Boston Tea Party Raider Born
On this day in 1738, David Kinnison was born in Old Kingston, Maine, or so he claimed. An early convert to the cause of American independence, he claimed to have participated in the dumping of tea into Boston Harbor, an escalation of resistance to British rule that would come to be known as the Boston Tea Party. Although Kinnison's claims to participation in the "Tea Party" and other activities of the Revolutionary War have since been debunked, his story reflects the cloak of secrecy that shrouded the actual participants in the historic event. Most "Tea Party Raiders" took their story to their graves, but as the fifty-year anniversary of the destruction of the tea approached, men like Kinnison emerged with stories that connected them to an action that was no longer considered an act of defiance but one of bravery.
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