The Chestertown Tea Party was a protest against British excise duties which, according to local legend,[1] took place in May 1774 in Chestertown, Maryland, as a response to the British Tea Act. Chestertown tradition holds that, following the example of the more famous Boston Tea Party, colonial patriots boarded the brigantine Geddes in broad daylight and threw its cargo of tea into the Chester River. The event is celebrated each Memorial Day weekend with a festival and historic reenactment called the Chestertown Tea Party Festival.[2]