How did the colonist practice what we today call civil disobedience?

In the Boston Tea Party the colonists used vandalism as a way to protest against the lack off representation in the British Parliament.

They wondered at the time whether it was legitimate to be led by the crown in this way, even without being represented in the English Parliament. Several of them then started demanding the extinction of taxes until they could have representatives participating in government decisions. This is a example of that.

tea which is where the whole thing about dumping it in the ocean came from