Tea Party Shmee Party 32.079459° -81.083386°

32.079459° -81.083386°

Hey, Everyone     

What a fantastic day for a podcast.

Sometimes I have favorite stories about history.

In this one….. I start out by saying…

Boston Tea party, Boston shmee party.

Because here in Savannah, Georgia, in 1775, Andrew Elton Wells led a group of Liberty Boys, and they had a sweeter party…

The Savannah Sugar Party.

This guy, Wells, followed the lead of his brother-in-law, who had thrown his own party two years earlier – That was, of course, Samuel Adams, who… hosted, … the famous Boston Tea Party.

What… a… great legacy. A family that likes to party, especially at the expense of the British King!

But first!

I’m JD Byous.

Welcome to History by GPS, where you travel through history and culture, GPS location by GPS location.

You can find today’s position, along with the other sites mentioned in this episode at HistoryByGPS.com. That way, you can follow along on your favorite map app.

Today we travel to the edge of Savannah’s Trustees’ Garden, near the end of East River Street, where the GPS coordinates are

32.079459° -81.083386°.

As I said, Liberty Boy, Andrew Elton Wells, was the brother-in-law of a Boston Liberty Boy and malthouse owner, Samuel Adams.

Samuel Adams

Wells was also good friends with a guy named John Hancock, who, as you’ll remember, was the notable signer of the Declaration of Independence. If you’ve seen a copy of the paper, his name is the largest, right up there at the top, and in the center of the document’s list of those who supported the American cause… and his rather large signature was a cursive thumb on the nose at King George the Third.

Wells, Adams, and Handcock were all members of the Revolutionary organization, The Sons of Liberty, which was a clandestine political society before the American Revolution. It dedicated itself to upholding the rights of American Colonists… who, by the way… at that time, were British citizens.

Wells’ family was in the thick of things.

His father, Francis, gave shelter to Adams and Hancock when the politically heated climate in Boston forced the two men to hot-foot it out of town at the same time, other patriots fired the first shots of the Revolution on the green at Lexington and on the old North Bridge at Concord, Massachusetts.

Now, Andrew Wells was a former sea captain who had settled in Savannah and had become a prosperous merchant who owned the only rum distillery in town. It was the base of the river bluff next to the East Broad Street Ramp. Those are the coordinates I just gave you.

See, sugar was a necessity and an absolute for making spirited beverages. Well’s problem was that he refused to pay what he called… an “illegal” customs tax, and in doing so, he directly defied the orders of Georgia’s Royal Governor James Wright.

Royal Governor Sir James Wright

The result… the Governor seized the “contraband” sugar and molasses. Part of the sweet stash had been loaded onto a British ship at the Dock, while more was impounded inside Wells’ warehouse that was connected to it.

Over the years, the area where the dock stood was filled in with dirt, so today’s water’s edge is about forty yards to the north.

When you go to the spot, you’ll be standing on dry land.. and you’ll have to watch out for traffic because River Street runs directly over the spot.

Now