In his new book, Dr. Fichter reveals a new dimension of the Boston Tea Party by exploring a story largely neglected over the past 250 years: the fate of two major East India Company tea expeditions that survived and were drunk in North America. The book challenges the prevailing wisdom around tea protests and consumer boycotts, while showing the economic reality behind the political rhetoric: Colonists did not turn away from tea when they became revolutionary Americans. While history records the Patriots' noisy protests and bans, merchant records reveal that British tea and goods continued to be widely sold and consumed.
By integrating different locations and events into history and reinterpreting old ones, Dr. Fichter shows how the persistent risk of these expeditions being sold shaped colonial policy in the years to come. It also alludes to the enduring power of consumerism in revolutionary politics.
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