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Boston Tea Party Timeline

(December 16, 1773)

The Boston Tea Party was a 1773 protest against British taxation and the Tea Act, helping escalate tensions that led to the American Revolution. Less

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Tea Act and preparations

Tea's legal price is reduced

1773

The Tea Act reduced the price of legally imported tea, creating a commercial advantage for East India Company tea even while the colonial duty remained.

Image source: Tea Act

Tea's legal price is reduced

Tea Act receives royal assent

May 10, 1773

The Tea Act was enacted to help the financially troubled East India Company. King George gave the measure royal assent on May 10, 1773.

Tea Act authorizes colonial shipments

May 10, 1773

The Tea Act authorized the East India Company to ship 5,000 chests, or 250 tons, of tea to the American colonies.

Tea Act preserves the colonial tea duty

May 10, 1773

Although the Tea Act lowered the legal selling price of tea, it left the three-pence-per-pound Townshend duty in place in the colonies.

Tea Act grants the East India Company direct sales

May 10, 1773

The act allowed the East India Company to sell Chinese tea in the colonies without paying most intermediary taxes, intensifying colonial opposition to Parliament's taxing authority.

Colonial tea consignees are selected

Jul 1773

In July 1773, tea consignees were selected in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Charleston to receive East India Company tea.

Tea ships sail for other colonial ports

Sep 1773 - Oct 1773

The remaining three tea ships were directed to New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, South Carolina.

Four tea ships sail for Boston

Sep 1773 - Oct 1773

Four of the seven East India Company tea ships dispatched in September and October 1773 were bound for Boston.

Image source: Boston Tea Party

Four tea ships sail for Boston

Tea shipments are dispatched to the colonies

Sep 1773 - Oct 1773

Seven ships carrying East India Company tea were sent to the colonies: four to Boston and one each to New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, South Carolina.

William tea is taxed and sold

Dec 1773

The tea salvaged from the William was taxed and sold to private parties rather than being destroyed immediately.

Colonial resistance

Whigs begin the consignee campaign

Jul 1773 - Nov 1773

Whigs, sometimes calling themselves Sons of Liberty, began raising awareness and trying to persuade or compel the consignees to resign.

Image source: Sons of Liberty

Whigs begin the consignee campaign

Boston protesters oppose the tea landing

Nov 1773 - Dec 1773

Boston's opponents of the Tea Act resisted the landing and sale of the tea, continuing the Whig campaign against the consignees.

Samuel Adams calls a mass meeting

Nov 29, 1773

After the Dartmouth arrived, Whig leader Samuel Adams called for a mass meeting at Faneuil Hall on November 29, 1773.

Image source: Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams calls a mass meeting

Boston resistance gathers at Faneuil Hall

Nov 29, 1773

The meeting called at Faneuil Hall became an early public response to the Dartmouth's arrival and to the attempt to land East India Company tea in Boston.

Colonists protest the Intolerable Acts

1774 - Sep 4, 1774

Colonists throughout the Thirteen Colonies responded to the Intolerable Acts with additional acts of protest and organized resistance.

Image source: Intolerable Acts

Colonists protest the Intolerable Acts

Congress petitions the King

1774

The First Continental Congress sent a Petition to the King seeking repeal of the Intolerable Acts.

Image source: First Continental Congress

Congress petitions the King

Colonies coordinate resistance

1774

The First Continental Congress coordinated colonial resistance to the Intolerable Acts and helped turn local protest into intercolonial action.

Sons of Liberty destroy William tea

Mar 1774

In March 1774, the Sons of Liberty learned that tea from the wrecked William was stored in a Boston warehouse, entered it, and destroyed all they could find.

William tea is found in a Boston warehouse

Mar 1774

Information received by the Sons of Liberty in March 1774 placed the salvaged William tea in a Boston warehouse.

First Continental Congress convenes

Sep 5, 1774

The First Continental Congress was convened in Philadelphia in response to the Intolerable Acts. Its opening date falls immediately after the requested date range.

Boston Tea Party

The Dartmouth arrives in Boston Harbor

Nov 1773

The tea ship Dartmouth arrived in Boston Harbor in late November 1773, bringing the controversy over the Tea Act to a direct confrontation.

The William runs aground at Cape Cod

Dec 1773

Another tea ship intended for Boston, the William, ran aground at Cape Cod in December 1773.

An early account reports the tea quantity

Dec 1773

One of the earliest accounts of the quantity of tea destroyed appeared in a Boston Gazette issue published only days after the event.

Tea damage is valued by the company

Dec 16, 1773

The East India Company reported that the destroyed tea was worth £9,659, an amount equivalent to approximately £1,276,141 or $1,748,138 in 2025.

Protesters destroy East India Company tea

Dec 16, 1773

The protest involved the destruction of 92,616 pounds, or 42,010 kilograms, of tea belonging to the British East India Company.

Boston Tea Party takes place

Dec 16, 1773

On December 16, 1773, protesters boarded tea ships in Boston Harbor and destroyed their cargo by throwing the tea into the water.

British response and legacy

Britain responds with the Intolerable Acts

1774

Parliament responded in 1774 with the Intolerable Acts, measures directed at Massachusetts after the Boston Tea Party and other colonial resistance.

Massachusetts self-government is ended

1774

Among the Intolerable Acts' provisions was the ending of local self-government in Massachusetts.

Boston's commercial port is closed

1774

The Intolerable Acts closed Boston's commercial port, imposing a direct economic penalty on the city.

Tea Party inspires further colonial protest

1774

The Boston Tea Party became a catalyst for additional colonial acts of protest against the Intolerable Acts and British authority.

Key Facts

  1. The Boston Tea Party took place in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773.
  2. American colonists protested the Tea Act, which gave the British East India Company special advantages in selling tea.
  3. Protesters, many associated with the Sons of Liberty, boarded ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor.
  4. The demonstrators opposed taxation without representation and British interference in colonial self-government.
  5. Britain responded with the Coercive Acts, known in the colonies as the Intolerable Acts, which intensified resistance and helped lead to the American Revolution.

Source

This Boston Tea Party timeline was generated with the help of AI, using information found on the internet.

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