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 per-pound 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 the 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.