I’m excited about this weekend’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party: while the regional Revolution 250 initiative has been geared up for some time, I think that the countdown to the semiquincentennial of the beginning of the American Revolution will really intensify now. 2026 is going to be an interesting year in Salem, with both the 400th anniversary of its European settlement and the 25oth anniversary of the Revolution (though I have no doubt that Halloween will crowd both of those commemorations out). Leading up to the Tea Party anniversary, participants have been recognized through the Boston Tea Party Particpant Grave Marker Project overseen by the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum and Revolution 250, and ceremonies were held for two Salem men: the Reverend John Prince and William Russell. These two guys do not represent the best Salem connection to the Tea Party, however: the Reverend was a witness rather than a particpant, and Russell, a true Revolutionary hero, wasn’t even from Salem—he was likely buried here because of his son’s residence. The best Salem tie to the Tea Party is rather the fourth ship (or the seventh, depending on your perspective). In late September of 1773, seven ships left London laden with East India Company tea bound for the colonies: four were bound for Boston (the Eleanor, Dartmouth, Beaver and William), while the Nancy was destined for New York, the Polly for Philadelphia, and the London for Charleston. The Eleanor, Dartmouth and Beaver became the “tea party ships” but the William never made it to Boston, as it was wrecked on Cape Cod. And that’s where Salem comes in. Here’s how the story played out in the newspapers.

The William was on the rocks in Provincetown, most of its barrels of East India tea intact and ready to be destroyed or salvaged. The revolutionaries back in Boston hoped that their Cape comrades would follow their example and ditch the tea, but that didn’t happen: it was succesfully salvaged and transported to Boston on the Salem schooner Eunice, captained by John Cook and owned by George Bickford. Both Cook and Bickford were called to task and eventually excused by their fellow Salem residents weeks later, only after the latter was paid a visit by “a company of natives, dressed in the Indian manner, armed with hachets, axes &” in Salem’s brand new smallpox hostpital. The shipowner and his captain were excused with a judgement of “mere inadvertence” but the town’s freeholders took the opportunity to condemn the “detestable tea” yet again, and form a standing committee of nine to ensure that it was repelled from Salem ships and shores forever, as it represented nothing less than “an open attempt to enforce the Ministerial Plan, and a violent Attack upon the Liberties of America.”

Essex Gazette, 25 January 1774.

So that was that: Salem would have its own “tea party” in October of 1774 but it was very much part of THE big party of December 1773, as were so many communities in eastern Massachusetts and beyond. “Essential” commodities have power, both in the past and the present, as the words above illustrate so well. The East India Tea was a rallying commodity, and the Boston Tea Party was a rallying event in its time and after. Its symbolism and choreographed imagery made it so, and it lived on in both American political and popular culture. An event that can be captured visually and displayed on everything from the French scenic wallpaper gracing the walls of the White House to a Currier & Ives print bearing pride of place in a humble parlor is a powerful one, especially as its name evolved from the “riot” (Governor Thomas Hutchinson’s term) to “party” (first used in the Salem newspapers in 1826–before that, it was mostly “the destruction of the tea.”)

Nathaniel Currier, The Destruction of the Tea in Boston Harbor (1846, one of Currier & Ives’ most popular prints); Zuber Boston Harbor/ Boston Tea Party wallpaper, 1852; The Tea Riot, from Jacob R. Neff, Thrilling incidents of the wars of the United States (1853); The Boston Tea Party-Destruction of the Tea in Boston Harbor, December 16,1773, Ballou’s Pictorial (1856); a 1920s postcard, 20th century folk art diorama and 1940s Wedgwood plate; graphic from the 200th anniversary commemoration.

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