your property …”: PRO CO 5/133 f70. Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, 16, 22. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 90, 154–156. Labaree indicates Pigou’s son as the Company director, but see PBF, 38: 425–429 n 2. Drake, Tea Leaves, 226. Norton, 1774, 37–38.

5. 5. “declared …”: Boston Gazette, January 3, 1774.

6. 6. PRO T 1/509, 90–122. Naval Office, Antigua. Lists of entrances and clearances, October 1, 1773 to September 30, 1774. Lockyer’s arrival in Antigua on or before February 15 and at Sandy Hook on April 19 leaves time for more than twenty days in Antigua.

7. 7. Merritt, Trouble with Tea, 69.

8. 8. PRO CUST 17/1, 17/3.

9. 9. “British colonies …”: The Revenue Act (1767). Clark, “The American Board of Customs,” 781 n 20. O’Shaughnessy, Empire Divided, 81, 106, 107. Putting different parts of British America under different tea tax regimes would have encouraged smuggling. Some Antiguan planters did refuse business with a captain who had taken tea to Boston in 1773. This seems to have been after the Coercive Acts. (O’Shaughnessy, Empire Divided, 43–47, 149.)

10. 10. “acquainted,” “sentiments,” “fatality”: Rivington’s New York Gazetteer, December 23, 1773, New York Gazette, December 27, 1773, Massachusetts Gazette, December 30, 1773. Lockyer letter: Norton, 1774, 39.

11. 11. “properest …”: IOR B/89 679. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 35, 172. On the proposal to send Company tea to Nova Scotia in 1773: Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 167.

12. 12. “give all proper …”: Nova Scotia Archives. RG1 vol. 32 doc 18. Dartmouth to Legge February 5, 1774. “every other …” and “to remove …”: Thomas, Tea Party, 29. “more prudent …” Speech by Lord North, March 14, 1774. Simmons and Thomas, Proceedings and Debates, 4: 79. “insult”: DAR, 7: 36, Dartmouth to Wright, February 5, 1774. Dartmouth to Tryon, February 5, 1774. DAR, 7: 37 Dartmouth to Bull February 5, 1774. DAR, 8: 45 Dartmouth to Penn, February 5, 1774.

13. 13. “resigned”: Norton, 1774, 20. “Liberty Boys” “Secret” “we should …”: Sabine, ed., Historical Memoirs, 1: 173. PRO CO 5/133, 22–26. Norton, 1774, 20, 37–39. Lockyer payment: IOR B/90 98, 123. “ringleaders”: Simmons and Thomas, Proceedings and Debates, 4: 79. Swan: RNYG, April 7, 28, May 5, 1774. Lott sold one chest of bohea to Jacob C. Ten Eyck and another to Gerardus Beekman, both of Albany, in July 1774. (Lott, “A Journal,” 65.) Pigou was in London at this time (Godbeer, World of Trouble, 111, 124).

14. 14. Colden: DAR, 8: 108–109. Colden to Dartmouth May 4, 1774. Colden also left vague exactly when he received Dartmouth’s February 5 instructions regarding the tea, indicating that these instructions arrived after Tryon’s departure on April 7 but not whether they arrived before or after the Nancy. The directors approved further orders to consignees on February 22, 1774. Minutes of the Court of Directors mention these, as well as letters from the New York and Nova Scotia consignees, but not their content. IOR B/89, 797; B/90, 76, 85, 166. Chambers: Sabine, Historical Memoirs, 1: 184–185.

15. 15. Quotations: RNYG, April 28, 1774. August 11, 1774. NYG, April 25, 1774.

16. 16. “further orders”: PRO 5/410 Bull to Dartmouth, December 24, 1773. “be kept …” “further Orders”: Treasury Out-letter books. February 5, 1774. PRO T 28/1, 397.

17. 17. IOR B/89 717, 736. PRO T 1/509, 174-177. “other Relief”: IOR E/1/217, 76. Court of Directors, East India House to Lords Commissioners of HM Treasury. February 16, 1774.

18. 18. PRO T 29/43 f152, 154, 161. PRO T 1/509, 174–177.

19. 19. Receipt of February order in America: PRO T 29/43 f200. Quotations: PRO CO 5/396 Bull to Dartmouth, May 25, 1774.

20. 20. “Insult”: PRO CO 5/396 Dartmouth to Bull, February 5, 1774. Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, 14.

21. 21. Awareness: Massachusetts Spy March 31, 1774. NYG, April 4, 1774. “Tea Commissioners”: Pennsylvania Packet, May 23, 1774. Boston Post-Boy, May 30, 1774.

22. 22. London: 4 Am Arch, 1: 248–249. Colden to Dartmouth. May 4, 1774. Rivington’s New York Gazetteer, April 28, 1774. Mason, Road to Independence, 20–21. The second vessel appears to be the Britannia. This vessel is referred to by Timothy as Captain Ball’s Friendship (SCG, March 21, 1774) “from London and St. Augustine,” but comparing the captain and place of origin with shipping lists in the same newspaper suggests it was actually the Britannia. The Britannia, Captain Ball, arrived March 15 from St. Augustine. Timothy gives the cargo as a half-chest only, but he should be read with caution. William Gibbons advertised tea for sale in March (SCG, March 7, 1774) from the Suky and Katy, which arrived February 4, 1774 from Providence (SCG February 14, 1774). It is unclear whether the Suky and Katy tea was dutied or smuggled. The Britannia tea was likely dutied.

23. 23. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 164–167. “devoted …”: MHS Misc Bd. 1774 March 8. Nathaniel Taylor to Isaac Clarke. Many thanks to Mary Beth Norton for this reference. MHS Misc Bd. 1769 Aug 14. “An Alphabetical List of the Sons of Liberty who din’d at Liberty Tree, Dorchester.”

24. 24. New Hampshire: Maguire, ed., “Parry’s Journal,” xiv–xvi. DAR, 8: 186–197. Charleston: SCG, July 25, 1774. Chesapeake: Scribner, 3: 429 fn 16, Scharf, History of Maryland, 2: 159. Salem: PRO T 1/505, 391–396. Felt, Annals of Salem, 490. DAR, 8: 196. 4 Am Arch, 1: 783. Wroth et al., Province in Rebellion, 61, 694, 695 and documents 289, 290. It was thirty chests and three half chests. NARA (Waltham). Salem Custom House Letter Book. Salem Customs House to American Board of Customs, December 5, 1774. Annapolis: Hoffman, Spirit of Dissention, 133–135. Norton, 1774, 203–206.

25. 25. “Oblation …”: SCG, November 21, 1774. Virginia: Mason, John Norton & Sons, 368. Scribner, 2: 164. Ross: Virginia Gazette (Pinkney), December 1, 1774. Sally: CRNC, 9: 1089–1090. Greyhound: Sickler, Tea Burning Town, 38–41.

26. 26. Annapolis: Norton, 1774, 203. Portsmouth: PRO CO 5/938 Wentworth to Dartmouth, July 4, September 13, 1774. Salem: NARA (Waltham) Salem Customs House Letter Book. Salem Customs House to American Board of Customs, December 5, 1774. If the Boston consignees could have given bond that the duty would be paid elsewhere, the events of December 1773 could have proceeded quite differently in Boston; but this was another example of post–Boston Tea Party innovation on the part of customs officials. It took the destruction of the tea in Boston to make them this creative in the first place.

27. Cape Cod: Norton, “The Seventh Tea Ship,” 681–710.

28. 27. “Violent …”: Sickler, Tea Burning Town, 42. Gerlach, Prologue to Independence, 198–200. The owners of the tea shipment were Stacey Hepburn and John Duffield.

29. 28. “virtue enough …”: Seabury, Congress Canvassed, 22. Matson, Merchants & Empire, 308.

30. 29. “Upon …” “to declare …” “unanimously” “stigmatized”: Maryland Gazette, June 2, 1774. Adam Goodheart debunked the myth that Chestertown held a tea party akin to Boston’s but was unsure whether Patriots destroyed tea surreptitiously. Goodheart, “Tea & Fantasy,” 21–34.

31. 30. “E[ast] I[ndia]”: Maryland State Archives, Port of Entry Book, SE 71-1, 218. Departure date: Goodheart, “Tea & Fantasy.”

32. 31. Hodgkin: Maryland Gazette, May 19, 26, and June 16, 1774. Committee membership: Maryland Gazette, June 9, 1774.

33. 32. Hodgkin signed bills on behalf of the Maryland convention in 1776. Proceedings of the Conventions of the Province of Maryland, 88. Dating of resolves: Maryland Gazette, June 2, 1774. Coercive Acts in Maryland: Norton, 1774, 97–98.

34. 33. Maryland State Archives, Port of Entry Book, SE 71-1, 219–221. “has …”: Maryland Journal, June 11–18, 1774.

35. 34. “voluntarily”: New York Gazette, October 31, 1774. Land, Letters from America, 93, 95. Hoffman, Spirit of Dissention, 133–136. John Hancock had opposed a similar proposal to burn the Dartmouth in December 1773 (PRO CO 5/763 f95–96).

36. 35. “absurdity”: Land, Letters from America, 97. “I went to …”: Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 168. “burning …”: Sargent, ed., Letters of John Andrews, 69.

37. 36. Carroll: McWilliams, Annapolis, 90. Grahame: Hoffman, Spirit of Dissention, 134.

38. 37. Land, Letters from America, 91.

39. 38. “Americanus”: Maryland Gazette, April 13, 1775. “I should not …”: Price, ed., ‘Joshua Johnson’s Letterbook,” 157b. Papenfuse, In Pursuit of Profit, 49 n 36 notes Wallace, Davidson, and Johnson may have played a role. McWilliams, Annapolis, 78. Price indicates Wallace took a “leading part” in burning the brig; Galloway claims Wallace tried to save it. (Jacob M. Price, “Johnson, Joshua [1742–1802],” DNB. Galloway, and Ringgold, “Account of the Destruction of the Brig “Peggy Stewart,’ ” 250.) “scarce …”: Land, Letters from America, 98.

40. 39. Maryland Gazette, April 13, 1775. Maryland State Archives, Port of Entry Book, SE 71-1, 219. Maryland State Archives, Wallace, Davidson, and Johnson order books, 330, 356, 385, 458. “not to be …”: Charles Carroll of Carrollton to Wallace, Davidson, and Johnson January 8, 1775 in Hoffman, ed., Dear Papa, Dear Charley, 2: 778.

41. 40. PRO CUST 17/2 and CUST 17/3. Shipments of British goods to the thirteen colonies increased from £1.777 million to £2.336 million, 1773–1774. Shipments to colonies outside the Association, such as Quebec and Jamaica, did not substantially change. Shipments to New York increased 82 percent, to Pennsylvania 63 percent. “I learned …”: “A Real Associator,” Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon), December 15, 1774. Gage: Matson, Merchants & Empire, 307. Rodney and Frank: Marston, King and Congress, 120–121.

42. 41. Boyd: Maryland Gazette, September 29, 1774.

43. 42. Fichter, “Collecting Debts,” 200.

44. 43. “Great Stock of Goods” “Interest” “become a Burthen”: Guttridge, ed., “Letters of Richard Champion,” 30. Richard Champion to Willing Morris & Co. May 30, 1774. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 473–474. “have imported …”: Seabury, Free Thoughts, 12. “Stocks have risen …”: Pauline Maier, The Old Revolutionaries, 99–100.

45. 44. 4 Am Arch, 1: 248–249. Lt. Gov Colden to Dartmouth. May 4, 1774. “numerous …”: DAR, 8: 224. Lt Gov Colden to Dartmouth, November 2, 1774. “a small …”: Virginia Gazette (Rind), August 25, 1774. Enforcement: PRO T 1/513, 12, 24–26, 38–39.

46. 45. Dartmouth, 2: 227. James Ireland to Dartmouth, September 30, 1774. DAR, 7: 182. Extract of letter dated Boston August 31, 1774. DAR, 7: 193 Emmanuel Mathias to Earl Suffolk, October 14, 1774. DAR, 7: 199. Dartmouth to Admiralty, November 1, 1774. DAR, 7: 207 November 1, 1774. Extract of letter from Mr. De Laval to Earl of Suffolk. Dartmouth, 2: 233. Emanuel Mathis to Earl of Suffolk, November 15, 1774. DAR, 7: 215. Extract of letter from Hamburg, November 22, 1774. Huibrechts, “Swampin’ Guns,” 179. “a mask”: DAR, 7: 243 Sir Joseph Yorke to Earl Suffolk, January 6, 1775. “North America,” “intervals”: PRO CO 5/138 f430. Extract of a letter from M. De Laval to Earl of Suffolk, November 1, 1774.

47. 46. DAR, 7: 239 October 30, 1774. Vice Admiral Samuel Graves to Philip Stevens. “to meet …”: Dartmouth, 2: 227. James Ireland to Dartmouth, September 30, 1774. Rumors to the same effect were cheered on in Virginia. Virginia Gazette (Pinkney), December 22, 1774. Augur, The Secret War of Independence, 22. Phillips, 1775, 305. Huibrechts, “Swampin’ Guns,” 180. Tea Party chest count: Fichter, “The Tea That Survived the Boston Tea Party,” note 1.

48. 47. “trifling”: Huibrechts, “Swampin’ Guns,” 172. Davies, DAR, 8: 246. Magra, The Fisherman’s Cause, 161–176. Phillips, 1775, 305. PRO T 1/513, 20. CRI, 1: 519. “New England”: Winterthur. Vernon family records. Folder 8. Bill of Lading from Scott and Fraser, August 31, 1774. 4 Am Arch, 4: 1695. December 22, 1774.

49. 48. “the colonists …”: Lee Papers, 1: 168. Lee to Constantine John Phipps. 1773–74. “honestly smuggled”: John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 6, 1774. Butterfield, ed., Adams Family Correspondence, 1: 129–30. “Sawney Sedition” “published …”: “To the Agents of Their High Mightinesses the Dutch East India Company, at St. Eustatia,” New York Broadside, October 28, 1773 in Granger, Political Satire, 59.

50. 49. Amor Patriae: Maryland Journal, June 11–18, 1774. This price spike does not appear in the Glassford records; see appendix C. “at Half the Price”: Randolph and Nicholas, Considerations, 28.

51. 50. “authentick Lists”: UVa. Papers of the Lee Family, 1750–1809. MSS 38–112 box 4. George Washington to Richard Henry Lee. August 9, 1774. “observe …”: “Articles of Association.” Fichter, “Collecting Debts.” Rao, National Duties, 45–46.

52. 51. Norton, “The Seventh Tea Ship,” 694. Newport Mercury, February 14, 1774. A minority of advertisements mentioned tea had arrived from a particular port, implicitly marking it as “English” or “Dutch.”

53. 52. Fichter, So Great a Proffit, 14. Baldwin: Mass Spy, December 23, 1773 to January 20, 1774.

54. 53. Matson, Merchants & Empire, 306. “All …” “is smuggled …”: Seabury, Free Thoughts, 10. Knollenberg, ed., Correspondence of Governor Samuel Ward, 24. “Agreement” “NO TEAS”: SCG March 28, 1774. An exception was made for tea ordered before December 7, 1773.

55. 54. “any kind …”: Boyd, ed., Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1: 108. “tea of any kind”: “Association of the Virginia Convention.” “with a Caution …” “this proves …”: SCG, November 21, 1774. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 526. Maier, “Charleston Mob,” 180–181.

56. 55. PRO CUST 17/1, 17/3, 16/1. John J. McCusker, “Tea exported from England, by importing colony: 1761–1775.”

57. 56. On survival of Salem letter books and loss of other Salem and Boston customs records: Webber, “Lost Customs Records.”

58. 57. NARA (Waltham) Salem Custom House Letter Book. Salem Customhouse to Board of Commissioners, June 8, 1774, February 10, 1775. Essex Gazette, June 14, 1774. “Extracts from the Interleaved Almanacs of William Wetmore of Salem, 1774–1778,” EIHC, 43 (1907), 116. PRO T 1/505, 342-343. Commissioners of Customs to Treasury, September 20, 1774. Raphael, First American Revolution, 142. Felt, Annals of Salem, 2: 197. Winslow, 105–106, 112.

59. 58. SCG, July 25, 1774, September 19, 1774.

60. 59. “as a mart …”: DAR, 7: 183. PRO CUST 17/1, 17/2, 17/3.

61. 60. “no proper …” “platform …” “great want” “Coasting Schooners”: PRO CO 5/115 f19–20. Volo, Blue Water Patriots, 38.

62. 61. PRO CUST 17/2, 17/3, 17/4. Innis., ed., Diary of Simeon Perkins, 118–120. Norton, 1774, 67. Labaree, 173–174. IOR B/89, 743.

63. 62. “When Quebec …”: Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 172. PRO CUST 17/2, 17/3.

64. 63. PRO CUST 17/1, 17/2, 17/3.

65. 64. Kerr, “The Merchants of Nova Scotia,” 20. “unjust and oppressive”: Legge to Dartmouth. Halifax September 20, 1774. Nova Scotia Archives. RG1 vol. 44 doc 45. Kerr, Maritime Provinces, 56. A. A. Mackenzie, “FILLIS, JOHN,” in DCB. Boston Evening Post, August 15, 1774. Truckman James Crayton carried the twenty-seven chests to the storage offered by Robert Campbell. “against his principles”: Kerr, “Merchants of Nova Scotia,” 30.

66. 65. “unwelcome …” “the same spirit …”: Sargent, ed., Letters of John Andrews, 45. “regularly landed”: NARA (Waltham). Salem Custom House Letter Book, Halifax Customs to Boston Customs, September 14, 1774.

67. 66. “prejudiced” “the Governor …”: Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 169. Kerr, “Merchants of Nova Scotia,” 30–31. “persons …” “disorder”: DAR, 8: 199 Legge to Dartmouth September 20, 1774.

68. 67. Earlier shipments: Mancke, Fault Lines of Empire, 95. Innis, ed., Diary of Simeon Perkins, 83. Hurd, History of Plymouth, 142. Boston Post-Boy, September 26, 1774. Boston Evening Post, October 3, 1774. Mass Spy, October 6, 1774. Massachusetts newspapers indicate this tea came from Halifax; Perkins indicates Liverpool. “to buy Tea’ “and carry …”: Boston Gazette, October 3, 1774. Tea may have been imported by Captain [James] Donnel[l] for his uncle, Jonathan Sayward. Boston Evening Post, October 3, 1774. Boston Post-Boy, September 26, 1774. Sayward gives the tea as from Newfoundland. Banks, History of York, Maine, 1: 386. “two days later …”: Ernst, New England Miniature, 76.

69. 68. Barnes, “Francis Legge,” 425–429. Nova Scotia Archives, RG1 Calendar vol. 32. Dartmouth to Legge. July 1, 1775. Nova Scotia Archives. RG1 vol. 44 doc 38. Mfm 15234. Legge to Dartmouth, July 6, 1774. Fischer, “Revolution without Independence,” 99, 111, 122. Cahill, “The Treason of the Merchants,” 69. Barnes, “Francis Legge,” 420–447.

70. 69. “without …”: Maguire, “Parry’s Journal” xiv. “quite unexpected” “Part of …”: SCG, July 25, 1774 emphasis original. “an entire Stranger …”: SCG, November 21, 1774. Maier, “Charleston Mob,” 180–181.

71. 70. “acquainted …”: 4 Am Arch, 1: 703–704. Scharf, History of Maryland, 2: 159. Virginia Gazette (Rind), September 1, 1774.

72. 71. “he relied …” “submitted”: 4 Am Arch, 1: 704–705. Emphasis original. PRO CUST 16/1.

73. 72. “submitted …” 4 Am Arch, 1: 704–705. Sullivan, Disaffected, 34.

74. 73. “thanks” “candid …”: 4 Am Arch, 1: 705. Wertenbaker, Father Knickerbocker Rebels, 34. Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon), May 5, 1774. Mason, Road to Independence, 20. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 167.

75. 74. “his life”: RNYG, April 28, 1774. Mason, Road to Independence, 21. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 167. “agitated”: DAR, 7: 175. Maguire, “Parry’s Journal,” xiv–xvi. “promised …” “Stranger” “the Sense …” “since he …”: SCG, July 25, 1774. Emphasis original. PHL, 9: 524, 527 n 2. Fraser, Charleston!, 138. Maitland, Curling, and Urquhart all did the Charleston-London run, were all familiar with Charleston tea politics, and in that sense should have “known better.” Each got caught with tea on board once, but only once.

76. 75. PHL, 9: 525.

77. 76. SCG, July 25, September 19, 1774. The customs collector seized and stored the Briton’s tea under the exchange as Maitland’s. The Briton left on August 18 without incident. PHL, 9, 438 n 6. The Patriots’ July 6–8 meeting, called in response to the Coercive Acts, stirred up Charlestonians while Maitland was in port. Fraser Jr., Patriots Pistols and Petticoats, 58.

78. 77. “had no …”: SCG, July 25, 1774. “I am unwilling …” Maguire, “Parry’s Journal,” xiv.

79. 78. Maguire, ed., “ Parry’s Journal,” vii, ix, xix, l. DAR, 7: 175. “recover” “esteem” “friends …” “not the least …”: Virginia Gazette (Purdie), May 12, 1775. 4 Am Arch, 1: 965. Moses Robertson reported in June 1775, the “Tea Affair Seems to have blown Over” (Mason, John Norton and Sons, xxix–xxx, 381). Norton had lived in Virginia for two decades, married a Virginian, and served in the House of Burgesses. His son married the daughter of the colonial treasurer. Evans, Thomas Nelson, 42. Ragsdale, A Planter’s Republic, 224–225. Price, “Who Was John Norton?,” 406 n 35. Scribner, 2: 164 n 2. Fichter, “The Mystery of the ‘Alternative of Williamsburg’ ”; Fichter, “Collecting Debts.”

80. 79. “to make …”: Adams Family Papers. Diary of John Adams, March 7, 1774. Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 184. “inhabitants …” “into …” “highly approve …”: Virginia Gazette, November 24, 1774 (Pinkney). “committed …”: 4 Am Arch, 1: 965. Marston, King and Congress, 127. Thomas Nelson’s biographer agrees with Dunmore. Emory Evans, Thomas Nelson of Yorktown, 42. DAR, 8: 268.

81. 80. “surprise” “the tea …” “entirely …” “not …” “at least …”: Cushing, History of the Counties, 536–537. Gerlach, Prologue to Independence, 198–199. Smith, Freedoms We Lost, 126. Ver Steeg, “Stacey Hepburn and Company,” 1–5. Cushing, History of the Counties, 537. A new sheriff convened another, more conservative, grand jury in the autumn of 1775. It made a presentment—a statement of (potentially indictable) facts but did not indict. Smith, The Freedoms We Lost, 126.

82. 81. Norton, 1774, 203–206. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 389–392. Maier, From Resistance to Revolution.

83. 82. “presumed …”: Smith, The Freedoms We Lost, 125. Smith, “Social Visions,” 41–42. On mobs, see Wood, “Mobs in the Revolution,” 641. Lemisch, “Jack Tar in the Streets.” Schlesinger, “Political Mobs and the American Revolution.” Aptheker, American Revolution, 81. Plebian crowds came into greater conflict with Patriot elites in 1775 and 1776. McDonnell, The Politics of War. Ryerson, The Revolution Is Now Begun. Steven Rosswurm, Arms, Country, and Class.

84. 83. “three hearty …”: SCG, November 21, 1774. “direct action …”: Maier, “Charleston Mob,” 180–181. Steedman, “Charleston’s Forgotten Tea Party,” 251. Scribner, 2: 159–160. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 302–303. “two Drums …” “a number of Men …”: Wroth et al., Province in Rebellion, 527. Governor Wentworth blamed three “mariners” for rallying people with drums to destroy tea and its ship. (DAR, 8: 139.)

85. 84. “keep the tea …”: Virginia Gazette (Pinkney), December 1, 1774. “lives were threatened”: Benson, “Wealth and Power in Virginia, 1774–1776,” 166. Crary, Price of Loyalty, 59. “spoke …”: National Library of Scotland, Charles Steuart Papers MSS #5028 f287r. [James Parker] to Charles Steuart, November 27, 1774. Special Thanks to Mary Beth Norton for this reference. Ragsdale, Planter’s Republic, 228.

86. 85. “What …”: Smith, The Freedoms We Lost, 125. “Sons of Anarchy” “horrid Crime …”: Egerton 2659 149 Peter Oliver Jr. to Mrs. Elisha Hutchinson. May 26, 1775. “Committee …”: PHL, 9: 525. PRO AO 13/133 March 25, 1784. Sarah was Richard Maitland’s wife. Maguire, “Parry’s Journal,” xiv. “free and voluntary Offer” “at his own Cost”: SCG, July 25, 1774. “whilst some …” “our property …”: British Records Relating to America … Papers of Henry Fleming. Henry Fleming to Fisher & Bragg. Norfolk November 17, 1774. Frantz and Pencak, Beyond Philadelphia, xvii.

6. Toward Non-consumption

1. 1. “Oblation …”: SCG, November 21, 1774. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 525. Shaw, Rituals of Revolution, 204–226. Gilje, “Republican Rioting,” 204–205.

2. 2. Boston Evening Post, November 10, 1774. “Brethren …” “overlooked”: SCG, November 21, 1774. Cogliano, “Deliverance from Luxury,” 15–28. Paul A. Gilje, “Republican Rioting,” 204–205.

3. 3. Cogliano, No King, No Popery.

4. 4. All quotations: SCG, November 21, 1774. Steedman, “Charleston’s Forgotten Tea Party,” 254–259.

5. 5. But not too low: boys, not slaves, collected the tea. Shaw, Rituals of Revolution, 9. Gilje, Rioting in America, 48. Irvin, “Tar, Feathers,” 197–238. Thomas S. Wermuth “The Central Hudson Valley,” in Tiedemann and Fingerhut, The Other New York, 132. Withington, Toward a More Perfect Union, 228.

6. 6. Mentor: Newport Mercury, February 14, 1774.

7. 7. “thirteen …” Adams, ed., Works of John Adams, 10: 283. Loughran, Republic in Print, 9, 33–103. Gould, “The South Carolina and Continental Associations,” 32.

8. 8. Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 168 argues these resolves signaled popular support for radicalism. It is unclear when Boston’s ban was practically effective. The Boston committee thought the tea boycott was effective by May, but Boston still appointed a committee to enforce the Continental Association in December. Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 189. Wroth et al., Province in Rebellion, 95. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 301.

9. 9. Raphael, A People’s History, 48. “total disuse of tea …”: “An oration: delivered March 5, 1774 …” Early American Imprints, Series 1, no. 14097, 19. “renounce consumption”: DAR, 7: 130. Wroth, Province in Rebellion, 34. “total disuse”: Lincoln, ed., Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, 26. Wroth, Province in Rebellion, 85.

10. 10. “enquire if …”: Wroth, Province in Rebellion, 1303. Ibid., 778, 946. Norton, “Seventh Tea Ship.” Cf. Hoerder Crowd Action, 268.

11. 11. “have nothing to do …”: Newport Mercury, February 14, 1774. “Drank Coffee” “they …”: Farish, ed., Fithian, 147. Groce Jr., “Eliphalet Dyer,” 298. Caroline, Dunmore, Essex, Gloucester, Isle of Wight, Richmond, and Westmoreland Counties. Main, ed., Rebel versus Tory, 24–25. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 369. 4 Am Arch, 2: 76. Harwell, ed., Committees of Safety of Westmoreland and Fincastle, 30. “all persons …”: CRNC, 9: 1046.

12. 12. DAR, 7: 160. “boys and sailors” “who had tea …” “entirely”: DAR, 8: 169. Scott, “Tory Associators of Portsmouth,” 508. Boston Gazette, January 23, 1775, New-Hampshire Gazette, January 20, 1775. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 484–485.

13. 13. Newport Mercury, January 24, 1774. “As for Tea …”: Riley, ed., Journal of John Harrower, 56. “gave a ball …”: Cresswell, Journal, 28. LoC, Reynolds papers, William Reynolds to Samuel Rogers, August 16, 1774. “I have not drunk …” Riley, ed., Journal of John Harrower, 73.

14. 14. “prodigious shouts” “drinking …” “went …”: Andrews: Sargent, ed., Letters of John Andrews, 13. “16 Pounds …” “Send …”: Sheffield City Archives, Vassall Letterbooks. William Vassall Sr. to James Syme January 7, 1774. Massachusetts Spy, December 30, 1773. “Liberty Matters”: Miller and Riggs, eds., Journal of Dr. Elihu Ashley, 72. Matson, Merchants & Empire, 305–307. Pennsylvania Packet, April 11, 1774. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 434 n 1. Lott, “Journal,” 65–74. “coffee …”: Sargent, ed., Letters of John Andrews, 41. Ibid., 29. LVa. Allason Papers, Misc. Reel 1373. Inventories of Goods on hand October 1, 1773 and September 10, 1774. “Drank Tea …”: Cresswell, Journal, 45. CRI, 1: 383.

15. 15. “three or four”: Yale University Library, Beinecke Library, Medad Rogers Diary, December 24, 1774. Roche, Colonial Colleges, 61. Peckham, “Collegia Ante Bellum,” 58. “Number of Families …”: Newport Mercury, February 14, 1774.

16. 16. Glickman, Buying Power, 39, 49. “What Good”: Norton, 1774, 60. “already in …” “the Overflowing …”: Scribner, 1: 215. “never to purchase …”: CRNC, 9: 1038–1041. Norton, “Seventh Tea Ship,” 689, 696, 702, 706. “any kind …”: Wroth, Province in Rebellion, 1326, 1324.

17. 17. Roth, “Tea Drinking,” 67, 78. Quotations: Farish, ed., Fithian, 189, 257. Travel: Ibid., 131, 144, 273.

18. 18. “tolled the bell” “many spirited resolves” “to show …”: PUL. Beatty Collection. Box 1 Folder 5. AM 1590. Charles Beatty to Enoch Green, January 31, 1774. “Officers and Students”: Gerlach, Prologue to Independence, 197–198. Wertenbaker, Princeton, 57.

19. 19. Beatty, ed., “Beatty Letters,” 231 Charles Beatty to Erkuries Beatty, February 23, 1774. “spent …”: PUL. Beatty Collection Box 1 Folder 5 Folder Precis p. 2. Beatty, ed., “Beatty Letters,” 233 n 11. “fine frolick” “all drest …” “who used …” “made him …” “I am …”: Beatty, ed., “Beatty Letters,” 235, Charles Beatty to Erkuries Beatty, June 8, 1774.

20. 20. “lawful …”: John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 6, 1774. Butterfield, ed., Adams Family Correspondence, 1: 129–130.

21. 21. Irvin, Clothed in Robes of Sovereignty, 39. John Adams diary, Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive, August 21, 22 1774. “never …” “acquitted”: Ellis and Evans, History of Lancaster, 35–36, 369. The Lockharts also furnished lead balls and powder to their local committee. FO. Diary of George Washington October 22, 1774. “drank Tea”: CRNC, 9: 1066.

22. 22. Scribner, 1: 215.

23. 23. “a Dignity …”: Fichter, So Great a Proffit, 11. “amidst …”: Boston Evening Post, January 24, 1774. “small …”: York, ed., Hulton, 158. “conspicuous non consumption”: Smith, The Freedoms We Lost, 101.

24. 24. Brooke, “Consumer Virtues in Revolutionary America?” 336. Breen notes “coercive settings” in Marketplace of Revolution, 296. “they say …”: Berkin, Revolutionary Mothers, 23.

25. 25. “burnt …”: Carter, ed., The Correspondence of General Thomas Gage, 1: 391. “so far …” “he put …”: Boston Gazette, January 23, 1775. Smith, “Social Visions,” 46.

26. 26. “raging …”: Maguire, “Parry’s Journal,” xlvi–xlvii. “Committees …”: Cresswell, Journal, 43–44. Mays, Pendleton Biography, 1: 304.

27. 27. “a great number …” “not to …” “utter inability …”: Boston Evening Post, August 15, September 12, 1774. “much against …” “Tea is sold there”: New York Gazette, August 1, 1774. “Spirit of Liberty”: Boston Evening Post, September 12, 1774. “inhabitants in general …” “tea has been …”: Kerr, “Merchants of Nova Scotia,” 30–31. Kerr, Maritime Provinces, 58. Sargent, ed., Letters of John Andrews, 45. “small” “Inhabitants are but few”: Nova Scotia Archives, RG1 vol 44 doc 47 Legge to Dartmouth, October 18, 1774.

28. 28. “our American …”: Boston Evening Post, August 15, 1774

29. 29. Boston Post-Boy, June 17, July 11, 1774. “Negro fellow,” “the Fellow …”: Essex Gazette, October 4, 1774. “obliged,” “contrary …”: Essex Gazette October 11, 1774. Boston: Massachusetts Spy, October 6, 1774. Special thanks to J. L. Bell for consulting on this.

30. 30. Andrews and Andrews, eds., Journal of a Lady of Quality, 155. “every ounce”: Norton, 1774, 61.

31. 31. Maguire, “Parry’s Journal,” xlvi–xlvii. There were two mobs near Georgetown. Their relationship is unclear.

32. 32. “careful …”: Drake, Tea Leaves, lxxix. “small Boats …”: Upton, “Proceedings of Ye Body Respecting the Tea,” 299. Drake, Tea Leaves, cxvi. Glickman, Buying Power, 40.

33. 33. Adair and Schutz, eds., Origins, 102. Hoerder, Crowd Action, 263. “Captain Conner” “ript …” “nearly ..” “handled …” “filled …”: Sargent, ed., Letters of John Andrews, 13. Or “O’Connor.” The spelling and mythologies of his treatment differ. Cf. Akers, Divine Politician, 166. Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride, 26. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 144. Drake, Tea Leaves, lxxvii. Young, Shoemaker, 45. Glickman, Buying Power, 40. “think themselves …”: MHS Misc Bd. 1773 Dec 31. MHS. “Tea leaves from the Boston Tea Party.” “Boston Tea Party tea in a glass bottle.”

34. 34. “Well …”: Drake, Tea Leaves, lxxiv. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 143, 145. Drake, Tea Leaves, cxxix, clix.

35. 35. Sickler, Tea Burning, 40. Gerlach, Prologue to Independence, 199. “dangerous …”: 4 Am Arch, 2: 920. “a Quantity …” “strowed …”: Boston Post-Boy, July 11, 1774. “for safe keeping”: Smith, “Biographical Sketch of Col. David Mason,” 203. Maier, “Charleston Mob,” 179.

36. 36. Versions of this story appear in Stackpole, History of New Hampshire, 4: 306 and Morison, Maritime History, 13.

37. 37. “made …” “found …”: SCG, November 21, 1774. Steedman, “Charleston’s Forgotten Tea Party,” 246, 251. Breen, Marketplace of Revolution, 327.

38. 38. “pursuing …” “were stumbled on” “to fill …”: Boston Evening Post, November 7, 1774. “contained …” Sargent, ed., Letters of John Andrews, 70. Conroy, In Public Houses, 279.

39. 39. Boston Gazette, February 14, March 7, 1774. Conroy, In Public Houses, 279. Labaree, Tea Party, 161. Providence Gazette, April 2, 1774. Norton, “The Seventh Tea Ship,” 695. “remotest …” “pedling Trader” “honest Savages”: Connecticut Gazette (New London), September 2, 1774. News came via Cohos, suggesting Haverhill, New Hampshire rather than Haverhill, Massachusetts.

40. 40. Maryland Gazette, December 22, 1774. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 507.

41. 41. “divers Persons” “proceeded …” “Harm”: Massachusetts Spy, January 13, 1774. Breen, Marketplace of Revolution, 294–296. Withington found the tea on a Saturday; it is unclear which one. (BPL, Dorchester Town Records, 3: 414.) Destruction date: Boston Gazette, January 3, 1774, Cunningham, Letters and Diary of John Rowe, 259.

42. 42. “one Common Cause” “Several Persons …” “just Indignation”: BPL: Dorchester Town Records, 3: 407.

43. 43. “old …”: Boston Gazette, January 3, 1774. “Captain …” “Labourer”: BPL Dorchester Town Records, 3: 414. “Narragansett-Indians” “consent”: Boston Gazette, January 3, 1774. “East-India Teas” BPL Dorchester Town Records, 3: 437. Career: Ibid., 406–439. The captain had already served on various committees in 1773. Without evidence, the two men are given as father and son in Breen, Marketplace of Revolution, 294–296. The genealogy, Withington, “Henry Withington,” 149–150, gives second cousins. The Gazette probably used “old” and “Captain” to disambiguate the men rather than imply parentage. (Neither the Gazette nor the town meeting used the suffixes “Sr.” and “Jr.” for these men.)

44. 44. “Satisfaction” “discovered …” “Tea said …” “deliver” “publickly posted”: BPL. Dorchester Town Meeting, 3: 414–415.

45. 45. “simple old men”: Breen, Marketplace of Revolution, 296. At 54 or 55, he was not that old: a few years older than Samuel Adams but young enough to be canny of the opportunity and move a heavy box. Age: Withington, “Henry Withington,” 149. Weights and prices calculated from Fichter, “The Tea That Survived the Boston Tea Party,” n 1, PRO CO 5/133, 89–93, Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 335. A “half chest” was a specific container. He may have had half of a half chest (one possible reading) of the cheapest tea or as much as a proper half chest of hyson. Boston Tea Party Ship Museum, https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/partners/a-box-worth-keeping.

46. 46. “Marshes” “if …”: BPL. Dorchester Town Records, 3: 414–415. “below …”: Boston Gazette, January 3, 1774.

47. 47. Rowe gives “half [of] a chest” (Cunningham, Letters and Diary of John Rowe, 259). The Gazette gave “a Chest” and “a half chest” (Boston Gazette, January 3, 1774). “Some Gentlemen …” “harm” “neighbours”: BPL. Dorchester Town Records, 3: 414. York, ed., Hulton, 157. Massachusetts Spy, January 6, 13, 1774.

48. 48. Merchants’ buyback: Massachusetts Spy, December 30, 1773. Town buyback: Brown, Revolutionary Politics, 168.

49. 49. Ragsdale, Planter’s Republic, 193. “publickly burn’d”: Rutland, ed., George Mason, 1: 205.

50. 50. Quotations: Newport Mercury, February 7, 1774. Westerly, Rhode Island, Town Meeting Minutes. February 2, 1774.

51. 51. “Ordered …” “Proceedings of the Committees of Safety of Caroline and Southampton Counties,” 128. Mays, Pendleton Biography, 1: 300–301. “all …” “is …”: SCG, April 3, 1775. “ to be …” 4 Am Arch, 1: 705. Virginia Gazette, (Rind) September 1, 1774. “deliver …” Norfolk Intelligencer, January 19, 1775. 4 Am Arch, 4: 1695, 1724–1725. Likewise, John Ferguson and Robert Peter offered to hand over tea from the Mary and Jane, were it landed. Virginia Gazette (Rind), September 1, 1774.

52. 52. Labaree, Patriots & Partisans, 37. “Intend …” “to sell …” “general Association: Scribner, 7: 747.

53. 53. Huntington Library. Tea Permits. Special thanks to Mary Beth Norton for this reference. “Secrieted …”: Norton, “Seventh Tea Ship,” 703.

54. 54. Papas, That Ever Loyal Island, 28. “required …”: Potter, Liberty We Seek, 30. “Will you …” “You must …” “have ordered …” “shall be …” “open your …”: Seabury, “Free thoughts,” 17–19. “shall probably …” Seabury, “An alarm to the legislature,” 6. “Whether they drink …” Seabury, “Free thoughts” 18. “arbitrary” Seabury, “Free thoughts,” 4. “political inquisitors …”: Hulton to Robert Nicholson February 21, 1775, in York, ed., Hulton, 311. “if I …” “let it …”: Seabury, “Free thoughts,” 18.

55. 55. “one ought …” Hamilton, John Ettwein, 147. “devis’d …” “that Sp[ir]it …”: Blecki and Wulf, eds., Milcah Martha Moore’s Book, 247.

56. 56. “[W]higs …” “has been …” “melasses …” “coffee …”: Massachusettensis, “Present state of the province of Massachusetts Bay,” 83. Schaw, Journal of a Lady of Quality, 155. “mere sounds” “words king …” “the words …” “all the power …”: Calhoon, “The Character and Coherence of the Loyalist Press,” 116.

7. Truth in Advertising

1. 1. Keyes’s “A Revolution in Advertising” and “Early American Advertising Marketing and Consumer Culture in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia” are the main studies of revolutionary advertising. Keyes does not look closely at tea. E. M. Gardner’s The Business of News in England, 1760–1820 considers how ads financed the press. For the relationship between advertising and consumption in Britain, see Ferdinand, “Selling it to the provinces.”

2. 2. October to December 1773 is an imperfect baseline—campaigns against the East India Company tea had begun—but earlier times are unwieldy since advertising can be affected by season, business cycle, and newspaper availability. These three months are a least-bad control set.

3. 3. Heaton, “The American Trade,” 199.

4. 4. No newspapers were printed in Delaware, New Jersey, or the Floridas from October 1773 to June 1776. Nor were any printed in Patriot-controlled Quebec. Some ads ran for multiple weeks; there were just over 580 discrete decisions to advertise. Readex sources: American Gazette (Salem, MA), Boston Evening-Post, Boston Gazette, Massachusetts Gazette, Boston Post-Boy, Connecticut Courant (Hartford), Connecticut Gazette (New London), Connecticut Journal (New Haven), Constitutional Gazette (New York), Continental Journal (Boston), Essex Gazette (Salem, MA), Essex Journal (Newburyport, MA), Freeman’s Journal (Portsmouth, NH), Mass Spy (Boston, continued in Worcester), New-England Chronicle (Cambridge, continued in Boston), New-Hampshire Gazette (Portsmouth), Newport Mercury (RI), NYG (New York City), NYJ (New York City), Norwich Packet (CT), Pennsylvania Chronicle (Philadelphia), Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia), PAG (Philadelphia), Pennsylvania Ledger (Philadelphia), Story and Humphreys’s Pennsylvania Mercury (Philadelphia), Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia), Providence Gazette (RI), RNYG (New York City), and the Maryland Gazette (Annapolis).

Data was collected with a full-text search for “tea” among items classified by Readex as “advertisements.” This introduced classification errors (Readex may not have classed an advertisement as such) and text recognition errors. Hits were individually checked. Preceding and succeeding issues of newspapers containing tea ads were checked to see if the search missed advertisements in those weeks. The resultant perusal of newspapers yielded fewer than two dozen additional tea advertisements, allowing confidence in Readex’s search tool.

“Bohea” was also searched for. However, the first twenty sample hits for “bohea” only returned ads already found in the search for “tea.” Searches for “bohea,” hyson,” “souchong,” and “congo” or “congou” were abandoned.

The Maryland Gazette was also consulted online at the Maryland State Archives, http://aomol.msa.maryland.gov/html/mdgazette.html. All three Williamsburg-based Virginia gazettes were consulted at Colonial Williamsburg at https://research.colonialwilliamsburg.org/DigitalLibrary/va-gazettes/. Nova Scotia Gazette (Halifax), PA Jrnl (Philadelphia), Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (Baltimore), the Maryland Journal (Baltimore), Virginia Gazette, or Norfolk Intelligencer (Norfolk), North Carolina Gazette (New Bern), SCG, SCAGG, SCGCJ (all Charleston), and Georgia Gazette (Savannah), were consulted on microfilm. The fraktur typeface used for the Germantowner Zeiting (PA) and the Wöchentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote (Philadelphia) was illegible to the search engine. Issues were read individually.

If a merchant advertised in separate newspapers, the two ads are counted separately. Advertisements placed by partnerships and individual partners are counted separately. In rare instances, two versions of a newspaper were published on the same day (Newport Mercury, August 1, 1774). These are treated as one newspaper, as one version appears to be an incomplete version of the other. Sometimes (also rarely), the same ad appears twice in the same issue of the same paper, perhaps to fill space, as Gould Marsh’s tea ad in the Newport Mercury, August 1, 1774. These are treated as one ad. In counting newspaper issues, “Postscript” and “Supplement” pages are considered part of the main issue if printed on the same day or holding the same issue number as the main issue. Newspapers giving a range as publication date are taken as being published on the earlier date. The forty-six newspapers counts separately the Cambridge and Boston editions of the New-England Chronicle and the Worcester and Boston versions of the Massachusetts Spy, which papers moved in or out of Boston because of the siege.

1. 5. Norfolk Intelligencer, June 30 to July 7, 1774, July 21, 1774.

2. 6. Lewis Ogier & Co’s ad of November 22, 1774, in the SCGCJ (after the Pope’s Day celebrations that began the last chapter) lists Indian cloth from the “Company’s” auctions in London. Joseph Reed suggested that smugglers imported “calicoes, spices, and other India commodities” with Dutch tea. (Reed to Dartmouth, December 27, 1773. Reed, ed., Joseph Reed, 1, 52.) A cursory examination indicates that advertisements for East India goods persisted in Maryland longer than advertisements for tea did. Wallace, Davidson, and Johnson advertised “East-India goods” (Maryland Gazette, May 19, May 26, June 9, June 23, July 7, and August 4, 1774). Thomas Williams advertised “East-India goods” also (Maryland Gazette, June 2, June 23, July 7, and July 21, 1774). Jonathan Hudson did the same (Maryland Gazette, September 22, 1774). James Christie and John Boyd advertised East Indian spices (Christie: Maryland Gazette, August 18 and 25, 1774, Boyd: Maryland Gazette, September 19, 1774). The very vagueness of these ads renders efforts to quantify them unilluminating.

3. 7. “incurable emity …”: Sabine, 2: 503. Maryland Journal, February 13–27, 1775.

4. 8. Providence Gazette, August 13, 1774, February 18, 1775. Boston Post-Boy, May 30, 1774, September 12, 1774. Solemn League: Nash, Urban Crucible, 358. “Whereas a great number of people have express’d.…”: Boston. 1774 Evans 13767. “totally”: Egnal, Mighty Empire, 277–278.

5. 9. Davis: Sabine, 2: 359–60. Sargent, ed., Letters of John Andrews, 61. Boyle, “Boyle’s Journal,” NEHGR, 85 (Apr 1931): 123–124. Jones, Loyalists of Massachusetts, 113. Deblois: Sabine, 1: 362. Egnal, Mighty Empire, 343. Jones, Loyalists of Massachusetts, 116. “satisfaction”: “Address of the Merchants and Others of Boston to Gov. Hutchinson” Boston. May 28, 1774, in Stark, Loyalists of Massachusetts, 123–125. This address also offered to pay for the destroyed tea. Addresser: Oliver, ed., Journal of Samuel Curwen, 1: 6. Suffolk Resolves: Ammerman, In the Common Cause, 15, 26–32, 39–40, 75, 81.

6. 10. Newport Mercury, December 19, 1774. Connecticut Journal, February 2, 1775. Connecticut Courant, February 20, 1775. NYG, March 20, 1775. PA Jrnl, March 29, 1775. Newport Tories: Edelberg, Jonathan Odell, 25.

7. 11. NH sales: DAR, 8: 169. NS sales: Kerr, “Merchants of Nova Scotia,” 30–31. Nova Scotia Gazette, June 28 to July 26, 1774. Wallace: Gwyn, “Female Litigants,” 327. Only one issue of the Nova Scotia Gazette survives between November 5, 1775 and July 4, 1776. Other ads may have appeared in missing issues. New Hampshire Gazette stopped on January 7, 1776.

8. 12. “fine Spirits”: Moses Morss: Connecticut Gazette, January 28, 1774. Parker & Hutchings: SCAGG, May 6 to July 1, 1774.

9. 13. Smith, Richards: NYG, March 28, 1774. Gordon: SCG, October 25 to November 8, 1773. Marchinton: Pennsylvania Packet, January 17, 1774. Donaldson: SCAGG, April 26, May 13, 1774. Price is in South Carolina currency. 1 British shilling bought 7.25 South Carolina shillings in 1774. This made it a normal price in sterling. McCusker, How Much Is That in Real Money?, 70.

10. 14. Carmichael: Pennsylvania Packet, August 1, 1774. Waugh: Newport Mercury, November 1, 1773.

11. 15. Kingsley: SCAGG, July 15, 1774. SCGCJ, July 12, 1774.

12. 16. Newport Mercury, “To the true SONS of LIBERTY,” February 21, 1774. Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon), May 26, 1774. Georgia Gazette, September 28, 1774. Pennsylvania Packet, January 9, 1775.

13. 17. Brigham, American Newspapers, 998. Loyalists dug up the press and type to print a Gazette during the British occupation. Newport Mercury, June 12, 1858.

14. 18. Bradford: Thomas, History of Printing in America, 1: 242–243. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 94, 98, 101. Pa Jrnl, June 15, 22, July 6, 20, 27, August 17, 24, September 7, December 21, 1774; January 1, 11, February 1, 15 March 1, 8, 15, 29, 1775. Edes: ANB, s.v., “Edes, Benjamin.” Humphrey, “This Popular Engine,” 38. Boston Gazette, May 16, 1774. Printer politics: Thomas, History of Printing, 191 (Watson), 204 (Carter), 258–259 (Dunlap), 303–304 (Holt), 344–345 (Crouch). Brigham, American Newspapers, 654. Goddard: Miner, William Goddard, 147. Dixon: Reardon, Peyton Randolph, 55. Timothy: Cohen, South Carolina Gazette, 244.

15. 19. Bleecker: NYG, December 12 to 19, 1774. Champlin: Newport Mercury, October 25 to November 1, 1773. Lough, “The Champlins of Newport.” Smith, Heriot and Tucker: SCG, October 25 to November 8, 1773. Smith would soon be known as a Company tea consignee, but this advertisement was not for Company tea. Leary: NYG, January 31 to February 14, 1774. Bull: Connecticut Courant, July 10, 1775.

16. 20. Thomas: Mass Spy, December 30, 1773. Rivington: RNYG, September 2, 1774. Moore: RNYG, January 13, 1774. Camp: Connecticut Journal, March 18 to April 1, 1774. Hunter: Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon), May 12, 1774. Hoar: NYJ, August 11 to 18, 1774. Hall: Pennsylvania Evening Post, May 16, 1776.

17. 21. John Wanton: Newport Mercury, December 27, 1773 to January 10, 1774. Peter Wanton: Newport Mercury, April 11 to April 25, 1774. Taylor and Delancey: NYG, October 4, December 6, 1773. Amos and Fenn Wadsworth: Connecticut Courant, July 19 to August 2, August 23, 1774. de Peyster: RNYG, August 11–18, 1774. Countryman, People in Revolution, 98. Bache: Pennsylvania Packet, April 4, 1774. ANB, s.v. “Bache, Richard.” Higginson: Essex Gazette, November 16–23, 1773. Higginson became a Congressman at war’s end. Higginson, Stephen Higginson, 49. Otis: Boston Evening Post, October 4–25, December 20, 1773. Boston Gazette, October 4, 1773. Egnal, Mighty Empire, 341. Waters, Otis Family, 188. Woolsey: Maryland Journal, February 10, 1774. Hoffman, Spirit of Dissention, 139. Duryee: Ranlet, New York Loyalists, 191. RNYG, November 4, 1773, October 13 to 20, 1774. NYJ, September 15 to October 27, 1774, November 10 to December 1, December 22, January 5 to 26, 1775, February 9, 1775. Leavenworth: ANB, s.v. “Leavenworth, Henry.” Connecticut Journal (New Haven), November 5–26, 1773. Achincloss: New Hampshire Gazette, October 15, 1773, Scott, “Tory Associators,” 512. Cunningham: Boston Gazette, October 25 to November 1, 1773. Jones, Loyalists of Massachusetts, 105–106. Cape: SCG, October 4 to 25, November 8, 1773. Egnal, Mighty Empire, 367.

18. 22. Kingsley: SCAGG, April 26 to May 20 and June 3 to July 15, 1774, SCGCJ, April 26 to May 3, May 24, June 21, and July 12, 1774. One hundred and seventy merchants or merchant firms advertised tea from October 1773 to December 1774; counting firm members yields at least 210 individuals involved in tea advertising, almost all by name. Boston vendors: Fichter, So Great a Proffit, 14.

19. 23. Shalev, “Ancient Masks,” 163. Nicolson et al., “A Case of Identity,” 651–682.

20. 24. Palmer: Mass Spy, October 27, 1774. Literature: New Hampshire Gazette, July 22, 1774. Dropping tea: Nathaniel Sparhawk, Essex Gazette, May 17, 24, 1774. Some, such as Alexander Donaldson, also announced that their retail goods were “agreeable to the resolve of the Continental Congress.” Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, May 9, 1775.

21. 25. “Narrative of the Life of William Beadle,” 4–5, 13, 14, 28. Fishes: Connecticut Courant, March 1–8, 1774. Oliver: Adair and Schutz, eds., Origins & Progress, 103. “defiant”: Ammerman, Common Cause, 5.

22. 26. Beadle: Connecticut Courant, January 30, February 13–20, 1775. “To the Worthy Patriots of Boston” by T.: Massachusetts Gazette, February 10, 1774. Irvin, “Tar, Feathers, and Enemies of American Liberties,” reads “T’s” letter literally.

23. 27. Virginia Gazette (Pinkney), January 19, 1775. Newport Mercury, December 19, 1774. Advertisement by Gould Marsh. Lee: Charles Lee to Benjamin Rush. December 15, 1774, “Lee Papers,” 1: 143–144.

24. 28. Annapolis: Land, ed., Letters from America, 85. Scharf, Chronicles of Baltimore, 126. Frederick county: Scharf, History of Maryland, 2: 155. Provincial congress: Scharf, History of Maryland, 2: 158. This may have been meant as a guideline for a future intercolonial congress’s use. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants, 362.

25. 29. Walter Lippmann described “the manufacture of consent” as, in part, an official deciding “what facts, in what setting, in what guise he shall permit the public to know.” (Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, 248.) In later usage, “manufacturing consent” suggested that advertisers manipulated news. (Herman and Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent.) In this case the news was manipulated and the advertisers told the truth. The July 2 meeting for the “upper part” of Frederick County was held at Elizabeth Town (later Hagerstown). It included Jonathan Hager, area patriarch, which helped build support for the cause among German speakers. It was the second meeting in that county. On June 20 in Frederick Town, Maryland, the county seat, a meeting agreed to join an Association but did not mention tea. Scharf, History of Maryland, 2: 154–156.

26. 30. RNYG April 28, 1774. As Marston noted, “those colonists who did not attend the meetings, whether for reasons of apathy or disapproval” did not have their views included. Marston, King and Congress, 317.

27. 31. Williams: Maryland Gazette, November 4 to December 9, 1773, May 5 to 26, 1774. Hyde: Maryland Gazette, March 3 to May 19, 1774. Johnson: Maryland Journal, May 28 to June 11, 1774. Hodgkin: Maryland Gazette, May 19 to 26, June 16, 1774. O’Brien: Maryland Journal, June 11, July 2, 1774.

28. 32. Dorr, Annotated Newspapers, 2: introduction, iii, https://www.masshist.org/dorr/. The MHS claims Dorr covered Patriotic and Loyalist papers, but in 1774 Dorr indexed forty-four copies of the radical Boston Gazette, nine issues of the more-neutral Boston Evening Post, and one issue of the Loyalist Massachusetts Gazette. Dorr did not include issues of the Boston Post-Boy or the Massachusetts Spy from that year. Dorr noted London merchants’ offer to pay for the tea, indexed from a Patriotic story in the September 19, 1774 Boston Evening-Post. This story disputes the “wicked” claim “no offers had been made to government” for the tea. Dorr omitted disputes around whether the town of Boston should pay, though Boston papers covered these disputes. See Massachusetts Gazette, July 14, 1774, which Dorr does not index. Dorr, Annotated Newspapers, 4: 581.

29. 33. “very judiciously”: SCG, March 14, 1774. Bonneau and Wilson quote: SCG, April 4, May 16, 1774. Also ads in SCAGG, April 15 to 29, 1774. SCGCJ, April 12 & 26, 1774. Radcliffe & Shepheard: SCGCJ, April 5 to 12, 1774. “WITHOUT …”: SCG, April 25, 1774. Caps in original. “just imported …”: SCGCJ, April 26, May 3, May 24, June 21, July 12, 1774. A similar Kingsley ad appeared in SCAGG, April 26 to May 20, June 3 to July 15, 1774. Samuel Douglass & Company: Georgia Gazette, May 11 to 25, 1774.

30. 34. SCAGG, June 24, 1774. SCGCJ, June 21, 1774. SCG, June 20, 1774.

31. 35. “refused”: SCG, July 4, 1774. Donaldson ads: SCAGG, July 8, 15, 1774. On Magna Charta, see PHL, 9: 525–527. Wakefield: SCGCJ, July 12, 1774.

32. 36. “Proceedings of the Committees of Safety of Caroline and Southampton Counties,” 124. Humphrey, “This Popular Engine,” 38, 41–42, 79–81. Botein, “Meer Mechanics,” 144–145. Miner, William Goddard, 4. Botein “Printers and the American Revolution,” 17.

33. 37. Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence, 46. Davidson, Propaganda, 210. Jensen, Founding of a Nation, 128. Weir, “The Role of the Newspaper,” 119. Clark, “Early American Journalism,” 364–365. Lucas, Portents of Rebellion, 7–8, 282 n 31. Irvin, “Tar, Feathers,” 212. Broadside: PAG, December 8, 1773. Handbill quote: Hersey, “Tar and Feathers,” 458. Boston Gazette, January 31, 1774.

34. 38. Cohen, South Carolina Gazette, 11. Sellers, Charleston Business, 3. SCG, October 25 to November 8, 1773.

35. 39. Rivington: Crary, “The Tory and the Spy,” 66–67. German papers: Adams, “The Colonial German-language Press,” 165, 167, 169, Stoudt. “The German Press,” 86. Attmore and Hellings: Pennsylvania Evening Post, June 22, 1776. WPS, August 30 to September 13, 1774, June 21–28, 1776. Mason and Dorsey: Pennsylvania Packet, December 8, 1773, April 4, 18, May 9, 30, September 5, October 4, 1774. WPS, October 3, December 7 to 14, December 28, 1773, January 11 to 25, 1774. Freehauf und Wyntoop: WPS, November 16, 30, December 14, 1773. Becker: WPS June 21 to July 5, 1774. Schallus: WPS, October 19, November 9, 1773, February 15 to 22, March 15, April 26, 1774. Adams, “The Colonial German-language Press,” 170.

36. 40. Ryerson, Revolution is Now Begun, 44.

37. 41. Quotation: Cresswell, Journal, 45. The “First Newspaper in New Jersey,” the “Plain Dealer” was a hand-written series of weekly essays. Needing to post it in one location where it would be readily seen, its authors chose a tavern. Brigham, American Newspapers, 492–493. Loughran, The Republic in Print, 6, 22. Padelford, ed., Colonial Panorama, 16. Thomas, History of Printing, 242–243. Isaac, “Dramatizing the Ideology of Revolution,” 358–359. Weir, “The Role of the Newspaper in the Southern Colonies,” 134, 137. Shields, Civil Tongues, 60. Salinger, Taverns and Drinking, 56.

38. 42. Patrons who kept a tab at the One Tun Tavern in Philadelphia bought £395.02 in drinks, of which tea and coffee comprised £5.80. Most bought toddies, punch, and beer. Thompson, Rum Punch & Revolution, 71, table 3. Carp, Rebels Rising, 66. Marston kept the Golden Ball Tavern and took over the Bunch of Grapes in 1775, where the Sons of Liberty likely met and where he served tea with a fancy tea service. Conroy, In Public Houses, 257–258.

39. 43. Maier, Old Revolutionaries, 72–74. Crary, ed., Price of Loyalty, 32. Warden, “Chester County,” 2. Thompson, Rum Punch & Revolution. Shields, Civil Tongues, 57. There were also, rarely, teahouses—Abigail Stoneman ran a coffeehouse, tavern, and teahouse in Newport and Middletown, Rhode Island. Mason, Reminiscences of Newport, 179. Fraser, Charleston!, 130. Salinger, Taverns, 56, 76–82. Morelli: SCGCJ, October 19 to 26, 1773, SCG, October 4 to 18, 1773. Moore: NYJ, January 20 to February 24, 1774, NYG, January 10 to April 25, 1774, RNYG, January 13 to February 3, 1774.

40. 44. Botein “Meer Mechanics,” 146–147.

41. 45. Boston Gazette, January 3, 1774. Humphrey, “This Popular Engine,” 41–42, 96. Lucas estimates one-quarter of page space devoted to ads over this period. Lucas, Portents of Rebellion, 5. Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette was roughly 25–30 percent ads. In response to paper shortages printers cut page size and the number of columns (sometimes printing the last column sideways). Shortages affected the Pennsylvania Packet, SCG, Newport Mercury, and Maryland Journal, among others. Hawke, In the Midst of a Revolution, 48. Rogers, “The Charleston Tea Party,” 164. Lovejoy, Rhode Island Politics, 187. Miner, William Goddard, 150. Botein, “Meer Mechanics,” 150.

8. Propaganda

1. 1. Granger, Political Satire, 70. “the Northward”: Newport Mercury, February 7, 1774. “people to the Southward …”: Stevens, Facsimiles, document 2029, 5. “deceptives” “As to …”: Labaree, Tea Party, 31.

2. 2. All quotations: David Ramsay, A Sermon on Tea. For SC printing: SCGCJ, September 13–20, 1774. Reprinted by Francis Bailey in Lancaster, PA, assigned Evans number 13606.

3. 3. “highly debilitating” “relaxant” “nervous ailments” “hypochondria …”: Newport Mercury, February 28, 1774. Norton, 1774, 63. “has in the Opinion …” “ruined the Nerves” “Health” “fattened the Purse …” “save the Remains …”: SCGCJ, August 2, 1774. Jones, “Writings of the Reverend William Tennent,” 135–136. Carp, Rebels Rising, 159. “slow poison”: Butterfield, ed., Letters of Benjamin Rush, 84. “certain feminine disorders”: Norfolk Intelligencer, September 29 to October 6, 1774. “an offense …” “lost their …” “shorten your days”: Norfolk Intelligencer, October 6–13, 1774.

4. 4. “Health and Happiness”: Singleton, Social New York, 378. Dermigny, La Chine et l’Occident, 2, 621 n 6. “Paralytick Disorder” “Foltron” “slow poison”: Wesley, A Letter to a Friend, 3–4, 7, 9. Donat, “The Rev. John Wesley’s Extractions from Dr. Tissot,” 285. “pernicious …” “injurious”: Hanway, An Essay on Tea, title page, 204. “less substantial”: Shammas, The Pre-industrial Consumer, 137. “weakens …” “unbraces …”: Torr, Small Talk at Wreyland, 144. Sigmond, Tea. Gassicourt, Le thé est-il plus nuisible qu’utile?

5. 5. “scare crow stories” “Why …”: Norton, 1774, 62–63. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 164.

6. 6. “which renders …”: Ragsdale, Planter’s Republic, 177 n 7, citing Virginia Gazette (Rind), December 16, 1773. “poisonous quality” “drawn off”: Granger, Political Satire, 58–59.

7. 7. Wesley, Letter to a Friend, 5.

8. 8. “Doctors …” “rail …” “Blest”: Blecki and Wulf, eds., Milcah Martha Moore’s Book, 299. “Tea …” “or I shall dye”: Blecki and Wulf, eds., Milcah Martha Moore’s Book, 247.

9. 9. Tea as tonic discussed in Norfolk Intelligencer, September 29 to October 6, 1774. “Sickness excepted”: Norton, Liberty’s Daughters, 161, citing Boston Evening Post, February 12, 1770. “I speak not …”: Greene, ed., The Diary of Colonel Landon Carter, 2: 825. June 12, 1774. Carter’s use of the word, tea, is vague. Often by “tea” he meant herbal tisanes. This is one of the few mentions of camellia sinensis, which he had sworn off because of the Coercive Acts. “dangerous to Health” “stop suddenly” “long accustomed to”: Randolph and Nicholas, Considerations, 31. “Disorders in Health”: Adair and Schutz, eds., Peter Oliver’s Origins & Progress, 75. “poor deluded” “patriotic Husband” “sage and baum” “scoured …” “their tender bowels …” “soothing and agreeable”: Norfolk Intelligencer, August 11–18, 1774.

10. 10. Shields, Civil Tongues, 113 n 21. Kowaleski-Wallace, “Tea, Gender, and Domesticity,” 132. “cools, and allays Drought …” Mason, The Good and Bad Effects of Tea, 1–2. ‘very pernicious …”: Mason, The Good and Bad Effects of Tea, 3. Essex Southern District Medical Society, Memoir of Edward A. Holyoke, 40–41.

11. 11. “Liberty to buy” “age & bodily Infirmities …” “one of his Children …” “physicians” “Beeing sick …”: Huntington Library, Mss HM 70291-70302. Elisha Williams, Tea Permits. Special thanks to Mary Beth Norton for this reference. Ukers, All about Tea, 1: 54.

12. 12. “in a very low …”: Smith, “Biographical Sketch of Col. David Mason,” 203–204. “Doctor sell …”: Westerly, Rhode Island, Westerly Town Clerk’s Office. Town Meeting Minutes, August 9, 1774. “In behalf …” “all agreed …”: HUNTER. Lawrence Taliaferro to James Hunter Jr., March 2, 1776. Mother Judah may have been an older slave. Special thanks to Anne Causey at UVa libraries for help tracking this reference. “beged …” “got a note …” “of leave …”: Miller, ed., The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale, 1: 148, 150. Maryland Gazette, March 3 to May 19, 1774. “very ill” “permission …”: Elizabeth Catherine De Rosset to John Burgwyn [1775]. Battle, ed., Letters and Documents, 28. Norton, Liberty’s Daughters, 160.

13. 13. Elisha Williams: Huntington Library. Tea Permits. Mss HM 70292. Seth Bird, confronted for drinking tea at Solomon and Martha Cowles’s house in Connecticut, claimed to be a good Patriot who only drank tea because he had a cold. (Anderson, The Martyr and the Traitor, 87.) Young, “The Women of Boston,” 208. “were cautious enough …” “lay in large Stocks …” “could be sick …” “Evasion of Sickness” “They, poor Souls! …”: Adair and Schutz, eds., Peter Oliver’s Origins & Progress, 73. The ban on British imports, “medicines excepted,” caused a dispute in Norfolk, Virginia, when Doctor Alexander Gordon imported medicines under the provincial exception but was caught out because the Continental Association did not provide such an exception. The committee argued that Continental rules superseded provincial ones. (Norfolk Intelligencer, February 9–23, 1775.) David John Mays, Edmund Pendleton, 1: 352 n 22.

14. 14. “permits” “under pretence …” “except …”: Connecticut Courant, April 8, 1776.

15. 15. “cram …”: Truxes, “Ireland, New York, and the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World,” 30. “Bostonians …”: NYG, April 18, 1774, Massachusetts Spy, April 28, 1774. “We hear …” “in case …”: Boston Post-Boy, May 16, 1774.

16. 16. Olson, Emblems of American Community, 112, 141.

17. 17. Olson, “Pictorial Representations,” 1–2, 5, 10, 15, 19, 21, 24.

18. 18. Olson, “Pictorial Representations,” 17, 27.

19. 19. “Or Cherokee Indians …”: PHL, 10: 325. “Americans were weaned …”: Miller, Origins, 352. Berkin, Revolutionary Mothers, 20 alludes to this as well. There are no econometric data on tea and coffee consumption to back Miller up. Boston Gazette, December 20, 1773 and February 14, 1774. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 164.

20. 20. “biblical parodic satire”: Amer Chron, 29. Amer Chron, 11, 15, 18. Slauter, “Reading and Radicalization,” 14, 40.

21. 21. “And hast …”: Amer Chron, 76. “And yet …”: Amer Chron, 77. Granger, Political Satire, 69.

22. 22. “And behold! …”: Amer Chron, 51. “She that …” “made tributary …”: Amer Chron, 54. “to sell …”: Amer Chron, 63.

23. 23. “free-will offering”: Amer Chron, 70. The Peggy Stewart and Virginia were covered in chapter 5, which appeared in February 1775. Amer Chron, 38–39. “Marylandites …” “they kept a good …” “it came to pass …” “Wherefore …” “Now they were …”: Amer Chron, 70. “onward …”: Amer Chron, 71.

24. 24. “there came …”: Amer Chron, 75. Some of Leacock’s passages are meant to be read as mocking how Patriots spoke about their conduct; however, no evidence exists that these passages meant to frame Patriots as intentionally ironic.

25. 25. “Propaganda …”: Wood, “Rhetoric and Reality,” 31.