J. L. BELL is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. He is particularly interested in the experiences of children in 1765-75. He has published scholarly papers and popular articles for both children and adults. He was consultant for an episode of History Detectives, and contributed to a display at Minute Man National Historic Park.

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Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Hours and Hours of Boston Tea Party Content

Some critics might call this posting a “link dump,” but so many media outlets are sharing material about the Boston Tea Party in slight advance of its Sestercentennial that the anniversary will be well past if I point to each item on its own.

History Hit is a British company issuing videos, podcasts, and articles. Last fall, the founding host Dan Snow came to Boston to look into the destruction of the tea, and I was one of the heads he talked to, along with Bob Allison and folks at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum and Revolutionary Spaces, as well as the Benjamin Franklin House in London.

History Hit makes some of its videos available ad-free to subscribers, and “American Revolution: The Boston Tea Party” is one of those. I understand I appear in the latter half of these 46 minutes. The website offers a free trial, and using the code BOSTONTEAPARTY gets a 50% discount on the first three months. (Other sorts of History Hit videos are shared free on YouTube.)

History Hit’s podcasts can be heard (with advertising) on all regular podcast services. One is American History Hit with Don Wildman, and its latest episode is “The Boston Tea Party Explained.” Wildmon gets answers from Prof. Benjamin L. Carp, author of Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America. [ADDENDUM: The next episode continues to conversation as “Tea, Tax & Revolution: Boston Tea Party Aftermath.”]

Ben Carp also spoke with Callie Crossley of WGBH’s Under the Radar program, along with Evan O’Brien of the Boston Tea Party Ships and Anjelica Oswald of American Ancestors’ Boston Tea Party Descendants Program. That story is titled “250 years later, local experts consider the complex legacy of the Boston Tea Party.”

Back across the ocean, the B.B.C.’s History Extra service talked with Ben Carp for a members-only podcast on “The Global Legacy of the Boston Tea Party.” The free website offers the article “Boston Tea Party: your guide to the protest that ignited a revolution.”

On History.com, Dave Roos interviewed Ben for his article “Why Some Founding Fathers Disapproved of the Boston Tea Party,” focusing on why George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were less enthusiastic about the destruction of the tea than the Adams cousins and others in New England.

Small State, Big History is a growing collection of articles about Rhode Island’s oversized past, organized by indefatigable author Christian McBurney. It now features my article “Narraganetts (Not Mohawks) Blamed for Boston Tea Party,” on how Bostonians evolved from saying that the tea destroyers were dressed as generic “Indians” to pretending they were “Narragansetts,” followed by the late-1800s triumph of the label “Mohawks.”

As the American Studier blogger, Fitchburg State professor Ben Railton launched a series of postings about the Boston Tea Party with even more links.

And Evan O’Brien, he of the Boston Tea Party Ships, spoke with Bob Allison for Revolution 250’s podcast about this weekend’s commemorations.

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