Boston Tea Party and American Heros

The Boston Tea Party is probably the most commonly associated event with the American Revolutionary War. Images of New Englanders secretly dressing up as Native Americans throwing Tea into the Boston harbor are traditionally used for the event. However, the Boston Tea Party is a great example of how traditional views are incorrect and the reality of the situation is far less romantic than how high school textbooks portray the situation. 1st Misconception – Bostonians were very well disguised and the perpetrators were never caught. Reality – everyone knew who the men were, they were not well disguised, and dressing up as Indians was more to mock the British than to disguise the Bostonians. 2nd Misconception – the Bostonians attacked at night and surprised the British. Reality – they walked up to the harbor in daylight, in full view of spectators that were aware of the pending event, and British warships sat by as the tea was destroyed. 3rd Misconception – 1773 Boston Tea Party was galvanizing event that started American Revolution. Reality – tension had been building between colonists and British since the Stamp Acts of 1765 and fighting did not start until Lexington/Concord in 1775.

Again, the Boston Tea Party is a great example of how historical reality can get condensed, edited, and pre-packaged into a simple, easy-to-remember idea, but is hardly accurate. Moral of the story – look into ideas, concepts, events for yourself! As the great Ronald Reagan said, "Trust.., but verify"

At times I find our class discussions depressing and too focused on the negative aspects of American history. Therefore, I am going to attempt to post a positive paragraph each week from here on out. Battle of Trenton - George Washington started with roughly 20,000 men in the Colonial Army at the beginning of the war. By winter 1776 he was down to 2400 sick, tired, and ragged soldiers. Taking the future of the country into his own hands he decided to attack some 1400 Hessians, who were considered some of the best soldiers in the world at the time, in Trenton, NJ. He crossed the half frozen Delaware River on December 26th, from 1100pm to 3am during a snowstorm and marched about 18 miles in daylight to attack the Hessians at 8am. The Hessians were completed surprised and lost 26 men, had 93 wounded, and 900 were taken prisoner. Washington only had 2 die during the march to Trenton and 4 wounded. This amazing victory is more amazing when you consider that the enlistments of most of his soldiers were up on Jan. 1st, he had to cross a frozen river at night with 2400 men, and the Hessians were greatly feared by his men because they had killed 500 of his soldiers that tried to surrender in a previous battle. Yeah History - Go GW!