In 1729 Boston Puritans build the Old South Meeting House for a congregation that includes Samuel Adams, a youthful Benjamin Franklin, even the African-American poet, Phyllis Wheatley. Between 1768 and 1775 it becomes the site of massive public protests against abuses by the British against its colonial population. On December 13, 1773, it is home to angry opposition to the Tea Tax which in turn provokes 16 members of the Sons of Liberty to board the merchantman ship Dartmouth disguised as tribesmen and dump some 342 chest of tea into Boston Harbor. This act, known as The Boston Tea Party, is one more dramatic step in the American Revolution. In 1872, prominent Bostonians save the church from being torn down and it becomes a protected historical site.
Old South Church
