USA > United States

Boston Tea Party

When the British parliament, in an effort to shore up the East Indian Company, granted that group a monopoly on tea trade with the American colonies, fierce resistance developed. The company selected consignees in Boston, [ny:newyork], Charleston, and Philadelphia and shipped half a million pounds of tea across the atlantic in September, 1773. Except in Boston, the consignees declined under pressure to accept the tea, but in Boston, the chosen merchants refused to give in.

On the night of December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams and a small group of Sons of Liberty, disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded the ship carrying the tea in Boston Harbor and threw it overboard.

To the British Parliament, this confirmed their view that Boston was the center of resistance to legitimate British interests. One of the results was the Coercive Acts of 1774.