Tea Burners Monument

Greenwich, New Jersey

Erected in 1908, the Tea Burners Monument marks the spot where New Jersey committed me-too tea vandalism against the British. It happened on the night of December 22, 1774 -- about a year after the Boston Tea Party -- when a group of New Jersey revolutionaries dressed as Indians boarded a British brig bound for Philadelphia, hauled its shipment of tea into the backwater village of Greenwich, and burned it.

That's the most popular version of the story, anyway. Other, less romantic versions say that the patriots weren't dressed as Indians; or that the tea was already in town, being stored, when it was simply hauled out and burned; or that most of the tea wasn't burned at all -- it was sold for a profit, perhaps even back to the British. Some historians also doubt that many of the names on the monument actually participated in the event.

But everyone agrees that at least some tea was burned, and that was enough for New Jersey. 7,000 people reportedly attended the unveiling of the monument, although it is almost forgotten now.