Page 27 - ASM Book 9/2020

Sons of Liberty Dumped the Tea
21
On December 16, 1773, about 60 members of the Boston Sons of Liberty, disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded three British tea ships and dumped 342 chests (46 tons) of tea into the Boston Harbor. It took nearly three hours to complete the task.
The midnight raid was a protest against Parliament’s passage of the 1773 Tea Act. Which upset the colonists, not only because of the tax, but also because a single company – the British East India Tea Company – would control all the tea imported into the colonies.
Parliament had granted a monopoly to the British East India Tea Company to sell tea at prices lower than Dutch smugglers had been selling to colonial merchants.
The arrival of the Dartmouth, Eleanor and Beaver caused an uproar among Boston citizens. The crisis came to a head when about 8,000 residents loudly protested on the wharf where the ships were docked.
A mass meeting was held later at the Old South Meeting House and demanded that the ships be sent back to England without paying the duty. Samuel Adams led a group to try to persuade Governor Thomas Hutchinson to release the ships. Adams reported back that Hutchinson had refused. As a result, a large crowd marched to the harbor about midnight and watched the disguised patriots throw the tea overboard.
The arrival of three tea ships -
the Dartmouth,
the Eleanor and
the Beaver - caused an uproar among
Boston citizens.