Three hundred forty-two chests of tea were destroyed during the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773.
That night, colonists boarded three ships in Boston Harbor and threw tea owned by the British East India Company into the water. The protest opposed Parliament’s Tea Act and the broader principle that Britain could tax colonists without their representation in Parliament.
The participants were associated with the Sons of Liberty, but many concealed their identities. They damaged no other cargo and took care not to steal the tea. The event became one of the best-known acts of resistance before the American Revolutionary War.
Britain responded with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists. These measures restricted Massachusetts self-government and closed Boston Harbor until the destroyed tea was paid for. The crisis helped lead to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and intensified intercolonial opposition to British rule.