On December 16, 1773 a group of angry men left the Old South Meeting House dressed as Native Americans and dumped ninety thousand pounds of tea into Boston harbor.
By 1773 Boston was already in an outcry over the letters of royal governor Thomas Hutchinson's letters that proposed cutting back on American liberties and a proposal to pay the civil list from customs revenues. With all the existing tension the Americans learned of the Tea Act, this act granted the East India Company to undersell competitors and still pay the Townshend duty on imported tea.
The Americans tried to stop the East India Company from delivering tea to Boston but on November 28, 1773 the first of 3 tea ships arrived in Boston harbor. Bostonians would not let the tea be received by customs and the governor would not let it be sent back to England. If the duty on the tea was not paid by December 17th the tea would be seized and sold at auction by the British customs officers. On the 16th of December a group of 150 men descended upon Griffin's Wharf and destroyed £9,659 worth of tea.
The actions at the Boston Tea Party were celebrated by the Americans but looked at as an unforgivable rebellious act by the British. New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston also participated in preventing duties tea from landing, but Boston was the only city that destroyed property. In an effort to stop this behavior the British made an example of Boston and held the whole city responsible for the Boston Tea Party.
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