Newburyport's Road to Revolution, Part III - The First Tea Party

Join us for a special Sunday afternoon tea party at the Museum of Old Newbury to explore a tea mystery. For generations, Newburyporters claimed to have been the first to protest onerous British tariffs by destroying tea imported from British India. Before Sam Adams's band dunked that tea in Boston harbor, as the Clipper City's claim goes, a sturdy shipwright sparked the Revolution when he rallied a local band to burn the offending tea in this town's Market Square. Join historian and educator Bill Quigley, who has examined this long-standing narrative, to learn the truth of this history. It's a tale of surprising twists.

Bill Quigley teaches history and directs the Writing Center at The Governor's Academy. He's the author of an award-winning Civil War history, Pure Heart: The Faith of a Father and Son in the War for a More Perfect Union (Kent State, 2016), and he is working now on a book about the historically misrepresented Christiana "Riot" of 1851. He is co-president of the Museum's board of directors.

Funded, in part, by the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism

Host or Publisher Museum of Old Newbury