The Shoemaker And The Tea Party Analysis

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In The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution, Alfred F. Young combines a biography about a patriotic member of the Tea Party, George Robert Twelves Hewes, and an explanation of how things changed after the Tea Party. George Robert Twelves Hewes was a shoemaker in Boston that was determined to help the colonies gain freedom from Britain. He took part in important events in Boston that led up to the Revolution (Young 33). Since Hewes was not a leader in the patriotic acts of the Revolution, he was quickly forgotten. On July 4, 1826, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both patriotic leaders in the Revolution, died (Young 140). “Their deaths confirmed the popular sense that the country was losing its last links with the revolutionary generation” (Young 141). In an attempt to keep the memory of the Revolution alive, Hewes went back to Boston for a Fourth of July celebration that commemorated veterans of the Revolution (Young 143). As a result, Hewes was finally able to get the recognition and honor that he deserved. The Tea Party was not called a “Tea Party” when the event initially occurred in 1773. Before 1834, the Tea Party was mostly referred to as “the destruction of the tea” amongst the elites (Young 156). This event was formerly known as “The destruction …show more content…

People in the working-class tried to use the Tea Party event as a way to justify their actions. They claimed that there was no other way to obtain justice for themselves so they took matters into their own hands (183). However, the elites were not a fan of the working-class claims. They did not want the Tea Party to be viewed as an excuse to engage in illegal actions. The elites involved in the Tea Party wanted to be portrayed as honorable and conservative in their unlawful