Peter Slater Jr.

(1760 – October 13, 1831)

Born in 1760, Peter Slater Jr. was one of the youngest participants in the Boston Tea Party.            

He became radicalized at the very young age of 9. On March 2, 1770, while apprenticing as a ropemaker to John Gray, he participated in a brawl between fellow ropemakers and British soldiers at Gray’s Ropewalk. This overall brawl lasted three days throughout the town and culminated with the Boston Massacre on March 5th.  

Likely aware of Slater’s rebellious nature, his master locked him in his chamber on the night of the Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773. Slater escaped his captivity, making his way to a blacksmith’s shop where he joined fellow tea party participants heading to Griffin’s Wharf. Once there, he participated in “the destruction of the tea,” perhaps joining other apprentices in going over the side of the ship to break up the clumps of tea piling up alongside the hull in the low tide.  

During the Revolutionary War, Slater enlisted in the Continental Army at 16 years old. He served at the Battle of Brandywine, Monmouth, and other engagements. He also camped in the winter of 1777 with General George Washington at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. After the war, Peter Slater Jr. settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, and established his own ropewalk in 1806. He later immersed himself in civic life, serving as a member of the town’s Board of Selectmen from 1818 to 1822. 

Peter Slater Jr. died in Worcester, Massachusetts, on October 13, 1831, and is buried in Worcester’s Hope Cemetery.