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The 1773 Boston Tea Party was the spark that ignited
the American Revolution. John Adams described the event
as "the most magnificent moment of all - an epoch
of history." King George's purported response to
the rebellion was more subdued: "So they threw
their tea in the harbor. Let them drink coffee."
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| The
Robinson Tea Chest 1773
~ A Symbol of American Freedom |
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On a cold December night in 1773, a group of rebellious
American colonists some 5,000  strong
marched from the Old South Meeting House to Griffin's
Wharf on Boston Harbor in protest of the British tax
on imported tea. As the crowd watched, men dressed
loosely as Mohawk Indians boarded ships, chopped into
crates with their hatchets and dumped thousands of
pounds of tea into the bay. This celebrated uprising,
long hailed as the Boston Tea Party, was the spark
that ignited the Revolutionary War, unifying Patriots
across America.
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the morning of December 17, 1773, a young John
Robinson collected a souvenir tea chest from the
Boston Tea Party the night before. Passed down
from generation to generation for over two centuries,
the Robinson Tea Chest has endured as a symbol
of American freedom and the birth of a nation. |
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John
Robinson later served in the Revolutionary War,
after which he married a younger wife, Nancy Robinson
(Holden). Nancy kept the tea chest in her possession
until the early 1850s when she gave the heirloom
to  relative
Solomon Shaffstall. From the time that it was
collected from Boston Harbor, the tea chest, known
as the Robinson Half Chest, has remained in the
family. Generation after generation, the prized
heirloom has been passed down, journeying the
country until it found its way to Laredo, Texas. |
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Now, after two
centuries of travel, the tea chest has retuned
home to Boston for public display as part of
the museum collections of Historic
Tours of America®, Inc., and the Boston Tea Party Shipssm
& Museum. Here, it will remain as an important
symbol of American freedom and the birth of
a nation.
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The
historical record of the Robinson
Half Chest is lengthy and packed
with fascinating tidbits of
information including this letter
dated 1897 written by Solomon
Shaffstall
documenting the history of the
chest. It reads, "I brought
this tea chest from Gouverneur,
New York, fifty-four years ago.
It formally belonged to John
Robinson, having been picked
up by his father previous to
the Revolutionary War in which
he served. I received this
information from
the widow mother of John Robinson,
Jr." |
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The Robinson Half Chest is one of two known
surviving tea chests from the December 16, 1773
Boston Tea Party when 342 tea chests were dumped
into Boston Harbor by rebelling colonists. The
Chest is an object from the permanent collections
of Historic Tours of America, Inc., to be exhibited
at the renovated Boston Tea Party Shipssm
& Museum in 2009. For more information on
the Robinson Tea Chest and Historic
Tours of America®, please contact
Debbie
Swift.
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Incised
on the base of the chest is a Nine Man Morris
board, a game popular in the 18th century.
Laboratories have produced evidence that
the chest was once partially and temporarily
immersed in seawater, suggesting that the
chest floated in the harbor for a short
period of time before drifting to shore.
Studies also showed that almost the entire
lid of the chest had been fractured away
by impact, suggesting it was chopped open. |
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Boston Tea Party Shipssm
& Museum
Congress Street Bridge, Boston, Ma
02127
E-mail
Copyright ©2006 Historic Tours of America®,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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