More than any other event, the Boston Tea Party of 1773 has come to stand for the determination of American colonists to control their own destinies. From the arrival of the ships full of controversial taxed tea in Boston Harbor, through the explosive protest meetings at the Old South Church, to the defiant act of dumping 226 chests of fine tea into the harbor on December 16, Freedman captures this exciting story. Source notes, a bibliography, a time line, an afterword, a historical map, and index.