Boston Tea Party Anniversary: December 16

The Boston Tea Party was an act of protest against the Tea Act, which served as a microcosm of the grievances of British colonists in America against the Crown. The Tea Act (which was supported by Benjamin Franklin), would help the British East India Company (yeah, the bad guys from Pirates of the Caribbean) by allowing them to bypass taxasion levied in British ports and pass the tax on to colonists recieving the tea in the New World. Meanwhile, smuggled tea was the common alternative.

On December 16, 1773, a group of colonists in Boston calling themselves the Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Native Americans, snuck aboard the anchored ships carrying the disputed tea, and dumped the tea into Boston Harbor. Times have changed: these days it would be called an act of domestic terrorism, which is precisely how the British govenrment saw it: the Boston Tea Party prompted the Coercive Acts (also called the Intolerable Acts, which in turn sparked the War for Independence. If not for the Tea Act, for how long would the Colonies have remained loyal to Britain?

Read as much as you can about the American War for Independence, and ignore the nonsense taught in elementary schools. The real story is way more complicated, interesting, and pertinent to current events than you may think.