The Boston Tea Party (initially referred to by John Adams as "the Destruction of the Tea in Boston"[2]) was a nonviolent political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, on December 16, 1773. Disguised as American Indians, the demonstrators destroyed the entire supply of tea sent by the East India Company in defiance of the American boycott of tea carrying a tax the Americans had not authorized. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor, ruining the tea. The British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into the American Revolution.