Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was a 1773 protest in which colonists destroyed East India Company tea in Boston Harbor, opposing British taxation and the company’s privileged trade.

Tea Act: A 1773 British law that gave the East India Company advantages in selling tea to the American colonies. Its trade provisions and retained tax on tea helped trigger the protest.
Sons of Liberty: A loose network of colonial activists who organized resistance to British policies before the American Revolution. Its members helped organize the action and mobilize opposition to the tea shipments.
Coercive Acts: A set of punitive British laws imposed on Massachusetts in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. Their punishment of Boston widened colonial opposition to British rule.
Stamp Act: A 1765 British law requiring many printed materials in the colonies to bear a taxed stamp. Resistance to this earlier tax established precedents for organized colonial protest.
Townshend Acts: A series of 1767 British duties on imported goods in the American colonies, including tea. The tea duty inherited from these acts remained a target of colonial resistance.
Griffin's Wharf: A Boston waterfront wharf used by ships and merchants in the eighteenth century. Colonists boarded the tea ships there before dumping their cargo.
Boston Port Act: A 1774 British law that closed Boston’s port until the destroyed tea was paid for. It directly punished the city for the destruction of the tea cargo.
Boston Massacre: The 1770 killing of five civilians by British soldiers during a confrontation in Boston. Unlike the tea destruction, this protest-era event involved lethal violence.
East India Company: A British joint-stock company that traded across Asia and held territorial power in India. The Tea Act’s privileges for the company made its tea central to the dispute.
Dartmouth (ship): An American merchant ship that carried East India Company tea to Boston in 1773. The deadline surrounding its cargo helped precipitate the December protest.

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