"THE BOSTON TEA PARTY"

When asked about our American Revolution the student of our history will most often know about, "The Boston Massacre", "Bunker Hill", "Lexington and Concord".  And then that student might say, "Oh, and the, "Boston Tea Party". That is our subject today.
Of the four English ships that sailed into port with the tea shipment only three docked.  The fourth was held up because of an outbreak of smallpox and had to be cleansed and "smoked".
"The sons of Liberty" that raided the ships disguised as Mohawk Indians were not the "Mob" of "ruffians" often described, but, actually a well disciplined group of citizens.  Did they destroy private property?  Yes!  Because the tea was owned by someone other than those who dumped in in the harbor.  But, only the tea was harmed.  They worked carefully for three hours at the task of opening the crates, throwing the tea in the bay and, because of low tide leaving only three feet of water, scattering the heaps of tea that formed.  They took great care to make sure that other goods on the ship was kept from harm.  They even straightened up the cargo, repaired the lock they broke and swept and cleaned up the mess they made.  And Samuel Adams (only his enemies called him "Sam") was not in the crowd but watched from shore......Medicineman!