Party by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in 1773. An entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company was destroyed by these American colonists in defiance of the Tea Act of 1773. The main goal of the Tea Act was to aid the financially struggling British East India Company by reducing the excess of tea held by the company. Colonists protested to the Tea Act as they believed that it violated their rights as Englishmen to “No taxation without representation.” The Sons of Liberty boarded the ships,