What protest did the Sons of Liberty stage in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773?

The Boston Tea Party was the protest staged by the Sons of Liberty in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773.

The protesters opposed the Tea Act, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea in the American colonies under advantageous conditions while retaining a parliamentary tax. Colonists objected to Parliament imposing taxes without colonial representation.

That night, participants boarded three ships—the Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver—and threw hundreds of chests of tea into the harbor. Many wore disguises, although the popular image of everyone dressing as a Native American oversimplifies the evidence.

The British government responded with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists. These measures punished Massachusetts and helped intensify the crisis that led to the American Revolutionary War. The protest was not simply a reaction to high tea prices; the Tea Act actually reduced the legal price of East India Company tea.