The conflict over tea had been building for years. Britain had been taxing the colonies to pay for the Seven Years' War. The colonists objected - not to the amount of tax, but to the principle. They had no representatives in Parliament. 'Taxation without representation is tyranny,' became their rallying cry.

The Tea Act of 1773 wasn't actually a new tax - it actually reduced the price of tea by cutting out middlemen. But it maintained the principle that Parliament could tax the colonies. And it gave the East India Company a monopoly that threatened colonial merchants. The tea arriving in Boston was a test case. Would the colonists accept it?

In late November 1773, three ships carrying East India Company tea arrived in Boston Harbor: the Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver. They carried 342 chests containing 92,000 pounds of tea. Colonial law required that tea be landed and taxed within 20 days of arrival, or it would be seized by customs.

The Sons of Liberty wanted the tea sent back to England. Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused - the tea would be landed and taxed. The colonists posted guards to prevent unloading. A standoff began. The deadline was December 16.

On the evening of December 16, several thousand colonists gathered at Old South Meeting House. They voted to prevent the tea from being landed. Samuel Adams announced that nothing more could be done to save the country. This was apparently a signal.

A group of men, estimated between 30 and 130, left the meeting and headed for the harbor. They were dressed as Mohawk Indians - their faces darkened, blankets over their shoulders, tomahawks in their hands. The disguise was symbolic, not practical. Everyone knew who they were and what they intended to do.

The 'Mohawks' divided into three groups, one for each ship. They boarded the vessels, ordered the crews below deck, and got to work. Using axes and tomahawks, they split open the 342 tea chests and dumped the contents into the harbor. The work took about three hours.

The tea was the only thing destroyed. The ships were not damaged. Personal property was respected - one man who tried to steal tea was stripped and beaten. When the work was done, the participants swept the decks and had the crews confirm that nothing else had been touched. They wanted to make clear this was political protest, not theft or vandalism.

Britain's response was swift and harsh. Parliament passed the Coercive Acts - known in the colonies as the Intolerable Acts - which closed Boston Harbor until the tea was paid for, revoked Massachusetts' self-government, and allowed British officials accused of crimes to be tried in England.

The Intolerable Acts united the colonies in opposition to British rule. The First Continental Congress met in September 1774. The Revolutionary War began in April 1775. The Boston Tea Party - a protest over 92,000 pounds of tea - had set in motion events that would create a nation. The tea itself washed up on the beaches of Boston Harbor for weeks. No one tried to salvage it.