What Was the Boston Tea Party?

On December 16, 1773, up to 100 American patriots, members of the Sons of Liberty, dumped 342 chests of black tea off British boats into the Boston harbor. This was the greatest act of defiance of the British crown to date. It led to the Revolution and to America’s independence. Some of the men dressed as Mohawk Indians to disguise their identities or to show that they felt more aligned with Native Americans than with the British. The tea was worth £18,000 then—equivalent to more than two million pounds today! In response, the British government tried to punish the colonists by passing what became known as the Intolerable Acts. These measures took particular aim at Massachusetts in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party. Instead of forcing the colonists to cooperate, however, these acts outraged them and helped unite them. The patriots convened the First Continental Congress in 1774 to formally discuss their grievances. When the 56 delegates met, they made a plan to present their demands to the king. They set a date for their next meeting, May of 1775. In April 1775, however, the Battles of Lexington and Concord happened, and the American Revolution started. When Congress met in May, they used the meeting to direct the war effort and form a new provisional government. The 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party is the first of many historic anniversaries surrounding the founding of the nation.