the event, which has come to be known as the Boston Tea Party, took place. Somewhat less known is that Charleston, SC was, at almost the same time, facing an issue with tea ships. The citizens of Charleston handled the situation quite differently, and as a result almost nobody knows about their "tea party." Three things made the Boston tea party different than what happened when ships laden with tea reached Charleston, Philadelphia, and New York in late 1773/early 1774. First, a committee in Philadelphia had published recommendations on how the colonies should respond to Parliament's passing in May of 1773 of the Tea Act. This was widely published up and down the coast in major cities all the coast of the colonies. Second, tea commissioners were appointed in each major city. In every city other than Boston, the local Sons of Liberty (or comparable organization) visited them, and got them to resign before the tea arrived. Boston's commissioners refused to do so. Third, the Lieutenant Governor (and Chief Justice) in Massachusetts was Thomas Hutchinson. He was born and raised in the colonies, but he was a firm believer in following the laws. So while the tea ships sent to Philadelphia and New York never landed (due to the actions of the local Sons of Liberty), and the tea was unloaded in Charleston to allow the ship to depart, but was never sold, in Massachusetts the Lt. Governor and the tea commissioners insisted that the law be followed. So in reaction, the Boston patriots executed the Boston Tea Party. And despite popular stories about them all dressing up as Indians (Native Americans), only a handful (or two) of those that dumped the tea were so adorned. The three ships whose tea was dumped into Boston Harbor were named the Beaver, the Dartmouth, and the Eleanor. The Boston Tea Party, by itself, did not make the American Revolution inevitable. In fact, a number of Founding Fathers, including George Washington and Ben Franklin, were appalled by the actions of the rioters, and felt that the city of Boston should pay the ship's owners/the British East India Company, for the destroyed tea. However, the reaction by the British to the news of the Boston Tea Party, and the support that most of the other colonies offered for Massachusetts in response to the British reaction, did put the colonies well onto the path of the American Revolution.
