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{{Short description|1773 American protest against British taxation}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Pp-semi-indef}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Use American English|date = March 2019}}
{{Infobox civil conflict
| title = Boston Tea Party
| partof = the [[American Revolution]]
| image = Boston_Tea_Party_w.jpg
| caption =''Boston Tea Party'', an engraving in ''The History of North America'', a 1799 book by William Cooper
| date = {{start date and age|1773|12|16}}
| place = [[Boston]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]], [[British America]]
| coordinates = {{Coord|42.3536|N|71.0524|W|name=Boston Tea Party|type:event_scale:5000_region:US-MA|display=title,inline}}
| causes = [[Tea Act]]
| goals = To protest British Parliament's tax on tea. "No taxation without representation."
| methods = Throwing the tea into Boston Harbor
| result = [[Intolerable Acts]]
| side1 = {{flagicon image|US Sons OfLiberty 9Stripes Flag.svg}} [[Sons of Liberty]]
| side2 = {{flagicon|Kingdom of Great Britain}} [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]
* {{Flagicon image|Flag of the British East India Company (1707).svg}} [[East India Company]]
* [[Parliament of Great Britain|Parliament]]
| leadfigures1 = {{ubli|[[Samuel Adams]]|[[Paul Revere]]|[[William Molineux]]|'' and other "[[Sons of Liberty]]"...''}}
| leadfigures2 = [[Thomas Hutchinson (governor)|Thomas Hutchinson]]
}}
{{American Revolution sidebar}}
The '''Boston Tea Party''' was a seminal American [[protest|political]] and [[Mercantilism|mercantile]] protest on December 16, 1773, during the [[American Revolution]]. Initiated by [[Sons of Liberty]] activists in [[Boston]] in [[Province of Massachusetts Bay|colonial Massachusetts]], one of the original [[Thirteen Colonies]] in [[British America]], it escalated hostilities between [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]] and [[Patriot (American Revolution)|American patriots]], who opposed British colonial mercantile and governing practices.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=George|title=The Boston tea party|date=January 17, 2012|publisher=The institute for humane studies and libertarianism.org|url=https://www.libertarianism.org/publications/essays/excursions/boston-tea-party|access-date=April 20, 2018}}</ref> Less than two years later, on April 19, 1775, the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]], also in Massachusetts, launched the eight-year [[American Revolutionary War]] between the British and the Thirteen Colonies, which ultimately prevailed, securing their independence and the establishment of the sovereign [[United States|United States of America]].
The target of the Boston Tea Party was the British implementation of the [[Tea Act]] of May 10, 1773, which allowed the [[East India Company]] to sell tea from [[Qing Dynasty|China]] in the colonies without paying taxes apart from those imposed by the [[Townshend Acts]]. The Sons of Liberty strongly opposed the Townshend Act taxes, which they saw as a violation of their [[Rights of Englishmen|rights as Englishmen]] to "[[no taxation without representation]]".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Mitchell|first1=Stacy|title=The big box swindle|date=July 19, 2016 |url=https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/7/19/stacy-mitchell|access-date=April 20, 2018}}</ref>
Disguised as [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] the night of December 16, 1773, Sons of Liberty activists boarded the ''Dartmouth'', a British ship that had docked in Boston carrying a major shipment of East India Company tea, and set about throwing 342 chests of the tea into Boston Harbor. The British government considered the protest an act of treason and responded harshly.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sosin|first1=Jack M.|date=June 12, 2022|title=The Massachusetts Acts of 1774: Coercive or Preventive|url=https://doi.org/10.2307/3816653|journal=Huntington Library Quarterly|volume=26|issue=3|pages=235–252|doi=10.2307/3816653 |jstor=3816653 |access-date=June 12, 2022|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Nine days later, on December 25, at the [[Philadelphia Tea Party]], American patriots similarly protested the arrival of a British tea shipment, which arrived aboard the British ship ''Polly''. While the Philadelphia patriot activists did not destroy the tea, they sent the ship back to England without unloading it.
Parliament responded in 1774 with the [[Intolerable Acts]], or Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, ended local self-government in Massachusetts and [[Boston Port Act|closed Boston's commerce]]. Colonists throughout the Thirteen Colonies responded to the Intolerable Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the [[First Continental Congress]] in [[Philadelphia]], which [[Petition to the King (1774)|petitioned the British monarch]] for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them, culminating in the October 1774 [[Continental Association]].
==History==
The event was initially known as "The Destruction of the Tea".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/the-destruction-of-the-tea | title=Destruction of British East India Company Tea | Boston Tea Party | date=September 19, 2019 }}</ref> The moniker "Boston Tea Party" gained popularity in the early 19th century as the event took on a legendary status in American history. The name succinctly captures the combination of locality ([[Boston]]), the commodity involved ([[tea]]), and the nature of the event (a political 'party' or gathering as a form of protest). The Boston Tea Party arose from two challenges confronting the [[British Empire]], the financial problems of the British East India Company, and an ongoing dispute about the extent of Parliament's authority, if any, over the British American colonies without seating any elected representation. The [[North Ministry]]'s attempt to resolve these issues produced a showdown, which was a source of dispute throughout the [[American Revolution]], leading ultimately to the associated [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] and ultimately the end of [[British colonization of the Americas|British colonialization]] and the emergence of the [[United States]] as a sovereign nation.<ref>Benjamin L. Carp, ''Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America'' (2010) ch. 1</ref> The Boston Tea Party was the second American tax revolt against the British royal authority. The first, which occurred in April 1772, in [[Weare, New Hampshire]], was the [[Pine Tree Riot]], in which colonialists protested heavy fines levied against them for harvesting trees.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Weare NH Historical Society |url=http://wearehistoricalsociety.org/pineriot.php |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=wearehistoricalsociety.org}}</ref>
===Tea trade to 1767===
{{Further|Indemnity Act 1767}}
As Europeans developed a taste for tea in the 17th century, rival companies were formed to import the product from [[China]], which was then governed by the [[Qing dynasty]].<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 3–4.</ref> In 1698, the [[Parliament of England|English Parliament]] granted the East India Company a monopoly on the importation of tea.<ref>Knollenberg, ''Growth'', 90.</ref> When tea became popular in the British colonies, Parliament sought to eliminate foreign competition by passing an act in 1721 that required colonists to import their tea only from Great Britain.<ref>Knollenberg, ''Growth'', 90; Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 7.</ref> The East India Company did not export tea to the colonies; by law, the company was required to sell its tea [[wholesale]] at auctions in England. British firms bought this tea and exported it to the colonies, where they resold it to merchants in [[Boston]], [[New York City|New York]], [[Philadelphia]], and [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]].<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 8–9.</ref>
Until 1767, the East India Company paid an [[ad valorem tax|''ad valorem'' tax]] of about 25% on tea that it imported into Great Britain.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 6–8; Knollenberg, ''Growth'', 91; Thomas, ''Townshend Duties'', 18.</ref> Parliament laid additional taxes on tea sold for consumption in Britain. These high taxes, combined with the fact that tea imported into the Dutch Republic was not taxed by the Dutch government, meant that Britons and British Americans could buy [[smuggling|smuggled]] Dutch tea at much cheaper prices.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 6.</ref> The biggest market for illicit tea was England. By the 1760s, the East India Company was losing £400,000 per year to smugglers in Great Britain,<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 59.</ref> but Dutch tea was also smuggled into British America in significant quantities.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 6–7.</ref>
To help the East India Company compete with smuggled Dutch tea, Parliament passed the [[Indemnity Act 1767|Indemnity Act]] in 1767; which lowered the tax on tea consumed in Great Britain and gave the East India Company a refund of the 25% duty on tea that was re-exported to the colonies.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 13; Thomas, ''Townshend Duties'', 26–27. This kind of refund or rebate is known as a "[[Duty drawback|drawback]]".</ref> To help offset this loss of government revenue, Parliament also passed the [[Townshend Acts|Townshend Revenue Act]] of 1767, which levied new taxes, including one on tea, in the colonies.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 21.</ref>
===Townshend Acts===
{{Main|Townshend Acts}}
A controversy between Great Britain and the colonies arose in the 1760s when Parliament sought, for the first time, to impose a direct tax on the colonies for the purpose of raising revenue. Some colonists, known in the colonies as [[Patriot (American Revolution)|American patriots]], objected to the new tax program, arguing that it was a violation of the [[British Constitution]]. Britons and British Americans agreed that, according to the constitution, [[British subjects]] could not be [[No taxation without representation|taxed without the consent]] of their elected representatives. In Great Britain, this meant that taxes could only be levied by Parliament. Colonists, however, did not elect members of Parliament, and so American Whigs argued that the colonies could not be taxed by that body. According to Whigs, colonists could only be taxed by their own colonial assemblies. Colonial protests resulted in the repeal of the [[Stamp Act 1765|Stamp Act]] in 1766, but in the 1766 [[Declaratory Act]], Parliament continued to insist that it had the right to legislate for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever".{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}
When new taxes were levied in the Townshend Revenue Act of 1767, American patriots again responded with protests and boycotts. Merchants organized a non-importation agreement, and many colonists pledged to abstain from drinking [[Tea in the United Kingdom|British tea]], with activists in New England promoting alternatives, such as domestic [[Labrador tea]].<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 27–30.</ref> Smuggling continued apace, especially in New York and Philadelphia, where tea smuggling had always been more extensive than in Boston. Dutied British tea continued to be imported into Boston, however, especially by [[Richard Clarke (merchant)|Richard Clarke]] and the sons of Massachusetts Governor [[Thomas Hutchinson (governor)|Thomas Hutchinson]], until pressure from Massachusetts Whigs compelled them to abide by the non-importation agreement.<ref>Labaree, "Tea Party", 32–34.</ref>
Parliament finally responded to the protests by repealing the Townshend taxes in 1770, except for the tea duty, which Prime Minister [[Lord North]] kept to assert "the right of taxing the Americans".<ref>Knollenberg, ''Growth'', 71; Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 46.</ref> This partial repeal of the taxes was enough to bring an end to the non-importation movement by October 1770.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 46–49.</ref> From 1771 to 1773, British tea was once again imported into the colonies in significant amounts, with merchants paying the Townshend duty of three pence ({{Inflation|GBP|{{Pounds, shillings, and pence|d=3}}|1772|r=2|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) per pound in weight of tea.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 50–51.</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Indemnity Act of 1767 - June 29, 1767 |url=https://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/indemnity-act-of-1767-text.html |newspaper=Revolutionary War and Beyond |access-date=January 18, 2020}}{{unreliable source?|date=March 2023}}</ref> Boston was the largest colonial importer of legal tea; smugglers still dominated the market in New York and Philadelphia.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 52.</ref>
In the 1772 [[Gaspee affair|''Gaspee'' affair]], colonists attacked and burned a [[British Navy]] ship, which was then engaged in enforcing British customs laws off the coast of [[Newport, Rhode Island]].
==Tea Act of 1773==
{{Main|Tea Act}}
[[File:Boston Tea Party Currier colored.jpg|thumb|alt=Two ships in a harbor, one in the distance. On board, men stripped to the waist and wearing feathers in their hair throw crates of tea overboard. A large crowd, mostly men, stands on the dock, waving hats and cheering. A few people wave their hats from windows in a nearby building.|''The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor'', an iconic 1846 lithograph by [[Nathaniel Currier]]; the phrase "Boston Tea Party" had not yet become standard. Contrary to Currier's depiction, few of the men dumping the tea were actually disguised as Native Americans.<ref>Young, ''Shoemaker'', 183–85.</ref>]]
The Indemnity Act of 1767, which gave the East India Company a refund of the duty on tea that was re-exported to the colonies, expired in 1772. Parliament passed a new act in 1772 that reduced this refund, effectively leaving a 10% duty on tea imported into Britain.<ref>The 1772 tax act was [[12 Geo. 3]]. c. 60 sec. 1; Knollenberg, ''Growth'', 351n12.</ref> The act also restored the tea taxes within Britain that had been repealed in 1767, and left in place the three [[penny|pence]] Townshend duty in the colonies, equal to £{{Inflation|UK|0.01|1772|r=2}} today. With this new tax burden driving up the price of British tea, sales plummeted. The company continued to import tea into Great Britain, however, amassing a huge surplus of product that no one would buy.<ref>Thomas, ''Townshend Duties'', 248–49; Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 334.</ref> For these and other reasons, by late 1772 the East India Company, one of Britain's most important commercial institutions, was in a serious financial crisis.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 58, 60–62.</ref> The severe [[Great Bengal famine of 1770|famine in Bengal from 1769 to 1773]] had drastically reduced the revenue of the East India Company from India bringing the Company to the verge of bankruptcy and the Tea Act of 1773 was enacted to help the East India Company.<ref>{{cite podcast| url= https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/empire/id1639561921| title=Company Rule in India| work=Empire| publisher=Goalhanger| last1=Dalrynple| first1=William| author-link1=William Dalrymple (historian) |last2=Anand| first2=Anita| author-link2=Anita Anand (journalist) | date=August 15, 2022| minutes=28:25| access-date=August 31, 2022}}</ref>
Eliminating some of the taxes was one obvious solution to the crisis. The East India Company initially sought to have the Townshend duty repealed, but the North ministry was unwilling because such an action might be interpreted as a retreat from Parliament's position that it had the right to tax the colonies.<ref>Knollenberg, ''Growth'', 90–91.</ref> More importantly, the tax collected from the Townshend duty was used to pay the salaries of some colonial governors and judges.<ref>Thomas, ''Townshend Duties'', 252–54.</ref> This was in fact the purpose of the Townshend tax: previously these officials had been paid by the colonial assemblies, but Parliament now paid their salaries to keep them dependent on the British government rather than allowing them to be accountable to the colonists.<ref>Knollenberg, ''Growth'', 91.</ref>
Another possible solution for reducing the growing mound of tea in the East India Company warehouses was to sell it cheaply in Europe. This possibility was investigated, but it was determined that the tea would simply be smuggled back into Great Britain, where it would undersell the taxed product.<ref>Thomas, ''Townshend Duties'', 250; Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 69.</ref> The best market for the East India Company's surplus tea, so it seemed, was the American colonies, if a way could be found to make it cheaper than the smuggled Dutch tea.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 70, 75.</ref>
The North Ministry's solution was the Tea Act, which received the [[Royal Assent|assent]] of [[George III of the United Kingdom|King George]] on May 10, 1773.<ref>Knollenberg, ''Growth'', 93.</ref> This act restored the East India Company's full refund on the duty for importing tea into Britain, and also permitted the company, for the first time, to export tea to the colonies on its own account. This would allow the company to reduce costs by eliminating the middlemen who bought the tea at wholesale auctions in London.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 67, 70.</ref> Instead of selling to middlemen, the company now appointed colonial merchants to receive the tea on [[consignment]]; the consignees would in turn sell the tea for a commission. In July 1773, tea consignees were selected in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Charleston.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 75–76.</ref> The Tea Act in 1773 authorized the shipment of 5,000 chests of tea (250 tons) to the American colonies. There would be a tax of £1,750 (equal to £{{Inflation|UK|1750|1772|r=-3|fmt=c}} today) to be paid by the importers when the cargo landed. The act granted the East India Company a monopoly on the sale of tea that was cheaper than smuggled tea; its hidden purpose was to force the colonists to pay a tax of 3 pennies on every pound of tea.<ref>{{cite book|author=James M. Volo|title=The Boston Tea Party: The Foundations of Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=403f4VrQwvYC&pg=PA29|year=2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-39875-9|page=29}}</ref>
The Tea Act thus retained the three pence Townshend duty on tea imported to the colonies. Some members of Parliament wanted to eliminate this tax, arguing that there was no reason to provoke another colonial controversy. Former Chancellor of the Exchequer [[William Dowdeswell (Chancellor)|William Dowdeswell]], for example, warned Lord North that the Americans would not accept the tea if the Townshend duty remained.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 71; Thomas, ''Townshend Duties'', 252.</ref> But North did not want to give up the revenue from the Townshend tax, primarily because it was used to pay the salaries of colonial officials; maintaining the right of taxing the Americans was a secondary concern.<ref>Thomas, ''Townshend Duties'', 252.</ref> According to historian Benjamin Labaree, "A stubborn Lord North had unwittingly hammered a nail in the coffin of the old British Empire."<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 72–73.</ref>
Even with the Townshend duty in effect, the Tea Act would allow the East India Company to sell tea more cheaply than before, undercutting the prices offered by smugglers, but also undercutting colonial tea importers, who paid the tax and received no refund. In 1772, legally imported [[Bohea]], the most common variety of tea, sold for about 3 [[shilling]]s (3s) per pound, equal to £{{Inflation|UK|0.15|1772|r=2}} today.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 51.</ref> After the Tea Act, colonial consignees would be able to sell tea for 2 shillings per pound (2s), just under the smugglers' price of 2 shillings and 1 penny (2s 1d).<ref>Thomas, ''Townshend Duties'', 255; Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 76–77.</ref> Realizing that the payment of the Townshend duty was politically sensitive, the company hoped to conceal the tax by making arrangements to have it paid either in London once the tea was landed in the colonies, or have the consignees quietly pay the duties after the tea was sold. This effort to hide the tax from the colonists was unsuccessful.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 76–77.</ref>
==Resisting the Tea Act==
{{Further|Philadelphia Tea Party}}
[[File:Edenton-North-Carolina-women-Tea-boycott-1775.jpg|thumb|A 1775 British cartoon, ''A Society of Patriotic Ladies at Edenton in North Carolina'', satirizing the [[Edenton Tea Party]], a group of American women who organized a boycott of English tea]]
In September and October 1773, seven ships carrying East India Company tea were sent to the colonies: four were bound for [[Boston]], and one each for [[New York City|New York]], [[Philadelphia]], and [[Charleston, South Carolina]].<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 78–79.</ref> The ships contained over 2,000 chests, representing nearly {{Convert|600,000|lb}} of tea.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 77, 335.</ref> Americans learned the details of the Tea Act while the ships were en route, and opposition began to mount.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 89–90.</ref> Whigs, sometimes calling themselves Sons of Liberty, began a campaign to raise awareness and to convince or compel the consignees to resign, in the same way that stamp distributors had been forced to resign in the 1765 Stamp Act crisis.<ref>Knollenberg, ''Growth'', 96.</ref>
The protest movement that culminated with the Boston Tea Party was not a dispute about high taxes. The price of legally imported tea was actually reduced by the Tea Act of 1773. Protesters were instead concerned with a variety of other issues. The familiar "no taxation without representation" argument, along with the question of the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies, remained prominent.<ref>Thomas, ''Townshend Duties'', 246.</ref> [[Samuel Adams]] considered the British tea monopoly to be "equal to a tax" and to raise the same representation issue whether or not a tax was applied to it.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gross|first=David M.|year=2014|title=99 Tactics of Successful Tax Resistance Campaigns|publisher=Picket Line Press|isbn=978-1490572741|page=129}}</ref> Some regarded the purpose of the tax program, which made leading officials independent of colonial influence, as a dangerous infringement of colonial rights.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 106.</ref> This was especially true in Massachusetts, the only colony where the Townshend program had been fully implemented.<ref>Thomas, ''Townshend Duties'', 245.</ref>
Colonial merchants, some of them smugglers, played a significant role in the protests. Because the Tea Act made legally imported tea cheaper, it threatened to put smugglers of Dutch tea out of business.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 102; see also John W. Tyler, ''Smugglers & Patriots: Boston Merchants and the Advent of the American Revolution'' (Boston, 1986).</ref> Legitimate tea importers who had not been named as consignees by the East India Company were also threatened with financial ruin by the Tea Act.<ref>Thomas, ''Townshend Duties'', 256.</ref> Another major concern for merchants was that the Tea Act gave the East India Company a monopoly on the tea trade, and it was feared that this government-created monopoly might be extended in the future to include other goods.<ref>Knollenberg, ''Growth'', 95–96.</ref>
In New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, protesters compelled the tea consignees to resign. In Charleston, the consignees had been forced to resign by early December, and the unclaimed tea was seized by customs officials.<ref>Knollenberg, ''Growth'', 101.</ref> There were mass protest meetings in Philadelphia, during which [[Benjamin Rush]], who later served as a [[Second Continental Congress]] delegate from the [[Province of Pennsylvania]], urged his fellow countrymen to oppose the landing of the tea because the cargo contained "the seeds of slavery".<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 100. See also Alyn Brodsky, ''Benjamin Rush'' (Macmillan, 2004), 109.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=mpaaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA83 Letters of Benjamin Rush: Volume I: 1761-1792], ''To His Fellow Countrymen, On Patriotism'', October 20, 1773</ref> By early December, the Philadelphia consignees resigned, and in late December the tea ship returned to England with its cargo following a confrontation with the ship's captain.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 97.</ref> The tea ship bound for New York City was delayed by bad weather; by the time it arrived, the consignees had resigned, and the ship returned to England with the tea.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 96; Knollenberg, ''Growth'', 101–02.</ref>
===Standoff in Boston===
[[File:BostonTeaPartyJoyceNotice.jpg|thumb|A notice from the "Chairman of the Committee for Tarring and Feathering" in [[Boston]], denouncing the tea consignees as "traitors to their country"]]
In every colony except [[Province of Massachusetts|Massachusetts]], protesters were able to force the tea consignees to resign or to return the tea to England.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 96–100.</ref> In Boston, however, Governor Hutchinson was determined to hold his ground. He convinced the tea consignees, two of whom were his sons, not to back down.<ref>Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 104–05.</ref>
When the tea ship ''Dartmouth''{{efn|''Dartmouth'' had delivered whale oil to London and taken on the tea as return cargo}} arrived in the Boston Harbor in late November, Whig leader Samuel Adams called for a mass meeting to be held at [[Faneuil Hall]] on November 29, 1773. Thousands of people arrived, so many that the meeting was moved to the larger [[Old South Meeting House]].<ref>This was not an official town meeting, but a gathering of "the body of the people" of [[greater Boston]]; Alexander, ''Revolutionary Politician'', 123.</ref> British law required ''Dartmouth'' to unload and pay the duties within twenty days or customs officials could confiscate the cargo (i.e. unload it onto American soil).<ref>Alexander, ''Revolutionary Politician'', 124.</ref> The mass meeting passed a resolution, introduced by Adams and based on a similar set of resolutions promulgated earlier in Philadelphia, urging the captain of ''Dartmouth'' to send the ship back without paying the import duty. Meanwhile, the meeting assigned twenty-five men to watch the ship and prevent the tea – including a number of chests from [[Davison, Newman and Co.]] of London – from being unloaded.<ref>Alexander, ''Revolutionary Politician'', 123.</ref>
[[Thomas Hutchinson (governor)|Governor Hutchinson]], governor of colonial [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]], refused to grant permission for the ''Dartmouth'' to leave without paying the duty. Two more tea ships, ''Eleanor'' and ''Beaver'', arrived in Boston Harbor. On December 16, the last day of ''Dartmouth''{{'s}} deadline, approximately 5,000<ref name="Raphael2001">{{Citation| last = Raphael | first = Ray | year = 2001 | title = A people's history of the American Revolution: How common people shaped the fight for independence| publisher = The New Press | page = [https://archive.org/details/peopleshistoryof00raph/page/18 18] | isbn = 1-56584-653-2 | quote = On December 16, the day before customs officials were entitled to seize the cargo and land it themselves, an estimated 5,000 people traveled through a cold, steady rain to gather at the Old South Meeting House. (The entire population of Boston at the time was only about 16,000, children included.)| url = https://archive.org/details/peopleshistoryof00raph/page/18}}</ref> to 7,000<ref>Alexander, ''Revolutionary Politician'', 125.</ref> people out of an estimated population of 16,000<ref name="Raphael2001"/> gathered around [[Old South Meeting House]]. After receiving a report that Governor Hutchinson had again refused to let the ships leave, Adams announced, "This meeting can do nothing further to save the country."
According to a popular story, Adams's statement was a prearranged signal for the tea party to begin. This claim, however, did not appear in print until publication of Adams' great-grandson was published nearly a century after the event, who apparently misinterpreted the evidence.<ref>Raphael, ''Founding Myths'', 53.</ref> According to eyewitness accounts, people did not leave the meeting until ten to fifteen minutes after Adams's alleged "signal", and Adams in fact tried to stop people from leaving because the meeting was not yet over.<ref>Maier, ''Old Revolutionaries'', 27–28n32; Raphael, ''Founding Myths'', 53. For firsthand accounts that contradict the story that Adams gave the signal for the tea party, see L. F. S. Upton, ed., "Proceeding of Ye Body Respecting the Tea," ''William and Mary Quarterly'', Third Series, 22 (1965), 297–98; Francis S. Drake, ''Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents'', (Boston, 1884), LXX; ''[[Boston Evening-Post]]'', December 20, 1773; ''Boston Gazette'', December 20, 1773; ''Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter'', December 23, 1773.</ref>
==Destruction of the tea==
[[File:Boston Tea Party-Cooper.jpg|thumb|A 1789 engraving of the destruction of tea during the Boston Tea Party]]
While [[Samuel Adams]] tried to reassert control of the meeting, people poured out of the Old South Meeting House to prepare to take action. In some cases, this involved donning what may have been elaborately prepared [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]] costumes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.boston-tea-party.org/Indian-disguise.html|title=Boston Tea Party Historical Society}}</ref> While disguising their individual faces was imperative, because of the illegality of their protest, dressing as Mohawk warriors was a specific and symbolic choice. It showed that the Sons of Liberty identified with America, over their official status as subjects of Great Britain.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.boston-tea-party.org/mohawks.html|title=Boston Tea Party Historical Society}}</ref>
That evening, a group of 30 to 130 men, some dressed in the Mohawk warrior disguises, boarded the three vessels and, over the course of three hours, dumped all 342 chests of tea into the water.<ref>Alexander, ''Revolutionary Politician'', 125–26; Labaree, ''Tea Party'', 141–44.</ref> The precise ___location of the Griffin's Wharf site of the Tea Party has been subject to prolonged uncertainty; a comprehensive study<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jrshelby.com/btp/|title=Where Was the Actual Boston Tea Party Site?|access-date=July 6, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213105731/http://jrshelby.com/btp/|archive-date=December 13, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> places it near the foot of Hutchinson Street (today's Pearl Street).{{better source needed|date=August 2018}} The property damage amounted to the destruction of {{Convert|92,000|lb}} or 340 chests of tea, reported by the British East India Company worth £9,659 (equivalent to £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|9659|1773|r=0}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK}}{{Inflation-fn|UK}}), or roughly $1,700,000 in today's money.<ref>{{cite web |title=Boston Tea Party Damage |url=https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/boston-tea-party-damage |website=Boston Tea Party Ships |access-date=May 29, 2020}}</ref>
The owner of two of the three ships was William Rotch, a [[Nantucket]]-born colonist and merchant.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Karttunen |first1=Frances |title=What is the significance of the ships' names over the door of the Pacific Club at the foot of Main Street? |url=https://nha.org/research/nantucket-history/history-topics/what-is-the-significance-of-the-ships-names-over-the-door-of-the-pacific-club-at-the-foot-of-main-street/ |website=Nantucket Historical Association |access-date=May 29, 2020}}</ref>
Another tea ship intended for Boston, the ''William'', ran aground at [[Cape Cod]] in December 1773, and its tea was taxed and sold to private parties. In March 1774, the [[Sons of Liberty]] received information that this tea was being held in a warehouse in Boston, entered the warehouse and destroyed all they could find. Some of it had already been sold to Davison, Newman and Co. and was being held in their shop. On March 7, Sons of Liberty once again dressed as Mohawks, broke into the shop, and dumped the last remaining tea into the harbor.<ref>{{cite book|author=Marissa Moss |title=America's tea parties : not one but four! : Boston, Charleston, New York, Philadelphia |year=2016|publisher= Abrams Books for Young Readers|page=20 |isbn=978-1613129159}}</ref><ref>Diary of John Adams, March 8, 1774; ''Boston Gazette'', March 14, 1774</ref>
==Reaction==
[[File:Boston Tea Party Plaque - Independence Wharf 2009.jpg|thumb|A plaque commemorating the Boston Tea Party, currently affixed to side of the Independence Wharf Building in [[Boston]]]]
Whether or not [[Samuel Adams]] helped plan the Boston Tea Party is disputed, but he immediately worked to publicize and defend it.<ref>Alexander, ''Revolutionary Politician'', p. 126.</ref> He argued that the Tea Party was not the act of a lawless mob, but was instead a principled protest and the only remaining option the people had to defend their constitutional rights.<ref>Alexander, ''Revolutionary Politician'', 129.</ref>
[[John Adams]], Samuel's second cousin and also a [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Father]], wrote in his diary on December 17, 1773, that the Boston Tea Party proved a historical moment in the [[American Revolution]], writing:
{{Cquote|This is the most magnificent Movement of all. There is a Dignity, a Majesty, a Sublimity, in this last Effort of the [[Patriots (American Revolution)|Patriots]], that I greatly admire. The People should never rise, without doing something to be remembered—something notable And striking. This Destruction of the Tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important Consequences, and so lasting, that I cant but consider it as an Epocha in History.<ref>[https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-02-02-0003-0008-0001 "From the diary of John Adams"], [[National Archives and Records Administration]]</ref>}}
In Great Britain, even those politicians considered friends of the colonies were appalled and this act united all parties there against the colonies. The Prime Minister [[Lord North]] said, "Whatever may be the consequence, we must risk something; if we do not, all is over".<ref>Cobbett, ''Parliamentary History of England'', XVII, pg. 1280-1281</ref> The British government felt this action could not remain unpunished, and responded by closing the port of Boston and putting in place other laws known as the "[[Intolerable Acts]]". Although the first three, the [[Boston Port Act]], the [[Massachusetts Government Act]], and the [[Administration of Justice Act 1774|Administration of Justice Act]], applied only to Massachusetts, colonists outside that colony feared that their governments could now also be changed by legislative fiat in England. The Intolerable Acts were viewed as a violation of constitutional rights, [[natural rights]], and colonial charters, and united many colonists throughout America.<ref>Ammerman, ''In the Common Cause,'' 15.</ref> [[Benjamin Franklin]] stated that the East India Company should be paid for the destroyed tea,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Richardson |first=Bruce |title=Benjamin Franklin's Views on The Boston Tea Party |url=https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/tea-blog/benjamin-franklins-views-on-the-boston-tea-party |access-date=July 11, 2020}}</ref> all ninety thousand pounds (which, at two shillings per pound, came to £9,000, or £{{Formatprice|{{inflation|UK|9000|1773}}}} [2014, approx. $1.7 million US]).{{inflation-fn|UK}} Robert Murray, a New York merchant, went to Lord North with three other merchants and offered to pay for the losses, but the offer was turned down.<ref>Ketchum, ''Divided Loyalties'', 262.</ref>
A number of colonists were inspired by the Boston Tea Party to carry out similar acts, such as the burning of [[Peggy Stewart (ship)|''Peggy Stewart'']]. The Boston Tea Party eventually proved to be one of the many reactions that led to the American Revolutionary War.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Boston Tea Party - United States History |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Boston-Tea-Party |access-date=July 11, 2020 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]}}</ref> In February 1775, Britain passed the [[Conciliatory Resolution]], which ended taxation for any colony that satisfactorily provided for the imperial defense and the upkeep of imperial officers. The tax on tea was repealed with the [[Taxation of Colonies Act 1778]], part of another Parliamentary attempt at conciliation that failed.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}
===Edenton Tea Party===
{{main|Edenton Tea Party}}
While delegates convened in the [[First Continental Congress]], fifty-one women in Edenton, North Carolina formed their own association (now referred to as the [[Edenton Tea Party]]) in response to the Intolerable Acts that focused on producing goods for the colonies.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Women in the American Revolution: gender, politics, and the domestic world|date=2019|editor=Barbara Oberg|isbn=978-0-8139-4260-5|___location=Charlottesville |publisher=University of Virginia Press |oclc=1091235010}}</ref>
==Legacy==
[[File:Boston Tea Party Museum.jpg|thumb|The Boston Tea Party Museum in [[Fort Point Channel]] in Boston]]
[[File:Boston Tea Party-1973 issue-3c.jpg|thumb|In 1973, the [[United States Postal Service|U.S. Postal Service]] issued a set of four stamps, which combined to form one scene of the Boston Tea Party.]]
{{external media | width = 220px | float = right | headerimage= | video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?153825-1/shoemaker-tea-party ''Booknotes'' interview with Alfred Young on ''The Shoemaker and the Tea Party'', November 21, 1999], [[C-SPAN]]<ref name="cspan">{{cite web | title =The Shoemaker and the Tea Party| publisher =[[C-SPAN]] | date =November 21, 1999 | url =https://www.c-span.org/video/?153825-1/shoemaker-tea-party| access-date =March 29, 2017 }}</ref> }}
[[John Adams]]<ref>{{cite web |last=Adams |first=John |author-link=John Adams |date=July 6, 1774 |title=John Adams to Abigail Adams |url=http://www.masshist.org/publications/apde/portia.php?id=AFC01d090 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304031147/http://www.masshist.org/publications/apde/portia.php?id=AFC01d090 |archive-date=March 4, 2014 |access-date=February 25, 2014 |work=The Adams Papers: Digital Editions: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 1 |publisher=[[Massachusetts Historical Society]] |quote=I believe I forgot to tell you one Anecdote: When I first came to this House it was late in the Afternoon, and I had ridden 35 miles at least. "Madam" said I to Mrs. Huston, "is it lawfull for a weary Traveller to refresh himself with a Dish of Tea provided it has been honestly smuggled, or paid no Duties?" "No sir, said she, we have renounced all Tea in this Place. I cant make Tea, but I'le make you Coffee." Accordingly I have drank Coffee every Afternoon since, and have borne it very well. Tea must be universally renounced. I must be weaned, and the sooner, the better.}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=October 2024}} and many other Americans considered tea drinking to be unpatriotic following the Boston Tea Party.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}} Tea drinking declined during and after the Revolution, resulting in a shift to [[coffee]] as the preferred hot drink.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}
According to historian [[Alfred F. Young|Alfred Young]], the term "Boston Tea Party" did not appear in print until 1834.<ref>Young, ''Shoemaker'', xv.</ref> Before that time, the event was usually referred to as the "destruction of the tea". According to Young, American writers were for many years apparently reluctant to celebrate the destruction of property, and so the event was usually ignored in histories of the American Revolution. This began to change in the 1830s, however, especially with the publication of biographies of [[George Robert Twelves Hewes]], one of the few still-living participants of the "tea party", as it then became known.<ref>Young, ''Shoemaker''.</ref>
The Boston Tea Party has often been referenced in other political protests. When [[Mahatma Gandhi|Mohandas Gandhi]] led a mass burning of Indian registration cards in [[South Africa]] in 1908, a British newspaper compared the event to the Boston Tea Party.<ref>Erik H. Erikson, ''Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence'' (New York: Norton, 1969), 204.</ref> When Gandhi met with the [[Viceroy of India]] in 1930 after the [[Salt Satyagraha|Indian salt protest]] campaign, Gandhi took some duty-free salt from his shawl and said, with a smile, that the salt was "to remind us of the famous Boston Tea Party".<ref>Erikson, ''Gandhi's Truth'', 448.</ref>
American activists from a variety of political viewpoints have invoked the Tea Party as a symbol of protest. In 1973, on the 200th anniversary of the Tea Party, a mass meeting at [[Faneuil Hall]] called for the impeachment of President [[Richard Nixon]] and protested oil companies in the ongoing [[1973 oil crisis|oil crisis]]. Protesters later boarded a replica ship in Boston Harbor, hanged Nixon in effigy, and dumped several empty oil drums into the harbor.<ref>Young, ''Shoemaker'', 197.</ref> In 1998, two conservative US Congressmen put the [[Internal Revenue Code|federal tax code]] into a chest marked "tea" and dumped it into the harbor.<ref>Young, ''Shoemaker'', 198.</ref>
In 2006, a [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] political party called the "[[Boston Tea Party (political party)|Boston Tea Party]]" was founded. In 2007, the [[Ron Paul]] "Tea Party" [[money bomb]], held on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, broke the one-day fund-raising record by raising $6.04 million in 24 hours.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/005|title=Ron Paul's "tea party" breaks fund-raising record|access-date=September 14, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100328221101/http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/005|archive-date=March 28, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> The [[Tea Party movement]], which dominated conservative American politics for the next two years, reaching its peak with a [[2010 United States House of Representatives elections|voter victory for the Republicans in 2010]], who were widely elected to seats in the [[United States House of Representatives]].{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}
In 2023, the December 16th 1773 organization hosted a 250th anniversary re-enactment of the Tea Party, putting an original bottle of tea on display.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Forrest |date=2023-12-15 |title=An act 'so bold, so daring' that it's being re-enacted 250 years later |url=https://www.cnn.com/travel/boston-tea-party-250th-anniversary/index.html |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Stoll |first1=Shira |last2=Monahan • • |first2=J. C. |date=2023-12-15 |title=This is the original tea from the Boston Tea Party |url=https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/how-to-see-the-original-tea-from-the-boston-tea-party/3220800/ |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=NBC Boston |language=en-US}}</ref>
===Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum===
[[File:Replica Beaver.jpg|thumb|A replica of the ''Beaver'' in Boston]]
The Boston Tea Party Museum is located on the [[Congress Street Bridge (Boston)|Congress Street Bridge]] in Boston. It features reenactments, a documentary, and a number of interactive exhibits. The museum features two replica ships of the period, ''Eleanor'' and ''Beaver''. Additionally, the museum possesses one of two known tea chests from the original event, part of its permanent collection.<ref>{{cite web|title=Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum|url=http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/|access-date=June 20, 2013}}</ref>
===Participants===
*[[Phineas Stearns]]{{sfn|Denehy|1906|p=226}}
*[[George Robert Twelves Hewes]]
===Actual tea===
{{Further|American Antiquarian Society}}
The [[American Antiquarian Society]] holds in its collection a vial of actual tea-infused harbor water from 1773.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://catalog.mwa.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=603642|title = Tea thrown into Boston Harbor Dec. 16 1773|year = 1773}}</ref>
==Cultural references==
The Boston Tea Party has been subject of several films:
*[[The Boston Tea Party (1908 film)|''The Boston Tea Party'']], a 1908 film by [[Edwin S. Porter]]
*[[The Boston Tea Party (1915 film)|''The Boston Tea Party'']], a 1915 film by Eugene Nowland
*''The Boston Tea Party'', a 1934 film narrated by [[John B. Kennedy (journalist)|John B. Kennedy]]
* ''Boston Tea Party'', a 1957 educational [[Walt Disney Productions|Disney]] film excerpted from ''[[Johnny Tremain (film)|Johnny Tremain]]'' (1957)
It has been subject of ''The Boston Tea Party'', a 1976 play by [[Allan Albert]], and "Boston Tea Party", a 1976 song by the [[Sensational Alex Harvey Band]] from ''[[SAHB Stories]]''.<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=1997|edition=Concise|isbn=1-85227-745-9|page=1070}}</ref>
In the 2012 video game ''[[Assassin's Creed III]]'', the Boston Tea Party is retold through a main story mission in Sequence 6.
==See also==
* [[American Revolutionary War#Prelude to revolution|Prelude to the American Revolution]]
* [[Talbot Resolves]], 1774 reaction in Maryland's Eastern Shore
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{Reflist|22em}}
===General and cited sources===
* Alexander, John K. ''Samuel Adams: America's Revolutionary Politician''. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. {{ISBN|0-7425-2115-X}}.
* {{cite book |last=Ammerman |first=David |title=In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of 1774 |___location=New York |publisher=Norton |year=1974 }}
* Carp, Benjamin L. [https://archive.org/details/defianceofpatrio00benj ''Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America''] (Yale U.P., 2010) {{ISBN|978-0-300-11705-9}}.
* {{cite book |last=Denehy|first=John William|title=A History of Brookline, Massachusetts, from the First Settlement of Muddy River Until the Present Time: 1630-1906; Commemorating the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Town, Based on the Early Records and Other Authorities and Arranged by Leading Subjects. Containing Portraits and Sketches of the Town's Prominent Men Past and Present; Also Illustrations of Public Buildings and Residences|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofbrookli00dene|year=1906|publisher=Brookline Press}}
* Ketchum, Richard. ''Divided Loyalties: How the American Revolution came to New York''. 2002. {{ISBN|0-8050-6120-7}}.
* Knollenberg, Bernhard. ''Growth of the American Revolution, 1766–1775''. New York: Free Press, 1975. {{ISBN|0-02-917110-5}}.
* Labaree, Benjamin Woods. [https://archive.org/details/bostonteaparty00laba ''The Boston Tea Party'']. Originally published 1964. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1979. {{ISBN|0-930350-05-7}}.
* [[Pauline Maier|Maier, Pauline]]. ''The Old Revolutionaries: Political Lives in the Age of Samuel Adams''. New York: Knopf, 1980. {{ISBN|0-394-51096-8}}.
* Raphael, Ray. ''Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past''. New York: The New Press, 2004. {{ISBN|1-56584-921-3}}.
* Thomas, Peter D. G. ''The Townshend Duties Crisis: The Second Phase of the American Revolution, 1767–1773''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. {{ISBN|0-19-822967-4}}.
* Thomas, Peter D. G. ''Tea Party to Independence: The Third Phase of the American Revolution, 1773–1776''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. {{ISBN|0-19-820142-7}}.
* Young, Alfred F. ''The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution''. Boston: Beacon Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-8070-5405-4}}; {{ISBN|978-0-8070-5405-5}}.
==Further reading==
* Norton, Mary Beth. ''1774: The Long Year of Revolution'' (2020) [https://www.wsj.com/articles/1774-review-the-year-that-changed-the-world-11582303285?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1 online review] by [[Gordon S. Wood]]
* Tyler, John W. ''Smugglers and Patriots: Boston Merchants and the Advent of the American Revolution'' (2019) [https://archive.org/details/Tyler_SmugglersandPatriots/page/n5/mode/2up online]
*{{Cite book |last=Unger |first=Harlow G. |author-link=Harlow Unger |title=American Tempest: How the Boston Tea Party Sparked a Revolution |___location=Boston, MA |publisher=Da Capo |year=2011 |isbn=978-0306819629 |oclc=657595563 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780306819629 |access-date=March 7, 2015 }}
==External links==
{{Commons category|Boston Tea Party}}
{{Americana Poster}}
* [http://www.boston-tea-party.org The Boston Tea Party Historical Society]
* [http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/teaparty.htm Eyewitness Account of the Event]
* [http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/ Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum]
* [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125917175&ps=rs Tea Party Finds Inspiration In Boston History] – audio report by ''[[NPR]]''
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01724mf BBC Radio program about the 'forgotten truth' behind the Boston Tea Party]
* [http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/teaparty.htm Eyewitness to History: The Boston Tea Party, 1773]
* Brainerd Williamson and [[Septimus Winner]] wrote a song, [https://imslp.org/wiki/Old_Boston_Bay_(Winner,_Septimus) Old Boston Bay], to commemorate the centennial of the Boston Tea Party.
{{American Revolutionary War}}
{{Tax resistance}}
{{Samuel Adams}}
{{John Hancock}}
{{British law and the American Revolution}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1773 crimes in North America]]
[[Category:1773 in the Province of Massachusetts Bay]]
[[Category:1773 in the Thirteen Colonies]]
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[[Category:Battles and conflicts without fatalities]]
[[Category:Boston Harbor]]
[[Category:British East India Company]]
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[[Category:History of tea]]
[[Category:History of the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:Massachusetts in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:Political repression in the United States]]
[[Category:Protests in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Rebellions in the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:Tax resistance in the United States]]
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