Boston Tea Party (December 16, 1773)
Protest against English taxation that sparked the American
Revolution.
The British East India Company, facing severe financial
reverses, convinced the British Parliament to allow it to sell
tea in the American colonies at a price that would undercut
even smuggled Dutch tea and would raise revenue while
clearing the company’s warehouses of a huge surplus.
Unfortunately, this tea would still carry the despised perpound tax, which had remained as a token duty, and would
be sold through only a handful of dealers in America. This
high-handed policy united small merchants who were left
out of the deal with patriot organizations that protested the
tax. The arrival of the tea ships Eleanor, Dartmouth, and
Beaver sparked public protest in Boston, including public
meetings, distribution of fliers, and harassment of the consignees, who took shelter in Castle William (a fort on an
island in Boston Harbor) to avoid the crowds.
The Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams, decided on
December 13, 1773, that no one could unload the tea, nor
could it remain on board 20 days, at which time customs officials would seize the tea for sale. On December 16, the night
30 Bond Salesthe Sons of Liberty planned their raid on the ships to destroy
the tea, a public protest at the Old South Meeting House
turned rowdy after several people suggested dumping the tea
in the harbor. As protesters stormed out of the meetinghouse,
they met Sons of Liberty, costumed as Narragansett Indians,
on their way to do the same thing. Followed by a huge crowd
of perhaps 1,000 Bostonians, the “Indians” and volunteers
stormed the three ships and, in a three-hour fracas lasting
from 6:00 until 9:00 P.M., broke open all of the tea chests and
dumped them into the harbor.
The attack had been conscientiously planned, and the protesters disturbed no other ship or cargo. Only one injury
occurred, when a collapsing winch knocked a man unconscious. However, participants had ruined £18,000 worth of
tea and infuriated the British government and particularly
the king. Boston authorities arrested a barber named Eckley
who had been caught bragging about his participation, but
they could not find anyone who could identify the protestors,
and sympathizers tarred and feathered Eckley’s accuser in
retaliation. George III specifically noted the Tea Party in his
address to Parliament, and he and Lord North pushed
through the Coercive Acts by April 1774, sparking further
protests and eventually war between Britain and its American
colonies.