Boston Port Act

Boston Port Act, legislation passed by the British Parliament in March 1774, designed to punish the people of Boston for their destruction of tea in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773—one of the so-called Intolerable Acts. Provisions of the bill included the virtual closing of Boston Harbor to commerce, the removal of the seat of government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from Boston to Salem, and the supplanting of Boston by Marblehead as a port of entry until the town had paid for the tea that had been destroyed and had fulfilled other specified conditions. The bill aroused widespread indignation, and June 1, the day on which the bill went into effect, was observed as a day of fasting and prayer. To enforce the legislation, British troops occupied Boston, and the harbor was blockaded. Towns in New England, however, frustrated the British effort to force submission by sending grain and other foods to Boston. The Boston Port Act was one of the measures that led to the calling of the First Continental Congress. See also Boston Tea Party.