Evolution Of The Tea Party Essay

651 Words3 Pages

December 16, 1773 was the day that American history changed. George Robert Twelves Hewes was a shoemaker in Boston that was determined to help the colonies gain freedom from Britain. He took part in important events in Boston that led up to the Revolution (Young 33). Since Hewes was not a leader in the patriotic acts of the Revolution, he was quickly forgotten. On July 4, 1826, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both patriotic leaders in the Revolution, died (Young 140). “Their deaths confirmed the popular sense that the country was losing its last links with the revolutionary generation” (Young 141). In an attempt to keep the memory of the Revolution alive, Hewes went back to Boston for a Fourth of July celebration the commemorated veterans of the Revolution (Young 143). As a result, Hewes was finally able to get the recognition and honor that he deserved. …show more content…

Before 1834, the Tea Party was mostly referred to as “the destruction of the tea” amongst the elites (Young 156). This was also what it was called in printed documents of that time. The term “tea party” was not included into any published works until 1834 and 1835 when two biographers included the term in the title of their biographies of George Robert Twelves Hewes (Young 156). This was the beginning of the evolution of the meaning of the event that took place on December 16, 1773. The event began to formulate a new meaning when people began calling it by another name. Before the event was renamed, the patriots viewed the tea event as the event that lead to the Revolution. They never wanted to associate themselves with the Tea Party because it had caused them so much turmoil. The Tea Party was also contradictory to the victim role they wanted to present themselves as in the beginning of the Revolution (Young 106). The prestigious leaders of the Revolution thought the Tea Party would make them (Insert

Open Document