1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:02,000 Speaker 1: The Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:14,520 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to this Day in History Class, 3 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:18,360 Speaker 1: a show that proves it's never too late to make history. 4 00:00:19,239 --> 00:00:22,720 Speaker 1: I'm Gabelusier, and today we're talking about the time when 5 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:25,919 Speaker 1: a group of Oregon residents paid a long overdue bill 6 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:29,000 Speaker 1: for tea that had been thrown into a harbor nearly 7 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:41,040 Speaker 1: two hundred years earlier. The day was October nineteenth, nineteen 8 00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:45,159 Speaker 1: sixty one. A London tea company accepted a check for 9 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:48,920 Speaker 1: one dollar and ninety six cents as partial compensation for 10 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:53,080 Speaker 1: the Boston tea parties. The money was collected from seventeen 11 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:56,560 Speaker 1: residents of Jackson County, Oregon, and handed over to a 12 00:00:56,600 --> 00:01:01,000 Speaker 1: representative of the Davison Newman t firm. The company was 13 00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:04,000 Speaker 1: one of several British team merchants whose goods were thrown 14 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:07,960 Speaker 1: into the Boston Harbor during the American Revolution. At the time, 15 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:11,560 Speaker 1: the company's founders had sought restitution from King George the 16 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:14,920 Speaker 1: Third for four hundred and eighty pounds, but their request 17 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:19,480 Speaker 1: when ignored and they never recovered the damages. One hundred 18 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 1: and eighty seven years later, That injustice still didn't sit 19 00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 1: right with the residents of one Oregon County, who they 20 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:29,039 Speaker 1: decided to do their small part to make things right 21 00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:33,600 Speaker 1: at last. After adjusting for inflation, they determined that Davison 22 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: Newman were owed four thousand, nine hundred and sixty six 23 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:40,560 Speaker 1: dollars for the long lost shipment. They divided that figure 24 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:43,800 Speaker 1: by the then current population of the United States, and 25 00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:48,080 Speaker 1: then calculated the proportionate share of Jackson County residents. That 26 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 1: sum only amounted to a dollar ninety six, but the 27 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:55,960 Speaker 1: company appreciated the gesture all the same. Leslie Simons, the 28 00:01:55,960 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 1: then current director of the Davison Newman Tea Company, said, quote, 29 00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:04,840 Speaker 1: the government never gave us a peep. Bostonians simply smiled. 30 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: But Jackson County, oh, they are fine folk. The first 31 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:14,400 Speaker 1: and most famous Boston tea party took place on December sixteenth, 32 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 1: seventeen seventy three, in Boston Harbor. That night, under the 33 00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:22,239 Speaker 1: cover of darkness, a group of sixty or so colonists 34 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:26,800 Speaker 1: disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and sneaked aboard three British 35 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:31,120 Speaker 1: tea ships. These sons of Liberty, as they called themselves, 36 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:34,720 Speaker 1: used axes to smash open three hundred and forty two 37 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:38,799 Speaker 1: wooden tea chests, property of the British East India Company. 38 00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:42,880 Speaker 1: They then proceeded to hurl that tea overboard, all forty 39 00:02:42,960 --> 00:02:47,079 Speaker 1: six tons of it. Contrary to popular belief, the Sons 40 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:50,360 Speaker 1: of Liberties midnight raid was not a protest of a 41 00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:54,640 Speaker 1: high tax on tea. In fact, just the opposite. The 42 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:57,720 Speaker 1: British government had tried to prop up the floundering East 43 00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:00,880 Speaker 1: India Company by granting it a monopoly on the American 44 00:03:00,919 --> 00:03:04,160 Speaker 1: tea trade, but when Dutch traders began to smuggle in 45 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:07,680 Speaker 1: tea at a lower price, Parliament responded by passing the 46 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:12,480 Speaker 1: Tea Act of seventeen seventy three. That bill greatly reduced 47 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:15,480 Speaker 1: the tax on tea paid by the East India Company, 48 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:19,720 Speaker 1: allowing it to undercut its competitor's prices and effectively reclaim 49 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 1: its monopoly. The bill also empowered the East India Company 50 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:27,760 Speaker 1: to sell tea directly in the American colonies, cutting out 51 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:31,880 Speaker 1: the colonial merchants who had previously acted as distributors. That 52 00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:35,480 Speaker 1: loss in revenue wasn't taken too kindly, and the Tea 53 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:39,119 Speaker 1: Act became yet another example of the British government overreaching 54 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:42,880 Speaker 1: its authority. The colonists. Anger came to a head with 55 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:46,160 Speaker 1: the Boston Tea Party on December sixteenth, but it didn't 56 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,760 Speaker 1: stop there. In the months that followed, many other seaports 57 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:52,880 Speaker 1: held tea parties of their own, and on March seventh, 58 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:57,960 Speaker 1: seventeen seventy four, Boston staged its second such event. It 59 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,560 Speaker 1: was on that occasion that sixt chests of fine tea 60 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:05,080 Speaker 1: belonging to the Davison Newman Company were broken open and 61 00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: thrown into the waters of Boston Harbor. The company's founders, 62 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:13,600 Speaker 1: monk House Davison and Abraham Newman, kept scrupulous records of 63 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:17,600 Speaker 1: every shipment they made. They presented that evidence to George 64 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:20,320 Speaker 1: the Third and asked to be reimbursed for the four 65 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:23,159 Speaker 1: hundred and eighty pound loss of their tea, but the 66 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:27,520 Speaker 1: Crown declined to pay. The firm lost hundreds more cases 67 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:30,400 Speaker 1: of tea and other such incidents, but the appeals for 68 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:34,480 Speaker 1: those claims were similarly rejected, and so it went for 69 00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:38,640 Speaker 1: seven generations of the company until nineteen sixty one, when 70 00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 1: a Jackson County delegation decided to make amends. The campaign 71 00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:47,400 Speaker 1: was spearheaded by a missus Bert Free and was endorsed 72 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:51,279 Speaker 1: by the mayor of Medford, the largest city in Jackson County, Oregon. 73 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:56,200 Speaker 1: On October nineteenth, nineteen sixty one, Mrs Free presented a 74 00:04:56,279 --> 00:04:59,800 Speaker 1: check for one dollar and ninety six cents to Leslie Simmons, 75 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:03,880 Speaker 1: the director and spokesperson of Davison Newman. The money was 76 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:08,360 Speaker 1: accompanied by a letter of explanation from Medford Mayor J. W. Snyder. 77 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:12,159 Speaker 1: In his note, Snyder apologized for the behavior of his 78 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:16,120 Speaker 1: East Coast ancestors, saying that in those days the region 79 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:20,640 Speaker 1: quote could hardly be considered civilized. He added that the 80 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:23,760 Speaker 1: people of Jackson County, on the other hand, were quote 81 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:27,920 Speaker 1: highly civilized and willing to pay up. For his part, 82 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:32,120 Speaker 1: Leslie Simons hoped the gesture would inspire other Americans to 83 00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:35,440 Speaker 1: finally pony up for the Sons of Liberties Bill. In 84 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:39,120 Speaker 1: a public statement, he said, quote, we are very grateful 85 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:42,160 Speaker 1: to the good people of Jackson County. Now we are 86 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:45,280 Speaker 1: waiting to hear from the rest of Oregon's counties and 87 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:50,200 Speaker 1: from the other forty nine states. Davison Newman and Company 88 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:53,800 Speaker 1: never received another direct payment from the public, but the 89 00:05:53,839 --> 00:05:56,640 Speaker 1: company continued to operate for the rest of the twentieth 90 00:05:56,640 --> 00:06:00,480 Speaker 1: century and even into the twenty one. For many decades, 91 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:03,560 Speaker 1: it stayed in business by selling only a single brand, 92 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 1: a blend of Salon and Darjeeling tea s from India, 93 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 1: which the company dubbed Boston Harbor T. So, even though 94 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:15,560 Speaker 1: the company only received a small symbolic form of restitution 95 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:19,040 Speaker 1: from one county in Oregon, it made a small fortune 96 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:22,360 Speaker 1: by cashing in on the notoriety of the Boston tea parties. 97 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:26,120 Speaker 1: Doing so required a bit of creativity, though, as you 98 00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:29,720 Speaker 1: can't legally register the name Boston Harbor as a brand, 99 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:34,359 Speaker 1: the solution, according to Leslie Simons, was to bastardize it 100 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:37,839 Speaker 1: by making a sound alike name. Hence, if you track 101 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:41,080 Speaker 1: down a bag of Davis and Newman's now discontinued tea, 102 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:45,479 Speaker 1: you'll find the official registered name printed in small letters 103 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:49,720 Speaker 1: beneath the words Boston Harbor T. It's spelled b A 104 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:54,160 Speaker 1: W S T O N A b A for as 105 00:06:54,200 --> 00:07:00,320 Speaker 1: the locals might say, Boston Harbor. I'm Gabe Louzier and 106 00:07:00,440 --> 00:07:03,480 Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today 107 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:07,320 Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. You can learn even more about 108 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,920 Speaker 1: history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at 109 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:14,400 Speaker 1: T D I HC. Show, and if you have any 110 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:17,040 Speaker 1: comments or suggestions, or you want to tell me how 111 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:20,120 Speaker 1: bad my fake Boston accent was, you can send that 112 00:07:20,240 --> 00:07:24,560 Speaker 1: my way at this day at I heart media dot com. 113 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:27,480 Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thanks 114 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:29,800 Speaker 1: to you for listening. I'll see you back here again 115 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:32,880 Speaker 1: tomorrow for another day in history class.