<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> <P> Governor Hutchinson refused to grant permission for Dartmouth to leave without paying the duty . Two more tea ships, Eleanor and Beaver, arrived in Boston Harbor (there was another tea ship headed for Boston, William, but it encountered a storm and put aground at Cape Code - where the tea cargo was successfully landed - before it could reach its destination). On December 16--the last day of Dartmouth's deadline--about 7,000 people had gathered around the Old South Meeting House . After receiving a report that Governor Hutchinson had again refused to let the ships leave, Adams announced that "This meeting can do nothing further to save the country ." According to a popular story, Adams's statement was a prearranged signal for the "tea party" to begin . However, this claim did not appear in print until nearly a century after the event, in a biography of Adams written by his great - grandson, who apparently misinterpreted the evidence . According to eyewitness accounts, people did not leave the meeting until ten or fifteen minutes after Adams's alleged "signal", and Adams in fact tried to stop people from leaving because the meeting was not yet over . </P> <P> While Samuel Adams tried to reassert control of the meeting, people poured out of the Old South Meeting House to prepare to take action . In some cases, this involved donning what may have been elaborately prepared Mohawk costumes . While disguising their individual faces was imperative, because of the illegality of their protest, dressing as Mohawk warriors was a specific and symbolic choice . It showed that the Sons of Liberty identified with America, over their official status as subjects of Great Britain . </P>

Who gave the signal for the boston tea party