Star in the East

After the Dartmouth, the first tea ship to arrive in Boston Harbor, Dr. Joseph Warren along with John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Dr. Thomas Young, and John Scollay organized a meeting that was called the “Body” instead of a Boston town meeting because the Sons of Liberty wanted people from the countryside to attend to decide what to do about the tea on board the three ships that arrived in Boston Harbor. They and thousands of others spent weeks meeting at Old South Meeting House trying to encourage the owner of the Dartmouth, Francis Rotch, to send his tea back to England. But Rotch couldn’t do that without a pass from Governor Thomas Hutchinson, who would not issue that pass until Rotch claimed his cargo with the custom house. It was an endless circle of coercion until on December 16, 1773, Dr. Thomas Young pronounced, “Mr. Rotch is a good man who has done all in his power to gratify the people. We should do no harm to his person and dismiss him.” The Body agreed. Samuel Adams announced, “We have now done all we could for the salvation of our country. Mr. Rotch you are free to go home.” Josiah Quincy, Jr. rose and made a speech from the gallery. When he was done, a new group of men appeared at the meetinghouse front door. John Hancock proclaimed to the people, “Let every man do what is right in his own eyes.” War whoops emanated from the doors and streets, echoed by the cheering throng inside the meeting house. The moderator tried to bring the meeting to order as the pews and the gallery emptied and thousands of people spilled into the streets and followed the “Mohawks.” They rumbled toward Griffin’s Wharf to witness what was going to happen. One hundred people stayed behind including Joseph, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Thomas Young, There were dozens of men already at Griffin’s Wharf when the “Mohawks” and the crowd descended upon it. Under the weak light of the waxing crescent moon, the destroyers of the tea boarded the Dartmouth and then the Eleanor and the Beaver. Each man had a duty to do almost like a military operation. They opened the hatches, jumped into the hold, and tied ropes to the tea chests to hoist them upon deck. For two hours men performed the backbreaking work—hacked open the chests, gathered up the tea and threw it overboard. In all, 342 chests went into the harbor. Not a ship or any other cargo on board was damaged. Within hours of the destruction of the tea, Paul Revere rode to New York and Philadelphia with the news.