What was the value of the tea dumped in Boston harbor?

Answer 1

Paul Revere had nothing to do with the Boston Tea party and it happened in 1773 (this is 2 years before Revere comes into the narrative of the revolution). The tea party was organized to save American smugglers from the ruin of competing with English tea. The Dutch tea they sold had been cheaper because of the added taxes on the tea, but the English government gave a bail out to the East India Company and allowed it to lower the taxes on tea. This made it less than what the smugglers sold their tea for. The idea that people didn't want to pay taxes without representation is also a fallacy. In Virgina only 6% of the male adult white population owned enough land to be entitled to vote. In Mass it was only 16% and only a fourth actually voted. The tea party, at the time, was also not very popular among the men who were patriots. Washington was upset when he heard about the event. Paul Revere is associated with the ride to warn the men in Concord that the British were on the march to arrest them. The only problem with this story is that Revere did NOT finish the ride. He was arrested before he made the 20 miles from Boston to Concord by the British patrol and the ride was completed by Dr. Samuel Prescott who just happened to come along and see what was happening. This all took place on April 18, 1775. The only reason we think that Revere did the ride warning "the British are coming" is due to a poem called the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere written by Longfellow in 1861 on the eve of the civil war. He was trying to remind people of their history . The real hero is a 23 year old named Israel Bissell who rode across 3 states and over 300 miles to warn people. He rode so hard his horse died under him, but I guess Bissell doesn't rhyme as well as Revere.

Answer 2

The colonists dumped a lot of tea in the harbor- 90,000 pounds! Wowza!