<P> Colonial merchants, some of them smugglers, played a significant role in the protests . Because the Tea Act made legally imported tea cheaper, it threatened to put smugglers of Dutch tea out of business . Legitimate tea importers who had not been named as consignees by the East India Company were also threatened with financial ruin by the Tea Act . Another major concern for merchants was that the Tea Act gave the East India Company a monopoly on the tea trade, and it was feared that this government - created monopoly might be extended in the future to include other goods . </P> <P> South of Boston, protesters successfully compelled the tea consignees to resign . In Charleston, the consignees had been forced to resign by early December, and the unclaimed tea was seized by customs officials . There were mass protest meetings in Philadelphia . Benjamin Rush urged his fellow countrymen to oppose the landing of the tea, because the cargo contained "the seeds of slavery". By early December, the Philadelphia consignees had resigned and the tea ship returned to England with its cargo following a confrontation with the ship's captain . The tea ship bound for New York City was delayed by bad weather; by the time it arrived, the consignees had resigned, and the ship returned to England with the tea . </P> <P> In every colony except Massachusetts, protesters were able to force the tea consignees to resign or to return the tea to England . In Boston, however, Governor Hutchinson was determined to hold his ground . He convinced the tea consignees, two of whom were his sons, not to back down . </P> <P> When the tea ship Dartmouth, arrived in the Boston Harbor in late November, Whig leader Samuel Adams called for a mass meeting to be held at Faneuil Hall on November 29, 1773 . Thousands of people arrived, so many that the meeting was moved to the larger Old South Meeting House . British law required Dartmouth to unload and pay the duties within twenty days or customs officials could confiscate the cargo (ie unload it onto American soil). The mass meeting passed a resolution, introduced by Adams and based on a similar set of resolutions promulgated earlier in Philadelphia, urging the captain of Dartmouth to send the ship back without paying the import duty . Meanwhile, the meeting assigned twenty - five men to watch the ship and prevent the tea--including a number of chests from Davison, Newman and Co. of London--from being unloaded . </P>

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