Boston Tea Party, 1773
Bostonian’s Paying the Excise-man, or Tarring and Feathering
In 1770, Parliament repealed all the Townshend Duties except for one on tea, to symbolize Parliament’s right to tax the colonies. In November 1773, three ships carrying East India Company tea arrived in Boston. Opponents of the Tea Act, led by Samuel Adams, insisted that the ships return to their home port. On December 16, a group of patriots, disguised as Mohawk Indians, threw 342 chests of tea into the harbor. Britain responded to the “Boston Tea Party,” by issuing the punitive Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts). Following the Tea Party, many patriots, including John Adams, refused to drink tea in an act of non-violent political resistance.
