The Boston Tea Party was a protest by the American Colonists against the British government. It occurred on December 16, 1773 and was one of the key events leading up to the American Revolution.

Tea was a favorite drink among Britains and the colonists. It also was a major source of income for the British company named East India Trading Company. The British government told the colonists that they must buy all their tea from this one company. They also had to pay high taxes on the tea. This tax was called the Tea Act.

The colonists thought this wasn’t fair because the colonies were not represented in British Parliament. They didn't have any say about the taxes, so they refused to pay them. They asked that the tea be returned to Great Britain. When it wasn't, they decided to protest Britain's unfair taxes by throwing the tea into the ocean.

They went aboard three trade ships in Boston Harbor and threw the ships' cargo of tea overboard into the ocean. In all, they destroyed 342 chests of tea. Some of the colonists were disguised as American Indians, but the British knew who really destroyed the tea.

The destroyed tea was worth 90,000 British pounds. In today's money that would be around one million dollars.

There had been a big town meeting earlier that day led by Samuel Adams to discuss how to fight the tea taxes. However, no one knows if Samuel Adams planned the destruction of the tea or if people just got mad and went and did it.

Source: Boston Tea Party
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