Skit – The Boston Tea Party

6 pages, printed

Please give proper credit

Reference:

The Christian History of the Constitution, pgs. 330-332

Cast:

Francis Rotch – owner of the Dartmouth

Samuel Adams

Governor Hutchinson

Patriots dressed as Indians

British captain and crew aboard a British naval vessel

Thomas Young

John Adams

John Scollay

Opening:

Announcer with circular:

“For if anyone shall claim a power to lay and levy taxes, on the People, by his own Authority, and without such consent of the people, he thereby invades the Fundamental Law of Property and subverts the end of government. For what property have I in that which another may by right take when he pleases to himself?”

--John Locke

Scene 1:

At the Old South Meeting House

3:00 P.M.

December 16th, 1773

Rotch: Gentlemen! Please! I have already sought a pass from the Governor. He will not grant it to me unless I clear my cargo.

Man 1: Go back and ask him again!

General assembly: Yes! Go back and ask him!

Rotch: (resigned, sighs) I will go.

Scene 2:

Governor Hutchinson’s office

Attendant: Mr. Rotch, the Governor will now see you.

Rotch: Thank you, sir.

Governor Hutchinson: Mr. Rotch.

Rotch: Governor. I have come to request, again, sir, a pass for the Dartmouth.

Governor: Mr. Rotch, there are rules of government that I must follow. I am duty bound to serve the King. I cannot give you a pass until you clear your ship.

Rotch: Very well. (Returns to the Old South Meeting Place)

Scene 4:

At the Old South Meeting House

General Assembly: clamors to hear Rotch’s report

Rotch: (raises his hands for silence) The Governor will not grant me a pass

General Assembly: all talk loudly and many do so at Rotch.

Thomas Young: (steps up on a chair to get attention) Good Sirs, Captain Rotch is a good man. He has tried his very best. We cannot, in good conscience, do harm to his person or his property.

General Assembly: quiets, agreeing with Young

Man 2: Captain Rotch, what will you do? Will you return to England?

Rotch: (upset) Sirs, I cannot! I must land the tea or be ruined!

General Assembly: quiet, all looking at each other.

Samuel Adams: loudly “This meeting can do nothing more to save the country.”

General Assembly: war-whooping, head to Griffin’s Warf (On the way, the “Indians” gather their costumes.)

Scene 5:

At Griffin’s Warf

Boarding the Dartmouth

Several Indians: warn the officers and captain Rotch to keep out of the way. (They are respectful and quiet)

Rotch: Please Sirs, do not damage my ship.

Indians: nod in agreement

Indians: break open the tea and dump it overboard

Narrator: “The party in disguise…unlaid the hatches, hoisted the chests of tea on deck, cut them open, and hove the tea overboard. They proved quiet and systematic workers. No one interfered with them. No other property was injured; no person was harmed; no tea was allowed to be carried away; and the silence of the crowd on shore was such that the noise of breaking the chests was distinctly heard by them.

Scene 6:

Indians, general assembly: all are very happy and leave in different directions to report home of the events.

Scene 7: Divided into four actual scenes

Hutchinson: writing at his desk

Samuel Adams: writing at his desk

John Adams: writing at his desk

John Schollay: writing at his desk, still dressed in his Indian costume

Narrator walks past each ‘desk’ as he narrates for each man:

Narrator: for Hutchinson “The whole was done with very little tumult.”

Narrator: for Samuel Adams “You cannot imagine the height of joy that sparks in the eyes and animates the countenances as well as the hearts of all we meet on this occasion.”

Narrator: for John Adams “This is the most magnificent movement of all. There is dignity, a majesty, a sublimity, in this last effort of the patriots that I greatly admire.”

Narrator: for John Scollay “We do console ourselves that we have acted constitutionally” Namely, they did no more than was necessary, under the circumstances, to defeat the design of landing the tea.

Props:

“Old South Meeting House” sign

Indian costumes or just headdresses

“Griffin’s Warf” sign

Guns for the British ship