In which harbor did participants in the 1773 Boston Tea Party dump the tea?

Participants in the 1773 Boston Tea Party dumped the tea into Boston Harbor.

On the night of December 16, 1773, colonists associated with the Sons of Liberty boarded tea ships in Boston. They destroyed a shipment by throwing chests of East India Company tea into the harbor rather than allowing it to be unloaded under the Tea Act’s tax arrangements.

The protest expressed opposition to taxation without colonial representation in Parliament. Britain responded with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists. Those measures intensified resistance and helped push the colonies toward open war.

The event did not occur in New York Harbor or at a general coastline. It took place at Boston’s waterfront, and the tea was dumped from ships including the Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver. The Boston Tea Party was a political protest, not a celebration or a formal party.