Contents
Title Page
Chapter 1: What Was the Boston Tea Party?
Chapter 2: New World, New Freedoms
Chapter 3: Fighting the French and Indians
Chapter 4: Taxation without Representation
Chapter 5: A Massacre in Boston
Chapter 6: Teatime
Chapter 7: The Night of the Party
Chapter 8: The Party’s Over
Chapter 9: The Shot Heard Round the World
Glossary
Source Notes
Map
Timeline
About the Author
Sneak Peek: Read Chapter 1 of Real Stories From My Time: The Underground Railroad
Copyright
America’s past is filled with stories of courage, adventure, tragedy, and hope. The Real Stories From My Time series pairs American Girl’s beloved historical characters with true stories of pivotal events in American history. As you travel back in time to discover America’s amazing past, these characters share their own incredible tales with you.
December 16, 1773. As day broke in Boston, thick clouds covered the city. A bone-chilling rain kept many of its sixteen thousand residents huddled under wool blankets in their houses. One by one they rose, stoking the coals in their fireplaces to stir up a bit of heat. Soon they’d put the kettles on for cups of … something warm.
What they really wanted was a cup of tea. Throughout the thirteen colonies, or the original thirteen states, the belly-warming brew was a favorite drink. And not just on cold winter mornings—on hot summer afternoons, too, and crisp fall evenings, and rainy spring days. Anytime was teatime for the colonists of the New World. In fact, they consumed up to one million pounds a year.
At least, they did until all the trouble started brewing. In those days, the American colonies belonged to Britain, so they had to live by King George III’s rules, which wasn’t so bad at first. But then Britain started running out of money, so King George decided to impose all sorts of taxes on the colonists. The money the tax agents collected would go to Britain.
But instead of giving in to King George’s demands, many colonists decided to fight back. Still, other colonists remained loyal British subjects. These people were called “friends of government.”
Many Patriots, who were people against British control of the colonies, lived in the city of Boston. Patriots there often led loud marches protesting King George’s taxes. One tax in particular made the Patriots really angry: the tea tax. This was an extra fee the colonists had to pay for all tea shipped in from England.
Many Patriots decided to boycott English tea, which means that they refused to buy it. Others made threats against the tax agents whose job it was to collect the tax added on to the cost of the tea.
But tea from England kept coming, including a huge shipment that crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the fall of 1773. Three ships, packed with crates of tea, sat off the docks in Boston Harbor. Because of the fight over the tea tax, no one would unload the shipment.
All over the city, handbills were posted to trees and buildings that read, “Friends! Brethren! Countrymen! That worst of plagues, the detested TEA … is now arrived in this harbor.” For three weeks, Patriot leaders asked the ships’ captains to turn around and sail back to Britain. But the British captains wouldn’t budge.
December 16, 1773, was the deadline. If the ships remained in the harbor, the colonists would have no choice but to pay the tea taxes—or be fined or thrown in jail. Yet the Patriots refused to back down. They believed the freedom of the colonies was at stake.
“If we give in to this unfair tax from King George, more injustices will surely follow,” angry Patriots warned.
As the people of Boston emerged from their houses that frigid December morning, and looked at the tea-laden ships looming in the harbor, little did they know that the events of the day, which would come to be known as the Boston Tea Party, would lead to the birth of the United States of America.
The story of Felicity Merriman starts in 1773, just before the American Revolution. Felicity is a spunky girl growing up in the city of Williamsburg, in the colony of Virginia. She loves helping her father in his general store. Lately, though, Felicity has heard heated arguments in her father’s store. Some customers resent paying taxes to the king of England. Others believed that the colonists must obey their king no matter what. Also, many of the goods that flow into Mr. Merriman’s store from all over the world—such as tea, tableware, and fine silk—cost more now because they come from England. The higher prices make the customers unhappy.
Hoping to speak to other importers and merchants and find a solution to this problem, Mr. Merriman and Felicity are sailing from Virginia up to the big city of Boston, Massachusetts.
Boston Harbor is a large port, and many of the goods shipped from England to the colonies arrive first in Boston. Because of this, Boston has become the site of protests against England and the king. Little do Felicity and her father know that they are sailing into the most dangerous adventure of their lives.
Although Felicity is a fictional character, her story will help you understand why the Boston Tea Party happened and imagine what it was like to be there.
Father and I are sailing to Boston on a ship called the Dove. Whenever I’m on deck, I lean into the wind and my cloak billows out behind me, just like the Dove’s sails. The salty spray stings my face. I love it! Still, I’ll be glad to get to Boston tomorrow and see Uncle George, Aunt Charlotte, and Cousin Charles. Cousin Charles is sixteen now and has a horse of his very own!
Father is eager to meet with Uncle George, his brother. Uncle George imports goods from England, and he supplies our store with many fine things to
