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Boston Tea Party Facts

Boston Tea Party Facts
The Boston Tea Party took place on December 16th, 1773. It was a protest by the American Colonists against the British in regards to the tea taxes that had been imposed on them. This protest involved throwing chests of tea from three British trade ships into the Boston Harbor. The colonists had been told they could only buy tea from the British-owned East Indian Trading Company. The British had imposed tea taxes through the Tea Act, and the colonists protested by wearing costumes, boarding the ships, and dumping the tea cargo into the harbor. The Boston Tea Party was a key event that led to the beginning of the American Revolution.
Interesting Boston Tea Party Facts:
The Boston Tea Party took place a few years after the Boston Massacre, which took place on March 5th, 1770.
Most American colonists consumed, on average, 2 to 3 cups of tea each day. This equaled approximately two million pounds of tea among 3 million colonists each year.
It was estimated that approximately 90% of the tea being drank by American colonists was smuggled in. Coffee drinking increased as a result of boycotts on British tea.
The colonist group the Sons of Liberty organized the Boston Tea Party to protest the Tea Tax created by the British.
The import tax on tea imposed through the Tea Act was actually lower than what the colonists had already been paying.
The colonists were not imposing the tax itself but the fact that the Tea Act had been created in British Parliament with no input from the American colonists. The colonists protested with the phrase 'No taxation without representation'.
The three ships in Boston Harbor that were raided in the Boston Tea Party included the Dartmouth Ship, the Eleanor Ship, and the Beaver ship.
The Dartmouth Ship was carrying 114 chests of tea; the Eleanor Ship was carrying 114 chests of tea; the Beaver Ship was carrying 114 chests of tea.
The fourth ship the William ran aground in a storm off Cape Cod and never made it to Boston Harbor.
The chests of tea on the three ships included 240 chests of cheap black tea, 15 chests of superior cheap black tea, 10 chests of superior black tea, and 60 chests of green tea.
All 342 chests of tea were dumped into Boston Harbor in the protest, destroying all of it.
The 342 chests of tea would have made approximately 19 million cups of tea.
Tea marketed in America was done by shipment receivers (dealers) selected by the East India Trading Company. The dealers in New York, Charleston, and Philadelphia refused shipments prior to the Boston Tea Party, following pressure by the Sons of Liberty. The tea sat on the ships in Boston Harbor for weeks, while the people of Boston held meetings while trying to decide what to do.
The dealers in Boston refused to allow the ships to leave and instead dumped the tea in the harbor.
180 names of men who helped dump the tea are known, but there may have been more involved.
Most of the tea from the East India Trading Company was actually from China, not Britain.


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