Everyone
knows the story of the Boston Tea Party—in which colonists
stormed three British ships and dumped 92,000 pounds of tea into Boston
Harbor. But do you know the history of the Philadelphia Tea Party
(December 1773)? How about the York, Maine, Tea Party (September 1774)
or the Wilmington, North Carolina, Tea Party (March 1775)?
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Ten Tea Parties is the first book to
chronicle all these uniquely American protests. Author and historian Joseph
Cummins begins with the
history of the East India Company (the biggest global corporation in
the eighteenth century) and their staggering financial losses during
the Boston Tea Party (more than a million dollars in today’s
money).
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From there we travel to Philadelphia, where Captain Samuel Ayres was
nearly tarred and feathered by a mob of 8,000 angry patriots. Then we
set sail for New York City, where the Sons of Liberty raided the London
and heaved 18 chests of tea into the Hudson River. Still later, in
Annapolis, Maryland, a brigantine carrying 2,320 pounds of the
“wretched weed” was burned to ashes.
Together, the stories in Ten Tea Parties
illuminate the power of
Americans banding together as Americans—for the very first
time in the fledgling nation’s history. It’s no
wonder these patriots remain an inspiration to so many people today.
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Ten Tea Parties
Patriotic
Protests That History Forgot
by Joseph Cummins
Quirk Books, 2012
Order
a copy
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