Torry’s Tea Party

In Boston during 1773 it was tough times for families. Like the Torriy’s family. Mary-ann, Michael, and Maddie’s family were going through a tough time during the 1700’s. Mary-ann’s mom Michelle, dad Mark, and grandmother, Lila love drinking tea with every meal or when they are sick or on weekends, sometimes n the morning.

When Mark came home with the news that The King of England going to start charging a lot of tax for tea. Mary-ann’s family got very upset because their favorite drink was tea. Michelle and Mark started thinking for ways to save money and to make a little extra money. Then Michelle said “ think it’s time to start to stop drinking tea so much, if we can’t afford it and only drink it on special occasions.” Mark agreed and they went on with their day.

Mary-ann shares a room with her sister Maddie. That night they were talking about how they felt bad that her parents have to give up what they love because the King wants more money than he already has. “Maybe there is a way to help.” “Yah! but how?” says Mary-ann. “Not sure but I’m tired night” “Night”

The next morning Mary-ann Michael and Maddie were eating breakfast when Maddie whispered “meet me in the field after breakfast!” “Okay” said Marry-ann.

Mary-ann finished her breakfast with her family and went out to the field to find her sister there in the center of the field with her eyes closed just sitting there. “Maddie?” she said “yea?” she said“Mom told me to go straight to work, because it’s a busy day. I’ll see you tonight she said walking away.

Mary-ann went to work cleaning and thinking. What can we do to help? What can we do to help? She said over and over again in her head. She thought she could ask her parents and brother, but she didn’t want to get them involved. Then she thought her and Maddie could come up with something. “I wonder what two girls could come up with alone with no help” she said to herself out loud.

When her dad got home that night he told Michelle how he could go when the boat comes and throw the tea overboard with a couple of his friends and him could get rid of the temptation of drinking tea and let the king know we aren’t going to pay for these prices. When Mary-ann heard what her father was saying and she started

jumping up and down and went to her sister and told her to come listen. They walked over and hid behind the couch. When they got home their mom was saying how she doesn’t think it’s such a good idea, because “what if you get caught? what if they see you?” “Don’t worry! we’ll be careful and we will dress up as Mohawk Indians, and if we get caught they won’t know we’re colonists” said Mark.

That night Mary-ann and Maddie were talking and neither of them could come up with anything. Then it came to Maddie,

Mary-ann said Maddie.. “yea” “we can go throw tea overboard with Father!” “Are you crazy?” said Mary-ann. “no well maybe but no seriously we should or we shouldn’t even tell dad” said Maddie. “How? how will we not get caught by father, or by anyone? How will we get the costumes? how will we do anything? “well i uh i ummm.... I don’t know we will figure something out.” “I don’t know I’ll think about it good night” said Mary-ann

5 minutes later Michael walks into their room and said “I want in.” “In on what said Maddie?” Michael shut the door and silently walked over to the edge on Mary-ann’s bed and said, “I want to help throw tea overboard.” “How’d you know?” said Mary-ann. “Well you guys are terrible whisperers and i could hear you, you need someone strong don’t you?” he said “Hey, what’s that supposed to mean” said Maddie. “I’m going to bed said Mary-ann rolling over” yea me too” said Maddie.“Bye Michael we’ll talk about this tomorrow” said Mary-ann. ““Fine bye” he said leaving the room.

The next morning Michael came into their room and woke them up. He said “Well being a smart one i talked to dad and he said that the boat with the tea should be here in two days on Friday.” Dad said there should be three ships coming in filled with tea . Also mentioning that bunch of men will be there throwing tea overboard and they will be dressed as Mohawk Natives” “Go on” said Mary-ann.

“And they are docking overnight and on Friday night he’s going to dump the tea. “So if we did go dump the tea we wouldn’t tell mom or dad we would have to make sure dad didn’t see us?” said Maddie. ““Yep” said Michael. “Okay I’m in” said Maddie. “Me too” said Mary-ann “Me three” said Michael. “Okay now get out” said Maddie.“Okay well it’s your turn to make the beds” he said walking out the door.

On Friday Morning Mary-ann and Maddie walk into Michael’s room saying “Michael Come on wake up! It’s the day. He slowly got out of bed saying, “

Okay, I’m going I’m going!” They all got ready for a day at work and went to the field and got busy. The day ended and they went home and ate dinner. They talked with their family and went to bed at 10:30 and told their mom and dad they were tired and need a good night sleep.

On Saturday morning at 12:30 “Maddie, Mary-ann wake up! get dressed it’s time to go!” Michael said quietly. They got up, got dressed up in their Native costumes that Mary-ann made them and quietly snuck out the window of the bedroom. They got to the dock and about 50 men were there and many just watching because they didn’t want to get caught. Crate after crate after crates of tea went over the edge of the boat and hit the water with a splash. At 1:20, 10 other men including their dad came down and started dumping tea. After about 15 minutes Mark saw Michael Mary-ann and Maddie running home and got upset. For a second mark didn’t think it was them, But when Michael turned around to see if there dad was looking. He was looking and They were close enough for him to tell it was Michael.

The next day Mark confronted them about going down and sneaking out without telling anybody and if they ever do it again they would have to pay 5 pounds to the government. They also told their mom about what happened, and she was not happy but really upset because they snuck out. After Mark and Michelle talked about it they decided on a punishment.

When they told Michelle and mark told the kids about their punishment they were mad but agreed and thought it could be worse.. She told them that they were going to have to work 5 hours longer everyday for two weeks . She also told them that after work they had to come straight home. Michael Marry-ann and Maddie understood that what they did was wrong and that they probably deserved a bigger punishment. Marry-

ann MIchael and Maddie did hard work and worked late for two weeks until there was over. Marry-ann and Maddie agreed that, that was the worst two weeks of their life. They agreed to never sneak out again and they were always well behaved.

Author’s Note

In 1770’s many things were happening in our nation. We were still under control of Great Britain and they were charging us taxes on many items. One of the item’s was tea and many people were affected by this tax on tea. People were tired of King George and Parliament's taxation without representation and wanted it to end. On December 16th, 1773 countless people went to the Boston Harbor and dumped chests of tea overboard into the harbor.

People were very upset about the Tea act and wanted all the taxation to stop. People rebelled in many ways. They rioted and Protested. Before the Tea Party they lowered the tax on tea so people would some. But the Colonists saw it as a trap and he Sons and Daughters of Liberty urged them not to. The Sons and Daughters of Liberty is a group that kids and adults were part of who were against the Taxation.

Torry’s Tea Party is taking place in 1773 during the Tea Party. When you were in the Sons and Daughters of Liberty you were against the laws that were being passed. You would make posters against the taxation and why it wasn't fair. Then you would post them around the town so people could see them. Parliament and King George were upset by the rioting and the protesting. They were very upset about the Boston tea Party so they closed the Boston Harbor.When they closed the Boston Harbor Bostonians couldn’t get item from anywhere. Other colonies had to help out and send aid.The King and Parliament did many other things to upset the colonists. They had many acts including the Sugar Act, the Currency Act, The Quartering Act, Stamp, Declaratory Act, Townshend Act, Boston Massacre, Tea Act, The Coercive Act, New England Restraining Act and many more. All of these act’s upset the Patriots. When they closed the Boston Harbor it affected many people's lives. People were worried about what else the king would do. After the Revolutionary War the patriots felt much better. Patriots were glad we won and that were happy that we weren’t under the control of Britain.

-Amanda Rice

Works Cited

“Boston Tea Prty.” www.osmh.org/. N.p., 1999. Web. 1 Feb. 2012. <http://www.osmh.org/osmh_123456789files/BostonTeaPartyBegan.aspx>. This website told me how to the Boston Tea Party started. This was helpful because I didn’t fullyunderstand why and how it started.

Byrd, William, and William Byrd. Colonial America. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Educational, 1998. Print. I used this book to find out the history of The Boston Tea Party. I liked this book because it was helpful and the information was easy to find.

“History of Child Labor.” www.scholastic.com. N.p., 2011. Web. 1 Feb. 2012. <http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/history-child-labor>. This website’s information was easy to find and helpful. This website told me some jobs parents, adults, and kids would do in the 1700’s.

Ibis Communications. “Boston Tea Party 1773.” www.eyewitnesstohistory.com. The Boston Tea Party 1773 Eyewitness to History , 2002. Web. 1 Feb. 2012. <http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/teaparty.htm>. I used this Website to find why the king was taxing so much. I thought this was website was helpful because it told me all the information i needed to know.