RACING HEARTS # 9

Every kid knows the story of 1773’s Boston Tea Party, in which colonists ambushed three British ships and dumped 92,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. But do you know the story of the New Jersey Tea Party (December 1773)? How about the Annapolis Tea Party (October 1774) or the Charleston Tea Party (November 1774)? Revolutionary America was full of these spirited protests-andTen Tea Partiesis the first book to chronicle all of them. Author and historian Joseph Cummins begins with the history of the East India Company (the biggest global corporation of the 18th century) and its staggering financial losses during the Boston Tea Party (more than $1 million worth of tea in today’s money). From there we travel to Philadelphia, where 8,000 colonists gathered on Christmas Day threatening to tar and feather the captain of a ship. Then we set sail for New York City, North Carolina, Maine, and other unexpected destinations. This gifty volume of popular history concludes with a discussion of how Americans have returned again and again to the tea party as a symbol of political protest.… (more)