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Boston Tea Party
Did the Boston Tea Party happen during the American Revolution?
The Boston Tea Party took place on the night of December 16, 1773, a few years before the start of theAmerican Revolution in 1775. It was an act of protest in which a group of 60 American colonists threw 342 chests oftea intoBoston Harbor to agitate against both atax on tea (which had been an example of taxation without representation) and the perceivedmonopoly of theEast India Company.
How did the Boston Tea Party start?
The passage of theTea Act (1773) by the BritishParliament gave theEast India Company exclusive rights to transporttea to thecolonies and empowered it to undercut all of its competitors. The leaders of other major cities in the colonies cancelled their orders in protest, but the governor of theMassachusetts Bay Colony allowed tea to arrive inBoston. In response, several colonists stormed the tea ships and tossed the cargo overboard.
What did the Boston Tea Party lead to?
The Boston Tea Party pushed Britain’sParliament to assert its authority—and it passed theIntolerable Acts in 1774. These punitive measures included closingBoston’s harbour until restitution was made for thetea, reducing theMassachusetts Bay Colony to a crown colony with appointed, rather than elected, officials, and allowing the quartering of troops in vacant buildings across British North America. The measures became the justification for convening theFirst Continental Congress later in 1774.
Boston Tea Party, (December 16, 1773), incident in which 342 chests oftea belonging to the BritishEast India Company were thrown from ships into Boston Harbor by American patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians. The Americans were protesting both atax ontea (taxation without representation) and the perceived monopoly of theEast India Company.
TheTownshend Acts passed by Parliament in 1767 and imposing duties on various products imported into theBritish colonies had raised such a storm of colonial protest and noncompliance that they were repealed in 1770, saving the duty on tea, which was retained by Parliament to demonstrate its presumed right to raise such colonial revenue without colonial approval. The merchants ofBostoncircumvented the act by continuing to receive tea smuggled in by Dutch traders. In 1773 Parliament passed aTea Act designed to aid the financially troubled East India Company by granting it (1) a monopoly on all tea exported to the colonies, (2) an exemption on the export tax, and (3) a “drawback” (refund) on duties owed on certain surplus quantities of tea in its possession. The tea sent to the colonies was to be carried only in East India Company ships and sold only through its own agents, bypassing the independent colonial shippers and merchants. The company thus could sell the tea at a less-than-usual price in eitherAmerica or Britain; it could undersell anyone else. The perception of monopoly drove the normallyconservative colonial merchants into an alliance with radicals led bySamuel Adams and hisSons of Liberty.
In such cities asNew York,Philadelphia, andCharleston, tea agents resigned or canceled orders, and merchants refused consignments. In Boston, however, the royal governorThomas Hutchinson determined to uphold the law and maintained that three arriving ships, theDartmouth,Eleanor, andBeaver, should be allowed to deposit their cargoes and that appropriate duties should be honored. On the night of December 16, 1773, a group of about 60 men, encouraged by a large crowd of Bostonians, donned blankets andIndian headdresses, marched to Griffin’s wharf, boarded the ships, and dumped the tea chests,valued at £18,000, into the water.
- Date:
- December 16, 1773
- Location:
- Boston
- Massachusetts
- United States
In retaliation, Parliament passed the series of punitive measures known in the colonies as theIntolerable Acts, including the Boston Port Bill, which shut off the city’s sea trade pending payment for the destroyed tea. The British government’s efforts to single outMassachusetts for punishment served only to unite the colonies and impel the drift toward war.