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How I wish history could be taught like this in schools, where it is desperately needed. Many immigrants know more about our governmental processes than those born here. American education must include civics classes emphasizing that we are a nation of laws and explaining how that works. This event awakened my sense of responsibility at holding government accountable as it becomes more ideologically tone-deaf.

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The crowd at Atlantic Wharf cried, Huzzah! as costumed reenactors decried injustices. I can almost hear this cry becoming the new Bostonian shout at sporting events.

Marilee Meyer

Cambridge

As a former college professor who had a yearly lecture called, Was the American Revolution inevitable? Could we have been Canada? I give two thumbs up to Jeff Jacobys take on the Boston Tea Party (The Boston Tea Party was a crime, Opinion, Dec. 14). As Jacoby rightly pointed out, many people of the time were doubtful of the whole endeavor. He also mentions the way he was taught about the event as a heroic blow for freedom, inspired by a righteous opposition.

What happened in between the events of Dec. 16, 1773, and Jacobys time in the classroom was the 19th century. Only decades after what participants called the Destruction of the Tea, or the Destruction of the Accursed Tea, did the nighttime raid become known as the Boston Tea Party. By the 1830s, events and people around the patriot cause and the subsequent Revolution were regarded with reverence and even as guided by divine providence. That included reducing an act of extralegal violence to something as domestic, as unthreatening, as a tea party.

In our current exhibit, The Dye is cast: Interests and Ideals that Motivated the Boston Tea Party, we aim to restore the complexity that Jacoby points out by focusing on six individuals with various loyalties and perspectives. This event meant something different for everyone. Other historical institutions around town, notably Revolutionary Spaces, are taking on these very questions with programs, exhibits, and interactive events.

As the Commonwealth gets ready to commemorate the 250th anniversary of events leading up to the Revolution, continuing through 2026, we need to remember that we 21st-century Americans are inheritors of those 19th-century traditions. Lets embrace complexity and deepen our understanding of the past and the many lessons of history.

Catherine Allgor

President

Massachusetts Historical Society

Boston

In a recent column, Jeff Jacoby condemns the massive and costly act of vandalism that was carried out in the Boston Tea Party, and he extends that concern over destruction of property to modern protest movements.

What was terrible about the Boston Tea Party, Jacoby says, was its financial impact. The dumped tea cost nearly $2 million in todays money. Poor East India Company. Later he writes that destroying other peoples property to advance a political cause is wrong whether the cause is racial equity, climate change, opposing a war, overturning an election, or denouncing Wall Street. It is wrong in 2023 and it was wrong in 1773.

Is it, though?

The Boston Tea Party wasnt so much about tea as it was about the fact that those affected by British laws had no say. Hence the slogan no taxation without representation. Similarly, many citizens today dont feel they have a say in government. Our laws are written by lobbyists; presidents, members of Congress, and justices are bought by billionaires. Our collective voice is subverted. When traditional routes for change are useless and the government is deaf to peoples demands, why not go after the coffers? Even if that means dumping some tea.

Ian Evans

Boston

We can all be thankful that the patriots who dumped er, damaged tea in Boston Harbor on Dec. 16, 1773, were not named the Sons of Asking Permission.

John Bluthardt

Boston

If Jeff Jacoby thinks the Boston Tea Party was a crime, wait until he finds out about Lexington and Concord.

Ken Johnson

Easton

Continue reading here:
What to keep and what to toss in how we view the Boston Tea Party - The Boston Globe