Quiz: The Original Tea Party Movement

This is a little know fact that can only be extracted by examining the chain of circumstances: today's American flag is based upon the naval ensigns stolen from the tea ships during the tea party. Here's my case:

--An engraving from the 1760's clearly shows that the naval ensign of the British East India company ships consisted of alternating red and white stripes with a Union Jack in the left corner;

--At the battle of Bunker Hill, the Sons of Liberty flew this flag from their trench; volunteers from inland places, where ships and their ensigns would not be known, took the flag to be political. (It was soon called the "Cambridge Flag", and then in the 19th century rechristened the "Grand Union" flag). Anyone who knows the mentality of the Sons of Liberty would understand that flying the flag was a way of thumbing their nose at the British troops, who would have known perfectly well that the flag must have been stolen from a ship, no doubt one of the tea ships;

--The flag being flown on the earthworks manned by the Sons of Liberty made an impression on volunteers who showed up to take part in the siege of Boston in the weeks after the battle of Bunker Hill, including Col. Washington of Virginia. His headquarters flag and battle flag which he commissioned from ms. Betsy Ross could not have been inspired by anything other than the "Cambridge Flag", Stolen from the tea ships a year and a half before the outbreak of war.

Rich of CT 12:29PM April 23, 2010