A tax on tea
The Tea Act of May 1773 let the East India Company sell its tea directly in the colonies, while the duty on tea set by the Townshend Acts remained. In Boston and other ports, many colonists opposed it.
From the meeting house to the ships
On 16 December 1773 thousands gathered at the Old South Meeting House. That evening the Sons of Liberty boarded the Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver and threw the tea into the harbour: 340 or 342 chests, depending on the source, valued by the company at £9,659.
What followed
Parliament replied in 1774 with the Intolerable Acts, including the Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston. On 19 April 1775 the battles of Lexington and Concord began the American Revolutionary War.



