Sheffield Historical Society to Host Colonial Tea Party & Sampler
SHEFFIELD, Mass. — The Sheffield Historical Society is holding "A |
Literature teacher, scholar and frequent Sheffield Times contributor Gillian Hettinger will host the event.
Guests are invited to bring their own tea cup to taste a variety of teas, provided by Harney's & Sons Fine Teas. The program will take place at the Society's monthly meeting at 7:30 p.m. in Dewey Memorial Hall.
The practice of tea drinking in the United States arrived with colonists from both England and the Netherlands. It can be evidenced by the number of tea wares recorded in household inventories. The earliest of these were imported from abroad, but American silversmiths began producing teapots by the start of the eighteenth century.
In the 1760s, the British government began to impose a tax on tea, first through the Stamp Act of 1765 and later with the Townshend Act of 1767. Dissatisfied colonists took to smuggling tea or drinking herbal infusions. Outraged merchants, shippers, and colonists staged a number of demonstrations, culminating in the famous Boston Tea Party of December 1773.
To boycott the heavy tax placed on British import teas, colonialists learned to substitute "independence teas," which were herbal infusions derived from native plants that they would have had growing in their gardens. Herbal teas were also thought to have a variety of medicinal uses. For example, mint tea was said to help digestion; catnip tea served as a kind of tranquilizer and allegedly prevented nightmares, while sage tea was considered helpful in treating sore throats and coughs.
Herbal teas are naturally decaffeinated. Cocoa and coffee were an alternative to caffeinated tea leaves. They could be obtained from the triangular traffic, which came in from the West Indies rather than the British East India Company circuit.
Society meetings are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. Dewey Memorial Hall is the historic building located on the town green, immediately south of the post office.
