Boston Tea Party History

On the winter night of Thursday, December 16, 1773 the “tea crisis” in Boston came to a head. Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians were armed with an assortment of axes. They quietly boarded three ships carrying cargoes of British East India Company tea moored at Griffin’s Wharf. In a span of three hours, 340 chests of British East India Company Tea were smashed and dumped into Boston Harbor. Over 92,000 pounds of tea were destroyed and thrown into the harbor. The implication and impact of the Boston Tea Party were enormous; the event directly led to the sparking of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775.

Tax Deadline

With the arrival of the three shipments of British East India Company tea to Boston, the tax on tea, which had been implemented with the passing of the 1767 Townshend Revenue Act, had to be paid the moment the tea was unloaded from the Beaver, Dartmouth, and Eleanor. The absolute deadline for payment of the tax was twenty days after the arrival of the tea. If the tax was not paid within the twenty days following the ships’ arrival, the ships and their cargoes of British East India Company Tea would be seized by authorities. The deadline to pay the tax on the tea the Dartmouth delivered to Boston was December 17. Immediately following the arrival of the Dartmouth at the end of November 1773, pamphlets distributed by the Sons of Liberty appeared throughout the streets of Boston proclaiming, “Friends! Brethren! Countrymen! That worst of Plagues, the detested tea shipped for this port by the East India Company, is now arrived in the Harbor; the hour of destruction, or manly opposition to the machinations of Tyranny stares you in the Face…” For the twenty days following the arrival of the Dartmouth, meetings occurred on a daily basis throughout Boston at locations such as the Green Dragon Tavern, Faneuil Hall, and Old South Meeting House to discuss what was to be done about the shipments of “detested tea”. The Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams, was responsible for organizing the Boston Tea Party.