East India Tea Arrival

East India Tea Arrival from London at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum

Date: Sunday, November 29, 2015

For the first time since The Boston Tea Party took place on Dec. 16, 1773, London’s East India Company (EIC) Tea will be making a splash again in Boston as EIC is donating 100+ lbs of expired loose tea which will [again] be thrown into Boston’s historic waters during the Destruction of the Tea part of the 242nd Boston Tea Party Anniversary & Annual Reenactment taking place on Wed., Dec. 16, 2015 (the actual anniversary of The Boston Tea Party). This is one of the largest moving theatrical reenactment performances in the United States.

The EIC tea will be arriving to the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum’s Griffin’s Wharf on Sun., Nov. 29, an historic date as 242 years ago the Dartmouth, the first of 3 Boston-bound vessels carrying British EIC tea, arrived in Boston Harbor. This tea undersold the Colonial market driving out local business and gave the EIC a monopoly in America. The arrival of the Dartmouth would prompt a series of tense town meetings and began a 20-day countdown to decide the fate of the “pernicious tea.” This tea monopoly, coupled with the lack of colonial representation in Parliament, led to the infamous Boston Tea Party on Dec. 16, 1773. The Boston Tea Party was the single most important event leading up to the American Revolution.

Click here to learn more about our December 16th Reenactment.