The Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party, in which the Sons of Liberty dumped tea into the Boston Harbor, was one of the most important events on the road to the American Revolution. England's reaction to the incident was to pass repressive laws. This fueled the colonists' desire for independence and led to the war.

The Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was a turning point in American history, like many other events in Boston, and an important precursor to the American Revolution. On December 16, 1773, a group of Boston colonists boarded three ships loaded with East India Company tea and tossed it all into the harbor. These colonists were members of the Sons of Liberty, a group that wanted independence from England. Their act was a protest against the Tea Act of 1773, which supported the monopoly on the tea trade held by East India.

When England originally imposed a tea tax, the colonists bypassed it by purchasing tea smuggled from Holland. The Tea Act allowed the East India Company to skip over colonial merchants, who were selling smuggled tea, thus allowing them to sell their product more cheaply. This strategy backfired with the colonists, who were upset about being taxed without representation and who resented the Crown's interference.

The Bostonians believed that only their elected representatives had the right to tax them. Three other colonies had already rejected tea shipments in protest of the Tea Act by refusing to allow unloading of the ships. In Boston, Massachusetts, Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson took the British side and allowed three tea ships to dock, so the Sons of Liberty and other colonists took matters into their own hands. 

The exact number of protesters that dumped the tea into Boston Harbor is unknown because many preferred anonymity, although there may have been hundreds of participants in this act of defiance. They disguised themselves as Mohawk or Narragansett Indians to conceal their identities. Together, the protestors destroyed 342 chests of tea from the three ships, which would have a value over one million dollars in today's currency. 

Result

England quickly retaliated against the colonists for their actions by passing new laws dubbed the “Intolerable Acts.” They banned all unapproved meetings in the colony, forced the closure of the port until the colonists paid back the East India Company for its destroyed cargo, proclaimed Salem as the Massachusetts capital instead of Boston, and allowed British soldiers to stay in any building they chose, even without the owner's permission. These laws brought the desire for independence from the Crown to a head, pushing the colonies and England closed to the Revolutionary War.

Misconceptions 

Many Americans believe that the three ships that were relieved of their cargo in the Boston Tea Party were British, but that's actually a common misconception. The tea, which came from China, was the property of the East India Company, and the ships themselves were American. Two of them, the Dartmouth and the Beaver, were originally built for offshore whaling before their job was shifted to tea transport.

The name “Boston Tea Party” is often thought to date back to the event itself, but it actually got this designation in the 1830s. The first known appearance in print for the appellation appeared in 1834.

Historical Sites

Boston Harbor is the main historical sight associated with the Boston Tea Party, and the event is commemorated with a plaque on that site of that fateful event. Visitors to the city who want more information can visit other associated sites like Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, which lays out the whole story with videos, exhibits, and memorabilia. The Old South Meeting House is also closely associated with the event. It was the spot of the pre-Tea Party meeting during which Samuel Adams spoke to an incensed crowd of 5,000 colonists, then gave a secret signal by saying, “This meeting can do nothing more to save this country!” That simple but passionate phrase was the signal to start the Party.

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