1. On December 16, 1773, dozens of Colonists boarded three ships and threw 342 crates of tea overboard into the Boston Harbor in an act of political protest.
2. The Tea Act of 1773 left the three pence per pound duty on tea. It irked the Colonists that they had no say in creating the Act.
3. The Tea Act was really an attempt to bail out the fledgling East India Tea Company and gave them a monopoly on the tea market.
4. George Washington condemned the Boston Tea Party and thought the perpetrators should compensate the East India Tea Company for damages.
5. For decades, the identity of the Boston Tea Party participants was shrouded in secrecy.
6. The event was not called the Boston Tea Party until a newspaper account of 1826. Until then, it was referred to as "the destruction of the tea".
7. Three months later, there was a sequel to the Boston Tea Party; however, this time only 30 crates of tea were thrown overboard.
8. Subsequent tea parties were held in New York, Annapolis and Charleston, South Carolina.
9. It is estimated that the perpetrators poured 92,000 pounds of tea overboard, enough to fill 18.5 million tea bags. The present day value of the destroyed tea is $1 million.
10. One man, John Crane, was knocked unconscious by a falling crate of tea. Thought to be dead, he was hidden by his fellow saboteurs and woke up hours later.
Boston Tea Party courtesy
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