Boston Tea Party Take your tea and shove it.

George Hewes was a member of the band of "Indians" that boarded the tea ships that evening. His recollection of the event was published some years later. We join his story as the group makes its way to the tea-laden ships:

"It was now evening, and I immediately dressed myself in the costume of an Indian, equipped with a small hatchet, which I and my associates denominated the tomahawk, with which, and a club, after having painted my face and hands with coal dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin's wharf, where the ships lay that contained the tea. When I first appeared in the street after being thus disguised, I fell in with many who were dressed, equipped and painted as I was, and who fell in with me and marched in order to the place of our destination.

When we arrived at the wharf, there were three of our number who assumed an authority to direct our operations, to which we readily submitted. They divided us into three parties, for the purpose of boarding the three ships which contained the tea at the same time. The name of him who commanded the division to which I was assigned was Leonard Pitt. The names of the other commanders I never knew. We were immediately ordered by the respective commanders to board all the ships at the same time, which we promptly obeyed. The commander of the division to which I belonged, as soon as we were on board the ship, appointed me boatswain, and ordered me to go to the captain and demand of him the keys to the hatches and a dozen candles. I made the demand accordingly, and the captain promptly replied, and delivered the articles; but requested me at the same time to do no damage to the ship or rigging. We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of the water.

In about three hours from the time we went on board, we had thus broken and thrown overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship, while those in the other ships were disposing of the tea in the same way, at the same time. We were surrounded by British armed ships, but no attempt was made to resist us.

...The next morning, after we had cleared the ships of the tea, it was discovered that very considerable quantities of it were floating upon the surface of the water; and to prevent the possibility of any of its being saved for use, a number of small boats were manned by sailors and citizens, who rowed them into those parts of the harbor wherever the tea was visible, and by beating it with oars and paddles.

George Washington

(1732-1799)

“First in war, first in peace”, George Washington is the best known and the most honoured individual in America’s history.

Washington’s early life was far more like a Huck Finn’s than that of the white-marble aristocrat. True, he came from a fine old English family, and his father was a prosperous planter, iron-foundry owner and trader. But George – born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on February 22, 1732 – only spent about eight years in school; not only did he never go to college, but he was never as well read in traditional culture as were, for example, such men as Thomas Jefferson. Instead, young George enjoyed the life of the country gentry – hunting, fishing, boating, riding. At one point in his teens he wanted to go off and join the British Navy, but his mother talked him out of it; instead, he became a surveyor, which meant that he continued to spend much of his time outdoors tramping through the Virginia wilds. Then, between 1753-1758, Washington served as an officer in the British Army and again, he campaigned and fought in quite arduous conditions in what was then the American frontier. Long before George Washington was known to his fellow colonists he was known to Indians as Caunotaucarious, “The Towntaker”. And long before he could enjoy the victories of his later career, he suffered various defeats – surrendering Fort Necessity (south of what was later Pittsburgh) to the French, being spurned by his first love.

When Washington retired from military service in 1758, he was still only 26, and he undoubtedly began to live a more domesticated life. He married Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow with two children, he supervised his estate at Mt. Vernon (which he did not fully inherit until 1761) and he participated in the social life of a person of his station. But again, this involved a great deal of outdoor, practical activities whether supervising the farming and construction activities (and the slaves) or fishing and foxhunting. His years of service in the Virginia legislature also came with the obligations of his class. It was all the more unexpected, then, that this American “aristocrat” became on e of the most militant advocates of using force to gain independence from the “despotism” (his own word) of his English relatives. Washington attended the first two Continental Congresses, and it was at the second, in June 1775 that he was elected commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary army – and simultaneously entered into that final phase of his life where his career became inseparable from his nation’s chronology. Again, though, most Americans would not know of the theme of near-despair that ran through his years of combat, the physical hardships endured (and not only during the winter at Valley Forge) and the sheer aggravations of holding his troops and generals together. When the war ended, Washington did not retire to a drawing room but went right back to his farming and land-holdings. His years as President – which many of his contemporaries and some students since regard as crucial to the survival of the United States – undoubtedly fixed the image of Washington as something of a marble statue. In fact, they were often trying times, and it was probably his past as a frontiersman that helped him more than any college course would have. It was typical, too, that his final activity was a horseback ride through a storm that led to the cold that in turn led to his death.