The Philadelphia Tea Party:

An Inspiration to Boston and a Party That Never Was

By Harry Kyriakodis

Most Americans are familiar with the celebrated Boston Tea Party, but there was also a "Philadelphia Tea
Party" of sorts in late 1773.
Both the Boston Tea Party and the Philadelphia incident were the result of Americans being upset about
Great Britain's decision to tax the American colonies despite a lack of representation in Parliament. The
tax on tea particularly angered the colonists, so they boycotted English tea for several years, during which
time merchants in several colonial cities resorted to smuggling tea from The Netherlands. It was generally
known that Philadelphia merchants were greater smugglers of tea than their Boston counterparts!
As a result, the East India Company appealed for financial relief to the British government, which passed
the Tea Act on May 10, 1773. This Act of Parliament allowed the East India Company to sell tea to the
colonies directly and without "payment of any customs or duties whatsoever" in England, instead paying
the much lower American duty. The resulting tax break allowed East India to sell tea for half the old price
and cheaper than the price of tea in Great Britain, enabling the firm to undercut prices offered by colonial
merchants and smugglers.
The Tea Act infuriated colonials precisely because it was designed to lower the price of tea without
officially repealing the tea tax of the Revenue Act of 1767. And colonial leaders thought the British were
trying to use cheap tea to "overcome all the patriotism of an American," in the words of Benjamin Franklin.

Word was received in North America by September, 1773, that East India Company tea shipments were
on their way. Philadelphians held a town meeting on October 16 at the Pennsylvania State House (now
known as Independence Hall) organized by Dr. Benjamin Rush, Colonel William Bradford, Thomas Mifflin,
1
Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, and other local leaders and members of the Philadelphia Sons of Liberty. They
adopted eight resolutions, one of which stated: "That the duty imposed by Parliament upon tea landed in
America is a tax on the Americans, or levying contributions on them without their consent." The most
important one read:
That the resolution lately entered into by the East India Company, to send out their
tea to America subject to the payment of duties on its being landed here, is an open
attempt to enforce the ministerial plan, and a violent attack upon the liberties of
America.
Printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette, these declarations comprised the first public protest against the
importation of taxed tea from England.
In Boston three weeks later, a town meeting at Faneuil Hall declared "That the sense of this town cannot
be better expressed than in the words of certain judicious resolves, lately entered into by our worthy
brethren, the citizens of
Philadelphia." Indeed,
Bostonians adopted the same
resolutions that Philadelphians
had promulgated earlier. The
Boston Tea Party followed just
a few weeks later, on
December 16, 1773.
On December 25, the British
tea ship Polly sailed up the
Delaware River and reached
Chester, Pennsylvania.
Commanded by one Captain
Ayres, the ship carried 697
chests of tea consigned to the
Philadelphia Quaker firm of
James & Drinker. Several
Philadelphia gentlemen
proceeded to intercept the
Polly and escorted Ayres to
the city.
Two days later, there was a
mass meeting of 8,000
Philadelphians in the State
House yard to address the
situation. This was the largest
crowd assembled in the
American colonies up to that
point. A number of
resolutions were adopted, the
first one being "that the tea...
shall not be landed." It was
further determined that the tea
should be refused and that the
vessel should make its way
down the Delaware River and
out of the Delaware Bay as
soon as possible.
Captain Ayres was probably
influenced by a broadside
issued by the self-constituted
"Committee for Tarring and
Feathering" that plainly
warned him of his fate should
he attempt to unload his ship's
cargo. Dated November 27,
the handbill read, in part:
You are sent out on a diabolical Service; and if you are so foolish and obstinate as to
complete your Voyage, by bringing your Ship to Anchor in this Port, you may run such
a Gauntlet as will induce you, in your last Moments, most heartily to curse those who
have made you the Dupe of their Avarice and Ambition.
 What think you, Captain, of a Halter around your Neck—ten Gallons of liquid Tar
decanted on your Pate—with the Feathers of a dozen wild Geese laid over that to
enliven your Appearance?
Only think seriously of this—and fly to the Place from whence you came—fly without
Hesitation—without the Formality of a Protest—and above all, Captain Ayres, let us
advise you to fly without the wild Geese Feathers.
The flyer also warned river pilots that they would receive the same treatment if they tried to bring in the
Polly. (Another such broadside specifically warning river pilots was later issued on December 7th.)
Consignees of the tea would also suffer dire consequences if they accepted shipment. Captain Ayres was
ushered to the Arch Street Wharf and
from there returned to his ship. He then
refitted the Polly with food and water and
sailed it back to Britain, still laden with its
cargo of tea.
Perhaps due to the Quaker influence in Philadelphia, the "Philadelphia Tea Party" was relatively nonviolent
and did not cause loss to any innocent merchants, since no tea was destroyed. In fact, local merchants
may have even helped Captain Ayres with his expenses in returning to England.
Restrained as it was compared to Boston's, the Philadelphia Tea Party was one of the incidents that led to
the calling of the Continental Congress at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia the following September.
Furthermore, in 1809, Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote to John Adams:
I once heard you say [that] the active business of the American Revolution began in
Philadelphia in the act of her citizens in sending back the tea ship, and that
Massachusetts would have received her portion of the tea had not our example
encouraged her to expect union and support in destroying it... The flame kindled on
that day [October 16, 1773] soon extended to Boston and gradually spread
throughout the whole continent. It was the first throe of that convulsion which
delivered Great Britain of the United States.
Both Pennsylvania and Philadelphia were regarded as having been far more conservative before and
during the Revolutionary War than the New England colonies and most of the Southern colonies—and this
historic reputation persists to this day. But the Philadelphia Tea Party highlights that the radicals of
Philadelphia and Pennsylvania played a much more active role in the American Revolution than generally
acknowledged.
1
The Sons of Liberty was a secret radical
group founded in Boston in 1765 to
oppose the Stamp Act. Similar
independent associations soon sprang up
in cities and towns throughout the
colonies. While this patriotic movement
lessened somewhat after repeal of the
Stamp Act in 1766, the various Sons
groups throughout the colonies
corresponded throughout the 1760s and
early 1770s. The phrase "sons of liberty"
later became a generic term applied to
those who supported the goal of
American Independence.

REFERENCES:
• William C. Kashatus, Historic
Philadelphia: The City,
Symbols & Patriots, 1681-
1800 (McFarland & Co.,
1992), at 14.
• Edward S. Gifford, Jr., The
American Revolution in the
Delaware Valley
(Philadelphia: Pennsylvania
Soc. of Sons of the
Revolution, 1976), at 21-22.
• Robert H. Wilson,
Philadelphia: Official
Handbook for Visitors (New
York: C.S. Hammond & Co.,
1964), at 56.
• Francis Burke Brandt, The
Majestic Delaware: The
Nation's Foremost Historic
River (Philadelphia: Brandt &
Gummere Co., 1929), at 103.