This Day In Founding Fathers History – 17 December

This Day In Founding Fathers History – 17 December

On this day in 1773, George Robert Twelves Hewes, a Boston shoemaker, wrote of participating in the Boston Tea Party of the previous day. Hewes wrote, “…I immediately dressed myself in the costume of an Indian, equipped with a small hatchet, which I and my associates denominated the tomahawk…after having painted my face and hands with coal dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin’s wharf…The commander of the division to which I belonged…ordered me to go to the captain and demand of him the keys to the hatches and a dozen candles…We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chest with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of the water…We then quietly retired to our several places of residence…There appeared to be an understanding that each individual should volunteer his services, keep his own secret, and risk the consequence for himself…it was observed at that time that the stillest night ensued that Boston had enjoyed for many months.” ₁

In 1763 on this day, Benjamin Franklin wrote to Reverend John Waring regarding his observances on the education of black children while visiting “the Negro School.” He wrote, “They appear’d all to have made considerable Progress in Reading for the Time they had respectively been in the School…I was on the whole much pleas’d, and from what I then saw, have conceiv’d a higher Opinion of the natural Capacities of the black Race, than I had ever before entertained. Their apprehension seems as quick, their Memory as strong, and their Docility in every Respect equal to that of white Children. You will wonder perhaps that I should ever doubt it, and I will not undertake to justify all my Prejudices, nor account for them.” ₂

_{1 “The Boston Tea Party,” George Hewes, www.historycarper.com/1773/12/17/the-boston-tea-party/
2 The Founders’ Constitution, Volume 1, Chapter 15, Document 5}

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