A town meeting held at Boston to protest the Townshend Act adopts a nonimportation agreement. The East India Company imports 10 million pounds of tea per year into England. The Boston Massacre March 5 leaves three dead, two mortally wounded, and six injured following a disturbance between colonists and British troops. Parliament repeals the Townshend Revenue Act of 1767 in a bill passed April 12. Prime Minister North has used his influence to have the act repealed.
Tea is left to rot on the docks at Charleston.
The Boston Tea Party December 16 demonstrates against the new English tea orders. May 10 lightens duties on tea imported into Britain to give relief to the East India Company which has 7 years' supply in warehouses on the Thames and is being strained by storage charges. The Tea Act permits tea to be shipped at full duty to the American colonies and to be sold directly to retailers, eliminating colonial middlemen and undercutting their prices. The British ship London docks at N.Y. April 22, and the Sons of Liberty prepare to follow the example set at Boston 4 months earlier. Colonists at York, Maine, and Annapolis, Maryland, conduct tea parties like the one at Boston.