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In a space normally occupied by twenty desks arranged in a precise order, AP Literature and Composition teacher Lisa Otsuka transformed her classroom into a scene straight out of Bridgerton. Five tables are arranged inside, each with tasteful decorations including framed Pride and Prejudice quotes (My good opinion, once lost, is lost forever), bouquets of flowers, a delightful assortment of books, ceramic teapots, and freshly-picked oranges. Soft piano music plays in the background as students chat amongst themselves over tea and scones.

The Pride and Prejudice tea party occurs every year at the end of the first semester. Otsukas students read the famous Jane Austen novel, which explores themes of love, class, familial obligations, marriage, and of course, sarcastic British remarks. The plot centers around the Bennets, a genteel class family in 18th century England, and the arrival of Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley, two wealthy landowners from Pemberley and Netherfield, respectively. The focus of the novel is the relationship between the Bennets second eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. Elizabeth is known for her witty and sarcastic remarks, which explains why Otsukas students honor her character by writing a satire of their own. Their topics varied from the arduous college application process to problematic desk designs.

The tea party is held on a block day. The first 30 minutes of class are spent enjoying one anothers company. Students are seated in small groups and are encouraged to catch up and chat with one another while they snack on scones, tea, hot cocoa, and butter cookies, provided by the students themselves. In the wise words of Otsuka, the party was BYOM (Bring Your Own Mug); each student brought their own mug, often at least somewhat representative of their personality. Class favorites were senior Jude Wilsons mug featuring Sal from Impractical Jokers and senior Carlos Myers-Ascencios mug with a charming narwhal.

The next half an hour is dedicated to the reading of satires. Each student was tasked with writing a satirical passage about a subject of their choosing prior to the tea party. Every attendee presents their satire to their own table, then the funniest (or most interesting) ones are read aloud to the class. Senior Kevin Jiang said regarding the party, The satires were really fun, and later added, Ive had five cups of tea so far. The readings are interspersed with class karaoke, which featured the AP Literature students belting out the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen and the fan-favorite Dancing Queen by ABBA. Wilson also entertained the class with a plethora of guitar performances ranging from Radiohead to Ed Sheeran.

Given that the novel is set in 18th-century England, it only makes sense to hold a British accent contest. Each table nominates an individual whom they think has the best impression of a British accent. Then, the chosen one says their phrase aloud to the class, and the class determines the winner. From Otsukas 4th period, the winner was Minh Nguyen, with his short and sweet phrase, Poppycock!, which was only made more realistic by the presence of a top hat and spectacles. He truly looked like the protagonist of a Dickens novel.

The ambience of the whole event can be summed up in the wise words of Eduardo Sanchez, who said, It was wonderfully delightful.

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Pride and Prejudice: Tea Party With Otsuka - The M-A Chronicle

Oil painting depicting the Yorktown Tea Party, Virginias counterpart to the Boston Tea Party.(Photo/The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)

YORKTOWN Everyone knows the story 250 years ago, rebels took shipments of tea and tossed them into the harbor to protest the taxation of the American colonies without representation but while the Boston Tea Party was the most famous, 17 other tea parties took place, including one in Yorktown.

Often overshadowed by its Boston counterpart, The Yorktown Tea Party will be marked with a week-long commemoration in November of 2024.

Its crucial to remember that the Boston Tea Party was not an isolated incident, said Michael Steen, director of education at theWatermens Museumand chair of the Yorktown Tea Party 250th Anniversary Planning Committee.

Similar protestsagainst British taxation and the lack of colonial representation in Parliament occurred throughout the colonies, including Charleston, South Carolina,which commemorated the 250th anniversary of its tea party earlier this month; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Wilmington and Edenton, North Carolina; Annapolis, Maryland; and Greenwich, New Jersey.

We 250th planners joined forces, and our friends in Boston, and said how can we help and support each other? Commented Cheryl Wilson, Executive Officer for VA250, the commission serving to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the Revolutionary War, and the independence of the United States in the Commonwealth of Virginia. So we all formed a little group and started planning our different tea party anniversary events together. The current event, the 250th, is part of this overarching narrative nationwide showing how discord and descent was growing throughout the colonies.

While the Boston Tea Party is widely celebrated, Yorktowns remains relatively unknown, Steen said. In reali-tea, it held just as much significance in shaping the course of American history.

According to the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, the Virginia boycott of British goods went into effect on Nov. 1, 1774, one month before the Continental Association boycott went into effect. Most merchants agreed to stop imports, but a few continued to import items from Britain, and a ship called the Virginia arrived in Yorktown from England, carrying two half-chests of tea.

The tea had been imported by John Hatley Norton, the Yorktown agent of John Norton and Sons of London for a Williamsburg merchant, John Prentis. On the morning of Nov. 7, some citizens of Yorktown boarded the ship and waited throughout the morning for word from a committee of burgesses (colonial representatives).

The committee was meeting in Williamsburg to debate what to do with the tea and the ship. Hearing nothing from the committee by noon, the men hoisted the tea out of its hold and threw it in the river, just like in Boston.

News of the event spread like wildfire and would convince most Virginia merchants to sign the Continental Association. The York and Gloucester committees criticized Norton, Prentis, and Captain Howard Esten of the Virginia in the Virginia Gazette for ignoring the boycott. An apology from Prentis would be published in the same issue and then in May, an apology from Norton.

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Yorktown Tea Party, there will be lectures, a tea festival, tall ships in port and a tea party reenactment.

There will be other interpretive programs and a maritime festival, and even a sea shanty festival, said Darren Williams, the Yorktown Deputy Director of Economic and Tourism Development. Its going to be a really neat, week-long slate of activities.

Thanks to local support from the community and the Watermens Museum, Yorktown has been able to include an educational component. The fourth-grade class of Achilles Elementary School came to this years reenactment and were able to climb on board the vessel and dump the tea.

Its a really cool educational component thats been plugged into this whole event, Williams explained. The kids are really excited. You had half the kids on the pier and half on the ship and they started chanting Dump that Tea and then they finally dumped it.

For more information about the 250th festivities visit the official VA250 website.

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The Yorktown Tea Party at 250 - WYDaily

By DUNCAN DENT

The River of Pearls Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution held a Boston Tea Party at the Mississippi Agriculture Museum in Jackson last weekend.

Member Donna Russell of Madison said the DAR hosted the event on Saturday, Dec. 16, the actual date of the Boston Tea Party 250 years ago.

America recently celebrated the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, and the city of Boston was not the only celebration of note, Russell said.

Children of the American Revolution (CAR) from Pontotoc, Houston, Tupelo, and Madison came to participate.

In addition, the chapter sponsored, the Junior Achievement Citizens Club from the Buddy Center (MS Downs Syndrome Association), and other special guests.

One of the special guests was Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson.

Russell said members of the River of Pearls chapter put on a play about the Boston Tea Party and offered various learning and art centers for those in attendance.

Refreshments of spiced tea and cinnamon cookies were served to those in attendance.

An American Elm Liberty Tree was planted in the Victory Garden site at the Museum in recognition of the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party and the upcoming 250th Anniversary of the United States of America that will take place July 4, 2026.

Russell said history reflects that in the early 1770s, Britain had war debts due to the French and Indian War in America. The British Parliament began taxing the American colonists to pay these debts. The Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767 benefited the British but were not used to sustain the colonies, she said. The colonists felt the taxes were unfair, and since they did not have representation in Parliament, No taxes without representation became the cry of the colonists.

The Boston Massacre in March 1770, where five colonists were killed by the British led to further rage. The Tea Act was passed which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea to the colonies duty-free but still highly taxed when it reached colonial ports of entry. The Sons of Liberty protested the Tea Act and other forms of taxation, she said.

This group of revolutionists included patriots such as John Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock, Dr. Joseph Warren, and Samuel Adams, she said.

On December 16, 1773, the British East India Company sent three ships: the Dartmouth, Beaver, and Eleanor into the Boston Harbor carrying over 90,000 pounds of valuable tea. That night a large group of Bostonians disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded the docked ships, and in less than three hours, threw 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor on the Charles River.

The names of most of those involved in the Boston Tea Party remain unknown, Russell said. And thanks to their Native American costumes, only one of the tea party participants was arrested and imprisoned; but because no one would vow he had been involved, was released.

She said King George III, in retribution, passed the Intolerable Act, to punish Boston. He felt this would squelch rebellion in New England and prevent them from uniting, but the colonies rallied to Bostons aid, and this led to the convening of the First Continental Congress and the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, which started eighteen months later.

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DAR hosts event to commemorate 250th anniversary of Boston Tea Party - Madison County Journal

The Susanna Dickinson Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution held their annual Christmas lunch on Dec. 12, at Noli Vita Restaurant in Cibolo. Fellowship, food, and fun were enjoyed by all. Christmas decorations included teapots on all the tables in celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.

Tosca Haag presented a report on her revolutionary ancestor, who is none other than Daniel Boone. Thats right, Daniel Boone, the frontiersman was also a revolutionary patriot!

The program for the meeting was presented by 1st Vice Regent Jane McDonald and 2nd Vice Regent Patsy Beckett, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party and how it inspired nine other tea parties that took place throughout the 13 colonies. The highlight was a presentation of the Edenton, N.C., tea party where 51 women got together to sign a resolution that protested the British Tea Act of 1773. The ladies declared their intention of no longer purchasing tea nor would they wear any item manufactured in England. Unlike the men who disguised themselves as Native Americans, the ladies signed their names on the petition and their names were printed in the local newspaper. The Edenton Tea Party was a landmark event, not just because of the stance they took, but because it was organized by women. It was the first recorded womens political demonstration in Colonial America.

At the close of the meeting, the decorative teapots were given as Christmas gifts/door prizes to all in attendance.

Information provided by Patsy Beckett.

The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a volunteer service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing Americas future through better education for children. For more information, email susannadickinsonDAR@gmail.com. The chapter meets the second Tuesday of every month. All are welcome to explore the exciting world of DAR.

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Susanna Dickinson Chapter celebrates the Boston Tea Party - La Vernia News

Last Saturday was a major anniversary for the Boston Tea Party, which happened 250 years ago on December 16, 1773. The Tea Party was a major escalation in the eras conflict between the American colonies and the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

What was at that time a movement that mainly saw Parliament rather than King George III as the problem rapidly changed following the Tea Party. Thirty months later, the colonies, calling themselves the thirteen united States of America declared their independence, giving as their reason the kings repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

Weve all learned the American side of the Tea Party story in school. It has been fascinating learning about the British side of the story from reading The Correspondence of Thomas Hutchinson, who was the royal governor of the Massachusetts colony at the time of the Tea Party. His communications from 1773 indicate that tensions between the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Parliament in London were growing, mainly due to decisions by the British that colonists believed usurped their authority to govern themselves.

Hutchinson, deciding that he had to take a stand against the view that the colonists could challenge the supremacy of Parliament, summoned the Massachusetts General Court into session and stated, I know of no line that can be drawn between the supreme authority of Parliament and the total independence of the colonies.

Colonist leaders Samuel and John Adams countered that the relationship with Britain was a contract between the colonists and the king, not Parliament, and, therefore, the Massachusetts General Court, not Parliament, was the entity that had the authority to determine which British laws would be observed in the colony.

In this atmosphere, Parliaments introduction in the fall of 1773 of the Tea Act, which was meant to support a financially troubled East India Company, became the next crisis. Hutchinson, who lived in downtown Boston and had a country house on Milton Hill where todays Hutchinsons Field is located, viewed the group of Boston radicals led by Samuel Adams as the cause of the tensions between Britain and Massachusetts. He believed that overall, the general population was loyal to rule from London. With the Massachusetts economy in good shape and local taxes low, Hutchinson couldnt understand why there would be such opposition to a small tea tax. But the issue for the colonists was, essentially, local control versus control by a faraway legislature exerting more and more control over Massachusetts.

Boston leaders initially tried to get merchants who would be receiving tea shipments to resign their offices, with the result that no one would be available to accept the tea. But that didnt work, and ships with tea started arriving in Boston on Nov. 28. The law in place stated that the tea tax had to be paid within twenty days of arrival in port, that is, by Dec. 16, or the cargo would be subject to confiscation.

Various plans were developed to either have the tea kept by the government or to have the ships leave before the twenty-day deadline, but bureaucratic rules kept the vessels from leaving Boston. Hutchinson pleaded with Lord Dartmouth, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, to allow the tea to be sent elsewhere, as the spirit is now much lower in several other Colonies. He even suggested that war with Spain or France could be the means of bringing the people to their senses.

Correspondence from Hutchinson on Dec. 14 shows that he tried to get another town in the area, including Dorchester, to allow the ships to unload the tea there, but they have kept a constant military Watch of 25 men every night, generally with their fire arms, to prevent the Tea being privately landed.

Two days later, on Dec. 16, a messenger from the Boston Body of the Trade went to Hutchinsons house on Milton Hill with a request that the governor grant passes for the ships to leave Boston. He refused, and reported to Lord Dartmouth the next day that yesterday towards evening [the messenger] came to me at Milton, and I soon satisfied him that no such permit would be granted until the Vessel was regularly cleared. He returned to Town after dark in the evening and reported to the Meeting the answer I had given him.

The Meeting he was referring to was a huge gathering called due to the imminent tea tax payment deadline. It was held at the Old South Meeting House, attracting at least 5,000 people (about a third of the population of Boston), who surrounded the Meeting House due to the sheer size of the crowd.

Upon hearing the response from Hutchinson, Samuel Adams declared, This meeting can do nothing further to save the country, and a group of men proceeded to go to three of the ships and dump 340 chests of tea into Boston Harbor.

In retaliation, Parliament responded with the Boston Port Bill, which closed off the harbor to commerce by ship and required Bostonians to pay for the tea dropped into the harbor. Hutchinson fled to England and was replaced as royal governor by General Thomas Gage. Other acts of Parliament, meant to stop resistance to its supreme authority, followed. Colonists called them the Intolerable Acts and they served to increase tensions and radicalize even more Massachusetts residents. Even so, the colonists still saw the problem as parliament, not the king. It would be another year or so before George III became the primary villain.

Reading through Hutchinsons missives shows so many missed opportunities to resolve the issue. Would Hutchinson have brusquely dismissed the messenger if he knew there were 5,000 angry Bostonians waiting for his decision?

My exploration of this topic prompted some thoughts about all the other missed opportunities to resolve the conflict that led to the American Revolution. What would have happened if Parliament had decided that problems with the colonies wasnt worth the money they would get from taxation, and allowed the colonies to return to control of their own local affairs? Would the colonies then have remained part of the British Empire, rather than establish the United States of America?

And what would have happened after Aug. 1, 1834, when Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act, which outlawed slavery across the British Empire, freeing 800,000 enslaved people in its colonies? Would there have been acceptance of abolition by an America still ruled by the British government, avoiding the deaths 31 years later of 632,000 Union and Confederate soldiers?

Speculative history has produced popular television shows for a reason: Our world could easily have turned out differently had just a few issues had been resolved in another way. Thats why history needs to be taught with honest appraisals of how crises are handled. In the words of the turn-of-the-19th century Harvard intellectual George Santayana, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Bill Walczak lives in Dorchester. His column appears regularly in The Reporter.

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Opinion British moves that spurred Tea Party left interesting 'what-ifs' for historians | Dorchester Reporter - Dorchester Reporter