Enforcing the acts proved difficult . The seizure of the sloop '' Liberty '' in 1768 on suspicions of smuggling triggered a riot . In response , British troops occupied Boston , and Parliament threatened to extradite colonists to face trial in England . Tensions rose after the murder of Christopher Seider by a customs official in 1770 and escalated into outrage after British troops fired on civilians in the Boston Massacre . In 1772 , colonists in Rhode Island boarded and burned a customs schooner . Parliament then repealed all taxes except the one on tea , passing the Tea Act in 1773 , attempting to force colonists to buy East India Company tea on which the Townshend duties were paid , thus implicitly agreeing to Parliamentary supremacy . The landing of the tea was resisted in all colonies , but the governor of Massachusetts permitted British tea ships to remain in Boston Harbor , so the Sons of Liberty destroyed the tea chests in what became known as the " Boston Tea Party "
Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
American Revolutionary War