Patriotic mobs and harbor tea-dumping returned to Boston on Saturday as the city marked the 250th anniversary of the revolutionary protest that preceded America’s independence.

The commemoration of the Boston Tea Party included scheduled reenactments of the throwing of tea leaves into the city’s harbor and community meetings that preceded the defiant act on Dec. 16, 1773 — though this time, the symbolic protest was aided by spotlights and microphones. City officials were expecting thousands of visitors for the celebration.

Crowds who gathered to watch the reenactment quickly joined in, shouting “Huzzah!” along with the costumed actors as boxes of tea were dumped in the harbor. Later, they resoundingly booed an actor who read King George III’s order closing the bay, and they cheered as narrators detailed the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.

Tea for the reenactment was supplied by the East India Co., the same British company that was at the center of the raucous dispute.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Funny… based on the photo they appear to be dressed like colonial Americans.

    But the Tea Partiers weren’t dressed like that.

    For some reason, they were dressed like indigenous Americans.

    Can’t imagine why this reenactment left that key detail out.

    • osarusan@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      This was my first thought too.

      I think if we looked at the Boston Tea Party with today’s eyes, we might see it as what it really was: a bunch of rich, white racists who didn’t want to pay taxes and so they threw a tantrum and vandalized a bunch of private property.

      • Taco2112@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Couldn’t they have protested some other way, without destroying property? At least, that was the question asked by the US oligarchs during the protests in 2020.

        • osarusan@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          They could have. But they didn’t. Just like the Jan 6 protestors.

          The difference is that the Boston Tea Partiers were on the winning side of history. If the British had won the American Revolutionary War, then we’d be talking about those anti-social racists who ruined a bunch of tea because they were pissy about paying for it.

          And if the Jan 6 terrorists had succeeded in overthrowing the government, future generations might end up learning about them as revolutionary heroes.

      • Rusticus@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        You obviously don’t understand that the tea party was an act of property destruction of a corporation that was given preferential treatment by the government. An “eat the rich” act against corporatism. We need more of that today yet here you are completely misrepresenting it and defending the mega corporations.

        https://fee.org/resources/about-that-famous-tea-party/

          • Rusticus@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Got it. So because you couldn’t comprehend an article from a prominent historian regarding the true history of the Boston Tea Party you’re just going to stick to your blatantly incorrect interpretation of the historical event. Your 5th grade teacher is not proud of you. You deserve the dictatorship that may be coming.

            • x4740N@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              You don’t need to be so rude

              I legitimately found it hard to read the article because it looked like a text wall and text walls are hard to read for me personally

              You deserve the dictatorship that may be coming.

              I’m not a fucking right winger

              Bigots, transphobes and racists can go and fuck themselves and accusing me of being like those fuckers just because I said it was hard to read a text wall is pretty fucking rude

              I won’t excuse racism for anything and I hope you don’t either

              You’re just as toxic as people on reddit and I hoped I wouldn’t have had the same experience on lemmy

    • sbv@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      The second image in the carousel is a drawing of the event, which shows the Tea Partiers wielding what looks like tomahawks.

      Didn’t come up in the article tho.

    • Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Are you looking at a different photo than I am? Because they’re dressed normally in the AP article

      • x4740N@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I was going to upload a screenshot of the image to show you but apparently image uploads are temporarily disabled on lemmy.world

    • ExLisper@linux.community
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      11 months ago

      Ashamed of your history? Don’t worry, just whitewash it and pretend the ugly parts didn’t happen. Now you can be proud again! Hurray!