Historical accounts state that 342 chests of tea were dumped during the Boston Tea Party.
On December 16, 1773, colonists boarded three East India Company ships in Boston Harbor and threw their tea cargo into the water. The protest opposed the Tea Act, which let the company sell tea directly in the colonies while retaining a tax that many colonists regarded as unconstitutional.
The event was organized by the Sons of Liberty and involved participants disguising themselves, commonly described as wearing clothing associated with Indigenous peoples. They damaged little beyond the tea itself, but the destruction represented a dramatic rejection of Parliament’s authority.
Britain responded with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists. These measures helped unite resistance and contributed to the First Continental Congress in 1774. The Boston Tea Party is therefore remembered as an important escalation on the road to the American Revolution, whose 250th anniversary America250 commemorates.