9

The Tea Act, printed in full in an issue of the Boston Evening-Post.

Boston: Thomas and John Fleet, 25 October 1773
4 pages, 15½ x 9¾ inches, on one folding sheet; stitch holes, horizontal fold, minor foxing and wear; uncut.

The Tea Act passed into law on 10 May 1773, and news reached the American colonies in September, sparking a strong resistance. This Boston printing preceded the Boston Tea Party by less than two months.

Most of the second page of this newspaper is filled with commentary on the Tea Act. A letter to the editor by "Z" defends the act. Another letter by "T. Young" denounces tea as "really a slow poison" and concludes that if people knew its dangers, "there need be little anxiety among the Sons of Liberty to prevent the landing or sale of the expected Tea; for it would be of little importance whether it rotted in warehouses on this or the other side of the Atlantic." A letter to New Yorkers hopes they resist a planned tea shipment and "never suffer an Act of Parliament to be so crouded down your Throats." A Philadelphia letter states plainly: "Send no TEA, it cannot be received here." On the other hand, we see the embargo was not absolute. On the back page, merchant John Head offers for sale "the best Hyson, Souchong and Bohea teas," and future secretary of the United States Senate Samuel Allyne Otis has "Best Hyson tea at 20s. per Pound" (presumably imported before the next tax was imposed). 

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