Generations of American school children have been taught that the American Revolution started when a group of men protested against British tax laws by dumping newly imported tea into Boston harbor. A secret society of American men who called themselves the Sons of Liberty dressed as Native Americans (more specifically as Mohawks), clothing themselves in blankets or lengths of coarse red woolen cloth fastened over one shoulder by belts or sashes tied around their waists, red knit caps, with their faces blackened by coal dust (believed to be a sign of preparation for war). They boarded three ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 crates of tea overboard in what would be known as The Boston Tea Party. The Mohawk disguises reputed to have been worn by the Son’s of Liberty served not only to mask participant’s individual identities in order to avoid prosecution, but were also meant as a calling card that announced the group’s true identity, as “Natives,” to both British officials as well as sympathetic locals. Every year the Boston Tea Party is reenacted in Boston harbor.
Andrea Robbins and Max Becher 2016
