Lesson 19g: Lexington’s Tea Party
Materials and Resources
• Handout: Lexington Town Meeting, 1773
• Handout: Name Cards, 1773: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3,
(make two copies and cut out one set to pass out to students before the mock town meeting, keep one set for yourself)
• Handout: Lexington’s Tea Bonfire, 1773
• Gavel or some form of wooden stick to use to knock on the “podium” when asking for town meeting to begin and end, or to keep the meeting on task.
• Sign (or write on blackboard): How shall Lexington respond to the Tea Act?
• The Boston Tea Party, by Steven Kroll
• The Boston Tea Party: Angry Colonists Dump British Tea, by Allison Stark Draper
• Boston Tea Party, by Pamela Duncan Edwards
• “Glossary of Town Officers…” from Old Sturbridge Village website. Go to www.osv.org and find their online lesson plan on town meetings.
• Additional resource: To learn how Lexington’s town meeting operates today, visit the Town of Lexington’s web site http://ci.lexington.ma.us/townmeeting/understandtownmeet.htm
Instructional Objectives
Students will
1. Learn how Lexington residents governed themselves through town meeting.
2. Learn how colonists in Boston and Lexington revolted against the Tea Act.
Background for the Teacher
In 1773, Lexington citizens considered themselves British, with all the rights of British citizens. They strongly believed in John Locke’s theory of social contract, that governments are formed by the people, and should be responsive to its citizens. Massachusetts had already been subject to the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts in the 1760’s and reacted by boycotting the taxed goods including tea. Britain finally rescinded those laws. But Britain kept 3,000 soldiers in Boston to “keep the peace,” and continued to try to impose its will on its faraway American colony which didn’t take kindly to the directives.
In the 1770s, Parliament imposed a small tax on tea, called the Tea Act, which would have the effect of helping the East India Company retain its monopoly on the tea trade. The colonies were wary of any taxation originating in England rather than in the colonies themselves. Many towns and villages decided to once more boycott tea. Boston’s reaction to the tax led to the famous “Tea Party” in which some colonists, dressed up as Indians, boarded a ship carrying tea and threw the tea into the harbor. Lexington held a town meeting in 1773 to consider what response to make.Lexington residents knew that they were governed by the King of England, and by the Crown appointed governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Thomas Hutchinson. But they deeply valued their ability to govern their own local affairs, which they did through elected positions and through town meeting, a form of local government still used in Lexington today. During the Colonial era, each person who owned land in the town could vote at town meeting. Few women owned land, and so few women were allowed to vote.
Today Lexington has a “representative” town meeting where delegates are elected from each of nine precincts to represent citizens. Citizens of the town also elect a council of five Selectmen, who serve for three years, and who make decisions about whom to hire for Town Manager. The Town Manager then selects the Police Chief, Fire Chief, tax collector and other civil servants the town needs to function. Town meeting is presided over by an elected Moderator . The Moderator “recognizes” speakers at town meeting who may not speak unless given permission. When someone wishes to speak, they must stand quietly and wait for the Moderator to recognize them. Each speaker must stand while addressing the assembly. Each speaker may speak only twice on the same issue without asking permission from the rest of the meeting. The Moderator is addressed as “Mr. Moderator” or “Madam Moderator” and is invoked before any participant gives their opinion or even asks a question.
In 1773, Lexington voters took their rights seriously and voted with their hearts, minds and feet, even defying the government of the day. Lexington’s town meeting of December 13, 1773, voted to support a strongly worded resolution which was sent to the Committee of Correspondence in Boston to be circulated throughout Massachusetts and the other colonies. Here is the last set of resolves from that letter:
“That we will not be concerned with, directly or indirectly, in landing, receiving, buying or selling or even using any of the Teas sent out by the East India Company or that shall be Imported Subject to a Duty....That all such persons as shall, directly or indirectly...shall be deemed and treated by Us as Enemies of their Country.---That the Conduct of Richar[d] Clark and Son, the Govenours [sic] two sons, Thomas and Elijah Hutchinson, and the other consignees in refusing to resign their appointment...as repeatedly requested by the town of Boston has justly rendered them Obnoxious to their fellow citizens....We cannot but consider them as objects of our Just Resentment Indignation and Contempt.”
....We trust in GOD that should the state of our afairs [sic] require it, we shall be ready to Sacrifice our Estate, and everything dear in life, yea and Life itself, in Support of the common cause.
“The above resolve being passed a Motion was made that to them another should be added”
“That if any Head of a family in this Town or any Person shall from this time forward until the Duty be taken off purchase any Tea or use or Consume any Tea in their Families such person shall be looked upon as an Enemy to this Town and to this Country and shall be treated with neglect and Contempt.”
These Resolves were approved on December 13, 1773 and sent to Boston the next day. That very night Lexington residents “brought together every ounce” from their homes “and committed it to one common bonfire.” This was Lexington’s own “Tea Party.” The “Boston Tea Party” occurred three days later on the evening of December 16.
Teaching Activities and Sequence
1. Read aloud Drapers’s and Edward’s books about the Boston Tea Party to give students background. You may want to stop reading after you finish reading about the events on December 13, so that you don’t give away what happened in Boston before your students have a chance to learn what happened in Lexington.
2. Create a timeline. You will find information in Steven Kroll’s book.
3. Hand out Lexington’s Town Meeting, 1773. Discuss.
4. Tell students that they will be asked to pretend they are Lexington citizens in the year 1773. Pass out a name card to each student. Based on the information on the card and from what they know, what would their characters think about the tax?
5. Tell students that they will go to a Lexington town meeting to decide what the town should do about the Tea Act. Remind students that only land owners could speak up or vote at town meeting so most of them would be men (except for a few widows), and that all of them would be farmers.
6. Introduce the concept of town meeting. Explain that in Lexington today there is a Representative town meeting where each of the nine precincts elect twenty-one representatives (for a total of 189) to do their voting for them, but in colonial times, any land owning citizen of Lexington could show up at the meeting and vote.
7. Appoint yourself as the Meeting Moderator. The Moderator runs the meeting in a very formal manner. Whoever wants to speak stands up and waits for the Moderator to recognize him or her. The Moderator would say, “The Chair recognizes Mr. Jones, not having previously spoken.” The speaker then addresses the Moderator to speak to the citizenry; “Madam Moderator, I believe we should....” Town meeting uses Robert’s Rules of Order to keep the discussion moving but use your own discretion!
8. Moderate a discussion responding to the question, “How shall Lexington respond to the Tea Act?” Remind students to answer as they think their character would.
9. At the end of the discussion, “call the question” and have students vote on whether to vote. Then, if they are ready, have students vote on the options they have selected. Announce the results and adjourn town meeting.
10. Ask students to return to the 21st century and ask if anyone knows what really happened in 1773. Ask if they ever heard of the “Boston Tea Party.” Explain what happened in Boston as a reaction to the tea tax. Explain that history books tend to be about heroes and not about ordinary people.
11. Explain what Lexington residents did by reading or paraphrasing the resolves and by handing out or paraphrasing Lexington’s Tea Bonfire, 1773. The ordinary people of Lexington made a really important decision to defy British law because they thought the law was unfair. It has always been important in this country for citizens to take part in political decisions. In Lexington that still means government through town meeting, and it also means ordinary citizens going to vote in state and national elections to make their wishes known. Ask students if they know what happened after 1773. Remind them of Patriot’s Day which celebrates the Battle of Lexington and Concord which took place on April 19, 1775. Remind them that the people involved in that battle were the very same townspeople who had argued so strongly against the Tea Act two years earlier.
12. As an assessment, ask students if they will be able to explain to someone else why the events of December, 1773 should be called Lexington’s “Tea Party.” Ask them to do it through a Quick Write where they write everything they can think of about the lesson in five minutes.
13. As an optional extension/modification: Before this lesson, introduce the class to town meeting by having a practice town meeting where you argue something light and slightly silly to get students to participate fully. Ask students to debate whether or not the three little pigs were unfair to the wolf in the folk tale of The Three Little Pigs , or whether Jill should have been more helpful to Jack in the Jack and Jill rhyme.
