They dressed as Mohawk Indians to avoid being recognized (Boston Tea Party). Some of the participants were young like around fourteen years old (Landau 26). The Patriots formed into three groups, one for each ship. They worked silently and tried not to damage the ships and sailors (Burgan 33). They used axes to hack the tea chests and they carried guns to defend themselves if they were caught (Boston Tea Party History). They smashed empty chests and threw wood pieces overboard. Each chest weighed about 300 pounds (Landau 26). They threw 342 chests of tea overboard and it took nearly three hours for colonists to empty tea into the Boston Tea Party (Boston Tea Party History). The sound drew crowds of people to the wharf (Landau 27). The British admiral saw everything and knew that the Mohawk Indians were the colonists. He told the men that they would pay for what they had done (Landau …show more content…
He labeled the patriots as lawless and highly criminal. He hoped that the men responsible would be arrested (Burgan 36). The governor knew that most people in Boston would turn against anyone who identified the patriots. No one was ever arrested for the crime (Gunderson 36). News of the Boston Tea Party spread quickly. The Boston colonists set examples for other tea parties to do the same thing in other colonies. When King George and the Parliament heard what had happened they were not happy. They were determined to punish the Boston colonists. They decided that no ships could go in or out until the tea was paid for (Landau 30). When the colonists heard about this they decided to boycott the tea that did not make it to shore. There goal was to harm the British financially (Gunderson 30). The British came out with the Intolerable acts and the Boston Port Act on June 1, 1774. The Intolerable Act stated that they had to obey British laws. The Boston Port Act blocked the port of Boston and required colonists to pay the British government taxes on ruined tea (Gunderson 31). These laws made the colonists angry so they decided to meet in Philadelphia in September of 1774. This gathering became known as the First Continental Congress (Landau 31,