Greenwich Tea Burning Monument
Greenwich Tea Burning Monument
Ye Greate St. and Market Ln.
Map / Directions to The Greenwich Tea Burning Monument
Map / Directions to all Greenwich Revolutionary War Sites
Prelude: The Boston Tea Party - December 16, 1773
The Boston Tea Party is one of the more iconic scenes of the Revolutionary War era. It took place a year and a half before the fighting of the war began, during the period when tensions were increasing between the British government and the thirteen British colonies in America.
On December 16, 1773, over one hundred Boston, Massachusetts citizens protested the British tax on tea by dumping tons of British tea into Boston Harbor. To punish Massachusetts for the destruction of this valuable commodity, the British government enacted a series of laws restricting the rights of Massachusetts citizens. These measures caused outrage throughout the American colonies and became known as the Intolerable Acts. [1]
As a show of support and solidarity for the citizens of Massachusetts and as a sign of resistance against British tyranny, Americans began to discourage the importing and drinking of British tea. On October 20, 1774, the Continental Congress agreed on a series of guidelines to address the current situation, which included a call to not important British goods, specifically tea. [2] Two months later, the tensions led to the destruction of another large quantity of British tea, this time in Greenwich, NJ, although the events in Greenwich are much less well known than the famous Boston Tea Party.
The Greenwich Tea Burning - December 22, 1774 [3]
Greenwich is located along the Cohansey River, which flows into the much larger Delaware River, a major route for transporting goods by boat, making this area a normal stop for ships in transit.
In mid-December of 1774, a British ship called the Greyhound was carrying a shipment of tea up the Cohansey River towards Philadelphia. Along the way, the Greyhound docked at Greenwich, and tea was hidden in the home of a local British sympathizer named Daniel Bowen.
On the night of December 22, local residents were meeting at the Cumberland County Courthouse to discuss the recent guidelines stated by the Continental Congress. During the meeting, they were made aware of the hidden tea, and a five-man committee was appointed to determine what should be done about it. While this was occurring, a group of local citizens decided to take matters into their own hands. They confiscated the tea and burned it near where the monument stands today.
Some of the tea burners faced civil and criminal charges. However, due in part to sympathies of the local citizens for the tea burners' cause, the trials were not completed.
The Monument
The Greenwich Tea Burners Monument was dedicated September 30, 1908. [4] As shown below, the sides of the monument list the names of the twenty-three men who are believed to have taken part in the Greenwich Tea Burning. Many of these men went on to serve militarily in the Revolutionary War, including Philip Vickers Fithian, who is discussed in the entry about his house below.
Several of the Greenwich Tea Burners went on to political success after the war. Ebenezer Elmer served in the House of Representatives. James Ewing, who is described in more detail in the James Ewing House entry lower on this page, became the mayor of Trenton. Richard Howell became the fourth elected governor of New Jersey.
