Experience the American dream with today’s Patriots of the Past interview. I’m your host, John Gillespie.
It’s December 16, 1773, and it’s almost midnight. I just came from an interview at the East India Tea Company. England has refused to lift their 3% tax on tea.
What’s this? A large band of Indians heading for the wharf?
JG: “You, sir, can you tell me what you’re doing? Why… why… you’re Samuel Adams. Why are you all disguised as Indians?
SA: “John, we will no longer allow our citizens to be taxed this outrageous fee. Shortly, we will throw every chest of tea off this British ship into the Boston Harbor. We may all go to prison, but we will stand up for freedom.”
A historical marker in Boston, Massachusetts, reads:
“Here formerly stood Griffins Wharf, at which lay moored on December 16, 1773, three British ships with cargoes of tea. To defeat King George’s trivial, but tyrannical tax of three pence a pound, about ninety citizens of Boston, partly disguised as Indians, boarded the ships, threw the cargoes, three hundred and forty-two chests in all, into the sea, and made the world ring with the patriotic exploit of the Boston Tea Party…”
John and Jan Gillespie are the founders of the Rawhide Boys’ Ranch; they have fostered 351 teenagers and wrote the book Our 351 Sons; they have also assisted numerous churches in developing youth programs and expanding their total church ministries. After running for U.S. Senate, John founded 1776 American Dream, which exists to demonstrate the vision of our founding fathers and help our generation of youth passionately embrace those values.
