On December 16, 1773, Massachusetts colonists boarded three British tea ships in Boston Harbor and dumped overboard 342 chests of tea. The Boston Tea Party was in protest of what the colonists saw as taxation tyranny and manipulation of the American market. British Parliament was furious at the destruction of $18,000 worth of property. They passed the Intolerable Acts, which established British military rule in Massachusetts. The colonists called the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance.
