David Feild who was at Boston in Dec 1773 at the time
the tea was thrown over board brought the news to Deerfield
the parties of Whig & Tory begun to be strongly murked?. The
Tories resorted to the public house of David Hoyt and
the Whigs to that of David Sexton. The destruction of the
tea was a joyful theme of exultation. After getting a little
warm upon subject or something else. They march in a body
thro the street singing Then they went aboard their ships our ven-
-geance to admister

And didn't care a tarnal bit for any king or minister
They made a duced mess of tea in one of the biggest dishes
I mean they steep'd in the sea & treated all the fishes

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Relations between the British government and the American colonies deteriorated rapidly in the ten years following the end of the French and Indian War in 1763. Internal conflicts between Whigs and Tories mirrored the external debate as Americans disagreed over how to respond to imperial policies such as the tax on tea. News of Boston's "tea party" electrified the western Massachusetts town of Deerfield. Local divisions intensified as Whigs celebrated the destruction of the tea and Tories condemned the act.

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