The tea act which was passed on May 10, 1773 allowed the British East India tea company to tax all tea sales in the American colonies. (Boston Tea Party Ship) The tea tax was the final act of taxing the British enforced on the American colonies, it had negative reprocussions for the British. The British taxed the American colonies becasue they believed that since they protected the Colonies during the French-Indian war that the Colonies should help pay off some of the war debt and pay for future protection.(Boston Tea Party Ship) This policy was the "last straw" for the colonist as a group known as the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston harbor dressed as Mohawk Indians and dumped 92,000 pounds of tea into the harbor, defying the British taxes.(British Tea Party Ship) The tea tax was nothing new to the colonist as they had been taxed since the Townshed acts in 1767, however after boycotts and protest they repealed all the taxes execpt the tax on tea in 1770. The tea tax was not meant by the British to anger the Colonist it merely was a way to get the British East India tea company out of the massive debt they faced.(British Tea Party Ship) The direct sale of tea from the British East India Tea Company undermined local merchants and made it hard for them to make any sort of profit. The boycotts made it hard on those less wealthy people who often didnt have the ablility or money to go without the boycotted items.(Boston Tea Party Ship) Samuel Adams who was credited for being the father of the Sons of Liberty led an attack on three boarded ships in the harbor dressed as Indians and dumped the tea in the harbor. Else where the tea was also being boycotted, some colonies turned British ships around and others like Charleston simply left the tea out to rot on the harbor.