A Step Back in Time: A HubNuggets Tea Party

We were all sitting there in our new redecorated club house lazily talking about this weeks HubNuggets and drinking a cup of tea when Enelle Lamb commented on the dust under the couch. How could there be dust there already? We had just gone through this whole place, redecorated and cleaned from top to bottom. Simone Smith leaned over, reached her hand under the edge of the couch and grabbed the culprit that was the cause of the bundle of dust. It was an old book thickly covered in what looked like years of accumulated dust. What in the world was it doing under our new couch? Where the heck did it come from?

We gathered around Simone watching her dust off the book, or trying to anyway. The dust was so thick you couldn't even tell what color the book was and there was something hanging off the bottom. Carefully carrying the book over to the table Simone placed it down gently. A little cloud of dust drifted up causing us all group to start coughing.

Reaching over RedElf touched the piece at the bottom of the book. "This feels like ribbon."

Ripplemaker: "I wonder if it's there to mark a special page?"

Patty Inglish: "Well, lets open it and find out."

As they reached out to open the book the room grew dark and the wind began to swirl around them. The book flew open and the pages began to turn so quickly they looked like a blur. Then everythinkg turned black.

Suddenly we were no longer in our clubhouse. We looked all around us. Where the heck were we? How did we get her? Who were all these people walking around in these strange clothes?

We sat there silently for a few minutes just looking at the people passing by us, trying to get our bearings. It had to be shock, that's the only thing that would have kept us quiet for so long.

Enelle Lamb: "I'm beginning to think we're no longer in 2011.

KoffeeKlatch Gals: "I think you're right. Look at the clothes everyone is wearing."

Fawntia Fowler: "Did you notice that everybody seems to be going to the same place?"

We stopped talking for a minute or two to watch the people going by us. Yes, it did look like everyone was walking in the same direction. In fact, they were all walking towards this great big old fashioned looking building. Shrugging their shoulders we all began following the stream of people. Wherever they were going we were going too.

Enelle: "You know, some of the dresses the women are wearing look kind of nice. It looks like that woman over there is wearing silk."

Maddie Rudd: "I wonder how we got here. I starting to think we've traveled back in time."

KoffeeKlatch Gals: "I love history. Wouldn't it be exciting to be a part of some historical event?"

Maddie : "It seems like we're in colonial times. At least, that's what the clothes look like."

Enelle: "I think you might be right. Look at the hat on that man. It reminds me of a picture I saw in a history book. You know what I mean, the triangle shaped hat they wore sometime around the Revolutionary War.

We were fascinated by the women's dresses, well all of us except Jason, he just seemed kind of bored. Some wore dresses that looked like they were made out of linen, wool or a heavy cotton, and some liked as though they were dresses in velvet, satin or silk. They were in a variety of colors including yellow, red, purple, blue, brown, black , and a shade of earthy green. Even though they had such a wide variety of fabrics they all seemed to be in the same type of style. The bodice was tight fitting with a low neck line, long sleeves, and a long full skirt. The dresses out of the courser fabrics were mostly covered witrh an apron. Some of the women wore shawls held tighlty to their bodice and some wore long, loose cloaks. The women in the softer, richer fabrics seemed to have shoes made of the smae material a their dress, while the other women wore leather tie shoes. Holding their hands were miniature version of their mothers, dressed in the same fabrics and colors as their mothers.

The men all seemed to have on breeches, stockings, a waistcoat (looked like a loose fitting shirt) that buttoned down the front and a jacket that was shorter in the front and longer in the back. Some had laces collars and a type of vest that looked like brocade. The color of their clothing was white, black, beige, brown and an earthy green. Occasionally we saw a flah of a jewel or gold as thought the buttons were made of semi precious stones. Behind them trailed min-versions of them, dresses almost as their twin.

Enelle: "Look at that woman's shoes. If ladyjane1's evil twin Lady Gaga saw them she'd be snatching them off her feet."

As we got closer to the large building all the people were filing into they noticed a large sign over the door. The Old South Meeting House. Well, that solved one mystery. They were going to a meeting. It left the question of: What kind of meeting were they going to and did we really want to be there?

We finally got close to the door but the meeting house was so crowded that the people inside were shuffling around trying to find space while others had to wait outside. As we stood there Simone pointed out a paper nailed to the wall next to the door. Suddenly we realized what this was all about. How exciting was this? We were in 1773 and we were going to have a first row seat to The Boston Tea Party.

Well, we didn't manage to get a seat, there must have been 5,000 people there all vying for the same few seats. At least we weren't among the ones standing outside. In this spot we could hear and see most of what was going on.

All around us were angry colonials shouting "No tax on Tea". Apparently they were still adamant about not buying the tea that was sitting in the harbor. It turns out that Governor Hutchinson had refused to let the ships leave without unloading all the tea they had aboard. So, they were all at a stalemate. There they were, the three ships, the Eleanor, the Dartmouth, and the Beaver, holding onboard all that tea from The East India Company and they couldn't unload the tea and they couldn't leave.The tea on board was to be sold at a lesser price giving the British government a monolopy of tea. The colonists were determined not to let that happen.

So, they decided the only thing to do is take things into their own hands. Cries of "Hurrah for Griffin's Wharf " and "Boston Harbor a Teapot Tonight ." filled the air. People jumped up and everyone began crowding out the door. Finally, they were going to take action. The Sons of Liberty ( a political group of American Patriots that banded together to protect the rights of the Americans) began rubbing their faces with coal dust and trying a leather band around their heads. From somewhere there appeared a pile of feathers from which each man chose one or two feathers from and stuck them in the band. Boy did it change the way they looked. As we watched we saw these men turning into Indians.

Simone: "I want to do that. I want to be involved."

Jason Menayan: "I don't think you can. Haven't you noticed that they are all men?"

ladyjane1: "Well, I'm going to find some men's clothes and join the party. How about you guys."

Jason: "You'd better hurry. It looks like they'll be leaving in a minute or two."

The girls turned around and magically there before them was a pile of men's clothing.

Simone: "I love these adventures."

Throwing on the clothes the gang quickly rubbed soot all over their faces and joined the other Indians.

The Indians grabbed up their tomahawks and began purposefully walking towards the harbor. As they walked the other people that had been at the meeting began walking along side them. By the time they arrived at the harbor they were quite a large group.

The Indians split into three different groups, one for each ship. The hubber group discretely split themselves into three groups and joined the Indians. Each group of Indians boarded the ships unaccosted while the leaded of the group went up to the commander and demanded the key to the hatch where the tea was stored.

Working as a team they hauled the chests of tea onboard, broke them open with their hatchets and threw the tea overboard. The crowd on the harbor cheered them only, all wishing they themselves were there dumping tea. It took the Indians over 3 hours to dump over 90,000 pounds of tea. One of the most amazing things about that night is that even though they were surrounded by British ships there was no attempt made to stop them. Not only that, nothing but the tea and the chest it was inside were touched. The Indians respected the property of the ship owner.

Oh, I forgot to mention this: each ship contained a chest that held this weeks HubNuggets Nominees. Luckily the group is the observant kind. If they hadn't noticed that one of those tea chests held the nominees they would have been dumped in the harbor with all that tea. Imagine trying to find them.

Now it's time for you to do your part. Make sure you vote for your favorite hub. Let all your friends and relatives know about it. Encourage them to some, read, and vote. And all of you nominees, don't be shy. Let everyone know your hub has been chosen as a HubNugget Wannabe Hub. It's a terrific honor and each one of you deserve it. We are proud of you.

• How do I get on the HubNugget Wannabe list?

HubNugget Wannabe is a well written and presented hub by someone who has been with hubpages for less than 90 days and has an author score of 75 or more. The hub needs to have been published within the last 7 weeks and have a hub score of at least 55.

• So what's in it for you?

Well, I'll tell you. First of traffic to your hub is really going to soar, this means more people will be reading your writing. This can only lead to a more fans following you. The title of your hub will be posted in the HubNugget forum-thread, you'll receive a wonderful letter of congratulations from one of the HubNuggets team members and you will be featured in our newsletter.

• What are the guidelines?

To make your hub worthy of all this fame all you have to do is chose great topic, write a well-written, well-researched hub of about 800 or so words, and add a few relevant pictures and maybe even a video. Last but certainly not least, make sure you read over your work, edit carefully and remove any mistakes and then push that publish now button. Make sure you go to the hub learning center and read the following site for any questions you may have. http://learningcenter.hubpages.com/hubnuggets/

Last but not least, it very important, promote, promote, promote. Make sure you tell everyone you know to sign into hubpages, read and vote. Post it on every blog you participate in. Make sure you let people know they don't have to join to vote.

Good luck and don't forget to vote for yourself.

I would like to thank the sites that helped me with my information.

oldsouthmeetinhouse.org

eyewitnesstohistory.com

historyguy.com