Lost Chapters
The Boston Tea Party: Cobalt Event
The Boston Tea Party was a protest on the night of December 16, 1773, when colonists boarded three ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of East India Company tea into the water. They were protesting the Tea Act and Parliament's power to tax the colonies, and Britain answered with the Coercive Acts, which pushed the colonies closer to revolution.
- Cost
- 7 crystals
- Type
- Event · Triumph
- Color
- Cobalt (Thinkers & Dreamers)
- Rarity
- Uncommon
- Set
- Liberty & Lightning (Set 1)
Triumph
Deal 2 damage to each enemy character.
Revolutionary protest that transformed Boston Harbor into history's most expensive teapot and taxation into rebellion.
The real history
In May 1773 Parliament passed the Tea Act to help the struggling East India Company. It let the company sell tea in the colonies at a price that undercut smuggled Dutch tea, but the tax would be collected at colonial ports and it reasserted Parliament's right to tax the colonies. A tax on tea had already been in force since 1770, and many colonists were boycotting British tea.
Three tea ships, the Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver, arrived in Boston. On December 16, 1773, nearly 5,000 people, about a third of Boston's population, crowded into the Old South Meeting House to decide what to do. That evening the ship owner Francis Rotch returned with word that Governor Thomas Hutchinson would not let the ships leave with the tea still on board.
Soon afterward, groups of men, many of them Sons of Liberty and some in disguises meant to look like Mohawk warriors, headed to Griffin's Wharf. Divided into three parties, one for each ship, they met no resistance from the crews. Over about three hours they broke open and threw overboard 342 chests of tea. Estimates of how many men took part range from several dozen to about 150. The action was organized and careful: only the tea was destroyed, and when a padlock was broken, the Sons of Liberty replaced it.
Parliament responded with the Coercive Acts, which the colonists called the Intolerable Acts. They closed Boston Harbor, limited self-government in Massachusetts and put the colony under tighter control. Twelve of the thirteen colonies sent delegates to the First Continental Congress in September 1774.
Sources
- The Boston Tea Party, American Battlefield Trust
- Boston Tea Party Timeline, National Park Service
- Coming of the American Revolution: Boston Tea Party, Massachusetts Historical Society
How the card plays
The Boston Tea Party costs 7 crystals and is a Cobalt Event with Triumph. It deals 2 damage to each enemy character.
That is a sweeper: it hits the whole enemy field, so it is best when the other player has gone wide with small characters. Damage wears off at the end of the turn, so follow up with attacks while the damaged characters are weak. Andrew Jackson deals 1 damage to each enemy character when played, and the two together put 3 damage on everything. Battle of Bunker Hill deals 4 damage to one enemy and then 2 to each, clearing a big blocker as well. Diametrically Opposed, Foes deals damage equal to your strongest character's power to one enemy, so it can finish a survivor.
- Playable in decks led by Martin Luther King Jr., Neil Armstrong, and by any Traveler Leader whose colors include Cobalt.
- In the Dr. King starter deck (1 copy). Deck code:
LC2-BAABAQICAQMBBAEFAQYBBwEIAQkCCgILAQwBDQIOAg8BEAIRARICEwIUAhUBFgEXARgBGQEaARsBHAEdAR4B3v4 - In the Armstrong starter deck (1 copy). Deck code:
LC2-AQABAQECAQMBBAEFAQYBBwEIAgkCCgILAQwBDQIOAQ8BEAERARICEwIUARUBFgEXARgBGQEaARsBHAIdAR4BfQK1eQ - A deck holds up to 3 copies of this card.
Questions about The Boston Tea Party
How much tea was destroyed in the Boston Tea Party?
The protesters destroyed 342 chests of tea belonging to the East India Company on December 16, 1773, after about three hours of work.
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