Today (19/10/2024) marks 250 years since the cargo ship the Peggy Stewart was burnt in Annapolis.
Before the outbreak of the American Revolution, the British government increased taxation in its American colonies. For example, the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Currency Act were all introduced. Most significant of all was the Tea Act of 1773.[1] Yet the British government refused to increase the level of representation of the colonies in parliament. Consequently, colonists in America felt they were unable to control the financial burdens being placed on them by the colonial administration.[2] Colonists resented the increased obligations they faced due to taxation, yet they felt unable to voice these frustrations to parliament in a peaceful manner.
In 1773 the growing resentment felt by the colonists erupted into physical violence in Boston. To express their grievances against the Tea Act, protestors boarded ships, ransacked the cargo, and threw tea overboard.[3] As a physical display of dissatisfaction, colonists made their position against increased taxation clear. This act of resistance became known as the “Boston Tea Party” and became a highly symbolic example of resistance against the British.[4]
Although the Boston Tea Party remains one of the most famous acts of protest against British rule, it was not the only display of resistance against the Tea Act. A year after the Boston Tea Party, Annapolis had its own “Tea Party”. Following the introduction of the Tea Act, colonists started to boycott imports of British tea to demonstrate their opposition to the policy.[5] Thus, when Anthony Stewart’s ship, the Peggy Stewart, arrived at the port of Annapolis carrying British tea, the colonists were infuriated.[6]
Pamphlets soon started circulating regarding the ship and Stewart’s decision to pay the import duty, which the colonists fiercely opposed. Pamphlets were essential to communication at this time, allowing colonists to spread political ideas and anti-British sentiment. For instance, John Dickenson’s Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania opposed the taxation acts.[7] These letters were widely read and forced colonists to actively question British taxation.[8] Dickenson was a lawyer and legislator yet used the pseudonym of a “farmer” as a symbol of moral virtue. The tradition of using political publications to manipulate public opinion became widespread in Annapolis. Pamphlets were printed criticising the company that organised the shipment of tea.[9] In response, Stewart printed his own apology pamphlet.[10] Nevertheless, Stewart’s pamphlet did little to pacify the colonists’ growing anger. Eventually, an angry mob demanded that Stewart burn his ship and the tea on it. Fearing for his life, after an ominous set of gallows were built outside his house, Steward gave into the mob’s demands.[11] On October 19 1774, the ship and its contents of tea were set ablaze.[12]
Following the Annapolis “Tea Party”, Stewart was forced to flee the colonies.[13] He petitioned the British government to repay him for the damage done. The growing resentment seen in Annapolis and elsewhere in the American colonies ultimately culminated in the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775. Following the revolution, the Boston Tea Party, and to a lesser extent the burning of the Peggy Stewart, were celebrated and remembered across the United States.[14] By the 1830s the Boston Tea Party was a familiar commemorative event. Similarly, in 1896, Francis Blackwell Mayer painted The Burning of the Peggy Stewart, commemorating Annapolis’ role in the revolution. Thus, at a time of growing resentment towards British governance and taxation, the burning of the Peggy Stewart ship was one of the pivotal events that precipitated the American Revolution.
[1] Darwin L. King Carl J. Case, "A Brief History of Taxation of the American Colonies Prior to the Revolutionary War", Journal of Business and Accounting 13, no. 1 (2020), p. 154.
[2] Peter Thomas, "The Stamp Act crisis and its repercussions, including the Quartering Act controversy", in Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole (eds.), A Companion to the American Revolution (Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 2000), p. 123.
[3] Harlow G. Unger, American Tempest How the Boston Tea Party Sparked a Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2011), pp. 2–3.
[4] Ray Raphael, "Tea Party Myths." American History 45, no. 2 (2010), p. 64.
[5] Edwin J. Perkins, “Socio-economic development of the colonies”, in Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole (eds.) A Companion to the American Revolution (Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 2000), p. 57.
[6] Will Hughes, “The Annapolis Tea Party of 1774”, Boundary Stones (2012), at https://boundarystones.weta.org/2012/12/16/annapolis-tea-party-1774 (last accessed 11 September 2023).
[7] Pierre Marambaud, "Dickinson's "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" as Political Discourse: Ideology, Imagery, and Rhetoric", Early American Literature 12, no. 1 (1977), p. 68.
[8] Timothy H. Breen, "'Baubles of Britain': The American and Consumer Revolutions of the Eighteenth Century." Past & Present 119 (1988), p. 89.
[9] Hughes, “The Annapolis Tea Party of 1774”.
[10] Ibid.
[11] “Departed This Life, January 29, 1813, Dr. Charles Alexander Warfield”, The Baltimore Patriot (1813), at http://www.snowden-warfield.com/Annapolis/Annapolis-TheStory.htm (last accessed 11 September 2023).
[12] Hughes, “The Annapolis Tea Party of 1774”.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Raphael, "Tea Party Myths.", p. 65.