War Military | American Revolution

The Boston Tea Party

By the 1770s Boston had become a hub for growing anti-British sentiment. It came as no surprise to colonists that the largest protest of the Tea Act would take place in this New England port. Place: Boston, Massachusetts

In response to taxes imposed by the British, a group of protestors dumped 500,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor in Massachusetts in 1773.

Under the cover of night, a large group of people, some dressed as Mohawk Indians, marched toward docked merchant ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the icy waters below. The 90,000 pounds of tea (worth $1 million today) carried a tax that the colonists fervently opposed. This successful protest on December 16, 1773, sparked the other colonies. "This is the most magnificent movement of them all," recorded future founding father John Adams. Inspired by the exploit, other colonies held their own tea parties and destroyed British merchant ships. But the Boston Tea Party wasn't without controversy: many colonists believed that the destruction of private property (the tea) was illegal and needed to be repaid. British Parliament agreed. Enraged by its unruly colonies, England clamped down, closing the Port of Boston. With the city's economy crippled and hundreds out of work, frosty colonial attitudes toward the British continued to harden.