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Boston Tea Party History
On the winter night of Thursday, December 16, 1773 the “tea crisis” in Boston came to a head. Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians were armed with an assortment of axes.
They quietly boarded three ships carrying cargoes of British East India Company tea moored at Griffin’s Wharf. In a span of three hours, 340 chests of British East India Company Tea were smashed and dumped into Boston Harbor. Over 92,000 pounds of tea were destroyed and thrown into the harbor. The implication and impact of the Boston Tea Party were enormous; the event directly led to the sparking of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775.
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The seminal act and lasting legacy of the Sons of Liberty to the history of the American Revolution was the December 16, 1773 orchestrating of the Boston Tea Party which ultimately led to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War with the “shot heard round the world” on April 19, 1775. The Boston Tea Party, carried out by the Sons of Liberty and led by Samuel Adams, was a catalyst for the start of war and a principal reason why the Revolutionary War began in Massachusetts.