The Drink that Sparked a Revolution

Silver tea canisters and a shagreen tea caddy.  Canisters would have contained commodities like sugar. Tea caddies had to be portable so that they could be carried from one house to another when visiting with friends.

Jesuit Porcelain Tea Cup, 1760-1770, China.  Showing scene with four European Peasants.  This cup is smaller than later cups because tea was still very expensive at this time. . . just a little tea had to suffice.

Silver Teapot, ca. 1809, French.  Decorated with a families Coat of Arms.  Wooden handle prevented handler from being burned!

A Brief History of Tea ....

     Hundreds of years before afternoon teas at Buckingham Palace, people in China were enjoying tea.  The English were not introduced to this beverage until the mid-17th century when Oliver Cromwell promoted it as a kind of medicinal cocktail.  In fact, it was advertised in the London Gazette as a potion of which all physicians would approve.  Within a few years, the royal English court was drinking tea out of small bowls as they socialized with other members of the aristocracy.  By the 1660s, this expensive beverage was all the rage among the English elite.  The most elegant and fashionable drinkers began having decorative  bowls, cups, pots, and spoons, manufactured specifically for the conspicuous consumption of one beverage.  Like the tea itself, many of these items also came from China.  In essence, the Chinese produced an entire market of goods for elite European consumer. 

   By the 18th century, other people were enjoying this exotic Asian drink as well.  Once the leaves had been used fully by the master and mistress of the house, they would be passed down to servants or slaves who would boil the leaves again for a less potent version of what had been previously extracted.  In some cases, tea was pressed into a hard brick and simply ground down when needed for drinking.  This pressed tea sometimes contained remnants of bugs and debris which had been swept up in the process.   Whether pressed or loose, tea was drank with the morning's meal or after a hearty dinner.  It was also consumed when members of the gentry visited each other's home, usually served up in one of the best room's of the house or even outside.  When clergymen came looking for Benjamin Franklin one day in 1787, they found him sitting under a mulberry tree drinking tea.  Traveling from one place to another, the polite colonial guest would carry his or her own tea in a sometimes elegant tea caddy (see above image on left).  Tea caddies could accommodate different varieties of leaves, sugar, milk, or anything else that would make the drink even tastier.  The contents of the traveling tea caddy were so expensive that they were often kept under lock and key, always under the watchful eye of the owner.  However one took his tea, it was important to keep one's conversation light and sweet while consuming the beverage and not to beleaguer companions with weighty discussions as they sipped their drinks.

   Just before the Revolutionary War, tea took on a whole different meaning to people living in Annapolis.   On October 15, 1774, the brig Peggy Stewart sailed into the Annapolis harbor.  The vessel was owned by Anthony Stewart and James Dick.  Their partnership had began years earlier in cooperation with London merchants.  The ship usually carried a variety of goods including organic material and dry goods destined for sale in Annapolis and Londontown.  In the past, this vessel had carried ample amounts of tea.  In 1772, the Maryland Gazette announced that the ship carried "Green and Boheo Tea, best [in] London . . . double and single refined sugars," etc . . .  But when the Peggy Stewart arrived on that fateful October day, the very presence of the tea in Annapolis was unacceptable.   This time there was a non-importation agreement in effect for British goods, and the brig contained 2320 pounds of tea from London.

On October 14th, the Maryland Gazette reported that the ship had arrived:

. . . having on board for us, with many other goods, one whole, eight half, and eight quarter chests of tea.  Soon after her arrival, Mr. Anthony Stewart applied to us...that we would supply captain Jackson with money to pay the duty on the said tea, otherwise the vessel could not be entered, which we absolutely refused to do. . .

Despite this warning from officials, Mr. Stewart proceeded to pay the duty on the Tea, essentially landing the tea in Annapolis without permission.  What could be done with the tea now ?  It had been ordered when relations with the British were still fairly warm, but now the contents of the vessel were contrary to American colonial principles.  There was some discussion of shipping it back to England, to the West Indies, or even to store the tea until a later date.  A sensible agreement could not be made without further discussion.  A meeting was to be held later on at the playhouse with the purpose of investigating the incident.  In the meantime, handbills were passed out around Annapolis acquainting citizens with the particulars of the situation.  The event was apparently greatly exaggerated by those spreading news around the area.  By the time citizens convened to discuss possible solutions, tempers flared.  Mr. Stewart made his most sincere apologies to the gentlemen in the crowd . . .

 

Gentlemen: I find by a handbill that you are requested to meet to take into consideration what is proper to be done with the tea, the property of Thomas C. Williams and Co., now on board the brig Peggy Stewart, and finding my conduct censured for having paid the duty on that tea to the collector, I take the liberty to present a plain narrative of the part I have acted therein and the motives by which I was actuated.  Deeply interested as I am in the peace and harmony of this country, no man would be farther than myself from taking any steps to disturb them.  I am not in the least connected with anything that relates merely to the importation;  indeed so cautious have I been in infringing in the least of the resolutions of America that I did not order a single farthing's worth of goods by that vessel, though I could have done it on such easy terms as to freight and shipping charges; much less should I have thought of ordering any tea, after the disturbance which the importation of that article had occasioned on the continent.  When the brig arrived, the Captain informed me she was very leaky, and that the sooner she was unloaded the better.  I told him to enter his vessel, but not the tea, which I found, on enquiry of the collector, could not be done.  Under these circumstances, the brig leaky and fifty-three souls on board, where they had been near three months, I thought myself bound both in humanity and prudence to enter the vessel, and leave the destination of the tea to the committee.  The impropriety of securing the duty did not then occur to me, neither did I know the tea would be suffered to be lodged as a security for the payment.  I had nothing in view but to save the vessel from seizure, and of having an opportunity of releasing the passengers

from a long and disagreeable confinement.  The duty on the tea has been paid hitherto, both in Virginia and Maryland, by every importer of goods:  in this case I am not the importer.  If I have erred in my part of the transaction, I declare, upon my honor, it is without the least intension; I have infringed no rules prescribed by the general resolutions of this province.  It happened unluckily that the tea was put on board of Captain Jackson's brig, in the manner as will be seen by the annexed affidavit;  and it can be incontestably proved the captain refused taking tea on board.    Mr. Williams was in London when the tea was shipped and must have known that many merchants had refused to ship that article.  I have only to add that I am sincerely sorry my conduct on this occasion has been the cause of so much uneasiness and freely submit it to your candid consideration.                                            I Am,                                                Gentlemen,                                           Your most humble servant,                                           Anthony Stewart  Annapolis,  October 17, 1774

Enraged Annapolitans felt that this was a meager attempt at reconciliation--that not only should the tea itself be burned but so too should the vessel that harbored it.  Thereafter, Stewart boarded his own vessel and set the brig ablaze as a riotous crowd cheered him on.  The loss to Stewart and his partners was devastating.  After the affair he wrote...

. . . the loss we sustained by the destruction of the Peggy Stewart falls heavy and the tide of popular clamor has run much against us on account of the part our [Anthony Stewart] was innocently led to act in that transaction but when calm reason resumes here. . . we trust our conduct will appear in a different light not only to our friends but even to the conviction of our enemies.

Mr. Stewart left Annapolis during the Revolution, moving first to England and then to Nova Scotia.  On August 21, 1783, a group met to discharge the debts of the late Anthony Stewart.  At the time of his death, he was certainly not destitute.  In fact, he still maintained 1200 acres in Dorset County.

For Discussion . . .

  Try comparing the Boston Tea Party to the Peggy Stewart Affair
  Discuss why stopping the entry of English tea hurt American colonials
  Discuss how tea affected relations between different countries

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