US History

Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)

Law and Government

This collection uses primary sources to explore the Boston Tea Party.

Teaching Guide: Exploring the Boston Tea Party

A petition to the selectmen of Boston for the resignation of the tea consignees, November 17, 1773.

A broadside reporting a meeting of the people of Boston at Faneuil Hall on November 29, 1773 to prevent the sale of East India Company tea.

A view of the port of Boston, including Long Wharf, ca. 1750-1799.

A map of Boston around the time of the American Revolution, including Griffin’s Wharf where the ships of the Boston Tea Party were docked.

An illustration titled “Destruction of Tea in Boston Harbor,” 1856. 

An illustration depicting the Boston Tea Party, 1881.

An illustration depicting the Boston Tea Party, ca.1900s.

A broadside from 1876 reproducing a postscript to the *Pennsylvania Gazette* from December 24, 1773 about the destruction of tea in Boston.

An excerpt from *Traits of the Tea Party*, a memoir of George Hewes, a Tea Party participant, 1835.

An excerpt from *Tea Leaves*, an 1884 collection of letters and documents relating to the Boston Tea Party.

A notice from Boston announcing the British law blocking Boston Harbor until the East India Company was compensated for its lost tea, 1774.

A cartoon titled “The Bostonians in Distress,” published in London, November 1774.

A political cartoon, “Able Doctor, or America Swallowing the Bitter Draught,” published in both London and Boston in May and June 1774.

An engraving published in London titled “The Tea-Tax Tempest,” 1778.

Resources

1. [The Coming of the American Revolution](https://www.masshist.org/revolution/teaparty.php), Massachusetts Historical Society. 
2. [Boston Tea Party History](http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/boston-tea-party-history), Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum.  
3. [Boston: 1774](http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/chronicle_boston1774.html) in Liberty! The American Revolution, PBS.  

Overview

On December 16, 1773, over one hundred American colonists dressed as Native Americans boarded three merchant ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea (valued at approximately $1.7 million in today’s currency) into the water. The tea belonged to the British East India Company, which had been granted a monopoly over tea imports into the colonies by the Tea Act of May 1773. This monopoly let the company undercut colonial merchants’ prices on untaxed tea, forcing colonists who bought the cheaper product to recognize a British tax. Three ships loaded with tea, the *Dartmouth*, the *Eleanor*, and the *Beaver*, had arrived in Boston between November 28 and December 15. Colonists initially insisted that the tea be returned to England, but the colonial governor of Massachusetts and the East India Company’s consignees—officials empowered to sell and collect taxes on the tea—refused. 

In response, the Sons of Liberty organized a mass meeting of thousands at Boston’s Old South Meeting House.  When final word came that the tea ships would not be allowed to return to England, the Sons of Liberty set in motion a secret plan to destroy the tea. A group of colonists disguised in Native American attire headed from the meeting to Griffin’s Wharf, where the tea ships were moored. Many hundreds more followed to watch the destruction of the tea. 

When word got back to England about what the Bostonians had done, British officials punished the rebellious Massachusetts colonists by passing a series of laws that became known as the “Intolerable Acts,” further increasing tensions between Britain and the American colonists. The destruction of the tea, which came to be known as the Boston Tea Party, was a crucial turning point in the escalation of the American Revolution and became a powerful symbol of American protest and independence.

English

The Boston Tea Party

boston-tea-party_12_7b3b8e259a08f880d986d3b0b18efff1.jpg

Courtesy of Boston Public Library via Digital Commonwealth.

Dawe, Philip, “Bostonians in distress, plate II,” Digital Public Library of America, http://dp.la/item/7b3b8e259a08f880d986d3b0b18efff1.

The Bostonians in distress, plate II.

Digital Commonwealth

Boston Public Library

This cartoon appeared in November 1774, after the British closed the port of Boston in retribution for the Boston Tea Party.

A cartoon titled “The Bostonians in Distress,” published in London, November 1774.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 12 of 14 in the Primary Source Set The Boston Tea Party