The Shoemaker And The Tea Party Summary

American Tempest: How the Boston Tea Party Sparked A Revolution written by Harlow Giles Unger offers an in-depth analysis of the Boston Tea Party. Unger organizes the events in chronological order starting 30 years before the Boston Tea Party occurred. In the end he touches upon the aftermath of the journey towards self-government. The book presents many engaging details and provides the reader with more of a storytelling feel. He describes the colonists hard times and anger towards being taxed by British Parliament. Unger adds insights and conclusions about various topics and the people surrounding the rebellion, which was one of his goals in his writing. He wanted to tell of the untold Tea Party 's impact on American history politically, socially, and economically. The book was intended for the general public, because he wrote “ironically, few, if any Americans today… know the true and entire story of the Tea Party and the Patriots who staged it” (4).

In the story "John Adams and the Coming of the Revolution”, author David McCullough discusses how John Adams was asked to defend the British soldiers in court of the soldier’s accusation of man slaughter, following the Boston Massacre. Being such a problematic case that could ruin his reputation, John Adams accepted to defend the soldiers because of his experience in difficult cases, and his strong principles and beliefs. John Adam’s reputation did not even tarnish because of how skillfully he handled the case gaining the respect of the people of Boston.

The Shoemaker and the Tea Party by Alfred Young revolves around two bibliographies written about one of the last living participants of the Boston Tea Party, and the authors own interpretations of the events surrounding the Tea Party and the American Revolution as a whole. In this particular novel, Young explores what it means to rediscover history, and how history is continually redefined. Particular attention in the novel is given to public history, and how highlighting people otherwise lost to time can completely change how an event is perceived. Readers are given the opportunity to see the history behind the American Revolution through the lenses of an average man of that time. In this essay I will review the novel and the message

prolonged life, in such a polarizing period in Boston, Massachusetts Hewes was an effective vessel to examine the larger issues of the American Revolution. Through the life of George Hewes, Alfred Young was able to offer an effective analysis of public and private memory. Young successfully uses the mechanism of micro history to integrate a very specific case study to a national event.

A month after the Tea Party, in January of 1774, Hewes would be involved in an event that would alter his life forever. The soldier involved, Malcolm, was seen as a fiery and turbulent man to many Bostonians even before this event occurred. By giving his readers this information, its sets the tone for the following information and helps us better understand the reaction of the colonists. Malcolm was taunting a young boy in the streets of Boston for no apparent reason. Hewes came across them and confronted the soldier. The two fought back and forth for a while before Malcolm struck him on the forehead and deeply wounded Hewes. He was rushed to a physician and it was discovered that the cane he had been beaten with had almost penetrated his skull. Once bandaged, Hewes made his way to put out a warrant for Malcolm's arrest. The public was revolted by Malcolm’s actions ,and although it was against Hewe’s wishes, that night they dragged Malcolm from his home with the intention to humiliate him. The public saw Malcolm as a personification of Britain’s oppressiveness, and as someone not to be trusted with the safety of the colonists. Young explains that they simply wanted justice for Malcolm's wrongdoings. The crowd proceeded to ostracize the soldier through tarring and feathering him. This

Throughout history, historians have spun events in order to alter and adjust others’ views on the event. This is especially true during Colonial times and the time leading up the American Revolution. During this time, information about the colonist’s events was passed on through word of mouth. One such man that was notorious for this was George Robert Twelves Hewes. Hewes was a Boston shoemaker, who at the age of twenty-eight witnessed four of his closest friends shot to death by The British red coats; he also participated in many of the key events of the Revolutionary crisis.1 Hewes recollections of the events that took place were passed along in the monograph The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution by Alfred

One of the largest points that the author makes is the significance of tea to the people in the colonies. While there were many who thought that tea was evil and caused health issues, the overwhelming majority of colonist were obsessed. Tea was something new and seen as a luxury item. It took a six-month voyage for the EIC to bring to the precious leaves to Boston. Once there, it was auctioned to those who could afford it. While the bourgeoisie sipped their tea and

The Boston Tea Party began from the colonists dumping over 92,000 pounds of tea into the Harbor, mainly in rebellion to all the

This chapter provided information from the trial of Captain Thomas Preston. The chapter asked the question, “What really happened in the Boston Massacre”. Chapter four focused on the overall event of the Massacre and trying to determine if Captain Preston had given the order to fire at Boston citizens. The chapter provides background information and evidence from Preston’s trial to leave the reader answering the question the chapter presents. Although, after looking through all the witnesses’ testimonies some might sway in Captain Preston’s favor, just the way the grand jury did.

When we start analyzing the data we find that living in the colonies following the Boston Tea party was a difficult time for many. There were people on both sides, those who were against the act and those who were for the act and a fight against Britain. When asked by the authorities, no one would release the names of the perpetrators of the Boston Tea Party for fear of backlash. Those who were against the act also feared from those who were now actively seeking to fight against the British. “The mob held no dissent, burning homes of the most outspoken opponents and sending the dreaded tumbrel, an imitation of the Inquisition leading to the doors of citizens who dared voice support for the established government” (Unger 3). This shows a clear example of how many there were who were opposed to the actions of the rebels, yet at the same time they could not speak out in fear for their homes and families. It continues with, “Whatever the motives of the

Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which placed taxes on paper, lead, paint, and tea that was imported to New England. The colonist began to boycott these goods which angered English authorities. They placed military officials so that they could force the colonists to pay the much needed taxes. Tensions between British soldiers and colonists escalated. This lead to the Boston Massacre; it was propagandized and impassioned many settlers to rebel. In response for the unfair taxes on tea, the colonists dumped the imported tea into the harbor. People became much more ardent to their side after the incident. You were either for the revolution; a patriot, or you sided with England; a loyalist.

The Boston Massacre is one of the most controversial events in American history that occurred in Boston before the American Revolution. Certainly, it has a fundamental role in the development of America as a nation, which led it to have a huge motivation for revolution. A heavy British military presence and having very high taxes in the country were some of the main reasons that made Boston citizens very irritated. Thus, there were already many disagreements and tensions between inhabitants and the British that could have led to the Massacre. In this essay, I will carefully analyze three primary sources, and compare these to the interpretation given by HBO’s John Adams. In my view, these sources can be

Andrews wrote a firsthand account of the Boston tea party recording that about ten thousand pounds worth of silver in tea was dumped into the Boston harbor. The people were angered by the tea tax that Britain put on the colonies and the people reacted in a violent way. John Andrews had many notable observations. One of these such observations was when the colonists voted unanimously to dump all the tea into the harbor. Another was how they only wanted to damage the tea, no other cargo was touched. When talking about the participants he viewed them highly as brave men. During the Boston tea party, certain people tried to sneak some of the tea for themselves instead of throwing it overboard. In George Hewes account of the Boston tea party, the people who took tea were shown to be punished. In his account, he talks about catching a captain who stuffed tea in the pockets of his coat. When trying to escape the captain's coat

In Jill Lepore’s book, The Whites of their Eyes, she argues that the American Revolution has become twisted to fit the role that the Tea Party wants it to fill, instead of the Tea Party realizing that the men of the American revolution were only men and not the heroic figures that they are thought of today. Lepore makes a very reasonable argument using sources from the Founding Fathers as well as interviews with Tea Party members to draw connections between the two and show that the Tea Party is twisting history for their own good and sometimes taking the past out of context. In the book, Lepore switches back and forth from the 1700s to the present day to draw connections between the two. This provides an immediate connection for the reader

George Hewes is a protester of the British taxes. In the document above he is protesting against the tea act. This act helps the British East India Company sell their tea but the colonies boycott British product and the son of liberty along George Hewes dump the tea into the Boston harbor. This event is later called the Boston tea party. The government is furious and shut down the Boston