News:

We need volunteers in sales, marketing, PR, IT, and general "running of an organization." 
Maximize your Appleseed energy to make this program grow, and help fill the empty spots
on the firing line!  An hour of time spent at this level can have the impact of ten or a
hundred hours on the firing line.  Want to help? Send a PM to Monkey!

Main Menu

Lexington Pre-April 19th

Started by JustJax, April 02, 2014, 11:17:30 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

JustJax

From Levi Preston's quote, I get the feeling that, outside of Boston, the tyranny from the Crown was not felt as much.  Am I wrong on this? 

How much of the "boot on the neck" stuff that we see listed in the Declaration as reasons for parting with the British did the folks in Lexington see? 

If anyone has great sources for this information, I'd be grateful if you'd point me in the right direction. 

Just Jax

Moylan

In my very amateur opinion, things didn't really get bad until the Intolerable Acts of 1774.  In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the regular town meetings were suppressed, the appointments of judges and other officials were taken out of the hands of the colony, officers of the crown charged with capital offenses were to be removed to London for trial (which the colonists believed would be show trials sure to exonerate the guilty), and so on.   Further, the raids on the colonial military stores in Charleston and Salem showed the Gage was looking to take away the capacity of the colonists to defend themselves.

Although the people of Boston no doubt suffered the most immediate and direct harms from the Intolerable Acts due to the closing of the port of Boston, everyone in Massachusetts could see their charter being trampled on by the Parliament.  And the other colonies could easily enough see that if the charter of Massachusetts could be suppressed, then the charter of Georgia or New York (or wherever) could be suppressed, too.  And if the people of Boston could be, more or less, starved to death as a whole as a result of the crimes of very few men, then could anyone think that the Parliament was even interested in justice of any sort? 
The chief mark of the Declaration of Independence is the theory of equality.  It is the pure classic conception that no man must aspire to be anything more than a citizen, and that no man should endure to be anything less. 

--GK Chesterton

I believe in liberty very much as Jefferson did, allowing for the fact that a hundred years of history and experience have taught me to believe a little more than he did in original sin.

--also GK Chesterton

Moylan

By the way, one book I've seen mentioned before on this board is American Insurgents, American Patriots, by Breen.  It is pretty useful for giving information to answer your question.  I myself, however, would not say that I liked it very much, and I found some of Breen's attitudes and assumptions to be confused or otherwise objectionable.  For example, he says over and over that there really was no such thing as America during the build-up to the Revolution, and so a good deal of the talk about America that you can find among the Fathers is really more or less fictional or at least future-oriented.  I consider this thought to be completely bizarre.  Of course there was such a thing as America--it was the place where these people lived and died.  It was their home.  There was no united political structure like we had after the ratification of the Constitution.  But the idea that we need political structures in order to have a community that we love strikes me as almost freakishly confused.  This is in some ways a minor point, but for me it showed that he's in the grips of some suppositions about the role of politics that I find abhorrent.  It doesn't really change the fact that the book on the whole is worth reading (IMHO).
The chief mark of the Declaration of Independence is the theory of equality.  It is the pure classic conception that no man must aspire to be anything more than a citizen, and that no man should endure to be anything less. 

--GK Chesterton

I believe in liberty very much as Jefferson did, allowing for the fact that a hundred years of history and experience have taught me to believe a little more than he did in original sin.

--also GK Chesterton

Slow2Speak

JustJax where were the powder raids taking place at? It was not Boston and why was Gage doing it? Also Adams and Hancock were no longer in Boston

fisherdawg

Quote from: Slow2Speak on April 02, 2014, 05:53:22 PM
JustJax where were the powder raids taking place at? It was not Boston and why was Gage doing it? Also Adams and Hancock were no longer in Boston

The First Powder Alarm occurred on September 1, 1774.  In complete secrecy during the pre-dawn hours Gage had his troops transported up the Mystic River (North side of Charlestown) to Winter Hill.  The troops meet Sheriff David Phips who had obtained the key to the Powder House from William Brattle, a Crown appointee.  The troops waited for dawn as you could not carry a candle or lantern into the Powder House full of barrels of black powder!  They successfully removed 260 half barrels of black powder -- the largest single supply in all of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Most of the troops returned to Boston on the boats they had come with the powder, but a small contingent marched to Boston via Cambridge where the they confiscated two small field pieces.
By the next day at least 4,000 men arrived in Cambridge.  The town fathers prevailed upon them to leave their arms outside of town, but they descended on Tory Row -- the fashionable neghborhood and forced many of the Tories to resign their 'mandamus' appointments or otherwise recant loyalty to the Crown.  William Brattle had to flee to Boston in fear of his life.  Rumors flew through New England that 6 colonists had been shot down and the Royal Navy had shelled Boston and burnt it.  Israel Putnam, general of the Connecticutt militia started to march on Boston with as many as 10,000 militia from around Connecticutt headed that way before the rumor was dispelled.
The (incorrect) news that Boston had been shelled and burnt reached Philadelphia on in the afternoon of September 4th.  The First Continental Congress was just being seated there and was about to meet for the first or second time. John Adams, who was there representing Massachusetts wrote that the all the church bells in Philadelphia tolled mournfully into the evening.
In response, the Boston town government, inclduding Dr. Joseph Warren, meet with the Suffolk County Convention (Suffolk is the county containing Boston) and drafted the Suffolk Resolves to send to the Continental Congress.  It was in response that the Congress passed the Association Act calling all the Colonies to boycott British goods, form Committees of Safety to enforce the Association Boycott and called on the Colonial militias to establish Minute Men companies. In other words, prepare for war.   Some Massachusetts towns, like Worcester, had taken such steps in late summer, but not all.
I think many historians miss what a true watershed the First Powder Alarm is.  It moblilized the average people, militia marched, after many more towns ran the Mandamus councilors out of town with threats or actual tar and feathers. And the political leadership scurried to catch up -- that's what the Suffolk Resolves reflect.  By the way, Paul Revere carried the Resolves to Philadelphia.
I think you have to read Paul Reveres Ride, American Insurgents -- Americna Patriots, Fisk, Ward, Middlekauf and more to put the whole picture together.  And that picture is one of a tipping point being reached right around September 1, 1774.  That's the Powder Alarm -- when the central governement began consficating military style arms and ammunition.  Those fleld pieces in Cambridge belonged to the town.  And average citizens who had not heretofore taken action, changed their thinking and began to resist the Crown.  I often think as I read John Adams quote about the American Revolution being the hearts and minds that for many this was the point -- didn't Patrick Henry give his 'as for me Give Liberty or Death Speech in November?  Are there any P. Henry scholars on the board know if his writings give a clue as to his reaction to the Powder Alarm?
The next 2 Powder Alarms were conspicious failures -- see Fischer's descriptions in Paul Revere's Ride -- Portsmouth, New Hampshire (Dec. 1774)  foiled by Paul Revere's Afternoon Ride and Salem (Feb. 1775) -- resistance from the locals.
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. (James Madison)

"Young man, what we meant in going for those Redcoats was this: we always had governed ourselves and we always meant to. They didn't mean we should."
(Captain Levi Preston, of the Danvers militia, at age 91, remembering the day)

That it is an indispensable duty which we owe to God, our country, ourselves and posterity, by all lawful ways and means in our power to maintain, defend and preserve those civil and religious rights and liberties, for which many of our fathers fought, bled and died, and to hand them down entire to future generations.  Suffolk Resolves, September 9, 1774, attributed to Dr. Joseph Warren

fisherdawg

Sources on the Powder Alarm:
(First the one's I've read)
1. Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer
2. American Insurgents -- American Patriots by T.H. Breen
3. Building to a Revoution by Patrick Johnson in the Historical Journal of Massachusetts (pdf)
http://www.wsc.mass.edu/mhj/pdfs/Patrick%20Johnson%20combined%20spring%202009.pdf
4. The Glorious Cause by Robert Middlekauf (he kind of under states the Powder Alarm, but covers everything around it very well)
Here are some from Wikipedia that I haven't got to, yet:
1. Bancroft, George (1860). History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol 7.
2. French, Allen (1911). The Siege of Boston. New York: McMillan. OCLC 3927532.
3. Frothingham, Jr, Richard (1851). History of the Siege of Boston and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill.
4. Maas, David (1989). Return of the Massachusetts Loyalists. New York: Garland. ISBN 9780824061890. OCLC 1628468.
5. Massachusetts Provincial Congress (1774). The Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775. Dutton and Wentworth, Printers to the state. OCLC 1571226.
6. Raphael, Ray (2002). The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord. New York: The New Press. ISBN 978-1-56584-815-3. OCLC 47623909.
7. Richmond, Robert P (1971). Powder Alarm 1774. Princeton, NJ: Auerbach. ISBN 978-0-87769-073-3. OCLC 162197.
8. Tagney, Ronald N (1976). A County in Revolution: Essex County at the dawning of independence. Manchester, MA: The Cricket Press. OCLC 3423404.
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. (James Madison)

"Young man, what we meant in going for those Redcoats was this: we always had governed ourselves and we always meant to. They didn't mean we should."
(Captain Levi Preston, of the Danvers militia, at age 91, remembering the day)

That it is an indispensable duty which we owe to God, our country, ourselves and posterity, by all lawful ways and means in our power to maintain, defend and preserve those civil and religious rights and liberties, for which many of our fathers fought, bled and died, and to hand them down entire to future generations.  Suffolk Resolves, September 9, 1774, attributed to Dr. Joseph Warren

Unbridled Liberty

#6
FD,

S2S knows the answer. He was just giving the OP an opportunity to work it out on his own.  Teaching him how to fish, as it were.  But thanks for posting the references.

UL
For Liberty, each Freeman Strives
As its a Gift of God
And for it willing yield their Lives
And Seal it with their Blood

Thrice happy they who thus resign
Into the peacefull Grave
Much better there, in Death Confin'd
Than a Surviving Slave

This Motto may adorn their Tombs,
(Let tyrants come and view)
"We rather seek these silent Rooms
Than live as Slaves to You"

Lemuel Haynes, 1775

fisherdawg

Quote from: Unbridled Liberty on April 02, 2014, 08:04:38 PM
FD,

S2S knows the answer. He was just giving the OP an opportunity to work it out on his own.  Teaching him how to fish, as it were.  But thanks for posting the references.

UL

Couldn't help myself -- just bustin' with History!
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. (James Madison)

"Young man, what we meant in going for those Redcoats was this: we always had governed ourselves and we always meant to. They didn't mean we should."
(Captain Levi Preston, of the Danvers militia, at age 91, remembering the day)

That it is an indispensable duty which we owe to God, our country, ourselves and posterity, by all lawful ways and means in our power to maintain, defend and preserve those civil and religious rights and liberties, for which many of our fathers fought, bled and died, and to hand them down entire to future generations.  Suffolk Resolves, September 9, 1774, attributed to Dr. Joseph Warren

Unbridled Liberty

JustJax,

Do some research on the phrase "country people" in relation to the writings and sentiments of parliament, Gage and other redcoat officers.  The phrase was used in utter contempt.  If it seems that the Crown's tyranny was not felt as much outside of Boston, it is probably mainly because the Redcoats tended to stay out of the countryside, as it was hostile territory, and because  the patriots did a preemptive strike by removing Tory militia leaders and replacing them with their own officers by popular vote.  The economic effects of the Intolerable Acts were also felt deeply in the countryside, since free trade in/through the port of Boston was severely limited.

UL
For Liberty, each Freeman Strives
As its a Gift of God
And for it willing yield their Lives
And Seal it with their Blood

Thrice happy they who thus resign
Into the peacefull Grave
Much better there, in Death Confin'd
Than a Surviving Slave

This Motto may adorn their Tombs,
(Let tyrants come and view)
"We rather seek these silent Rooms
Than live as Slaves to You"

Lemuel Haynes, 1775

Unbridled Liberty

Quote from: fisherdawg on April 02, 2014, 08:08:39 PM
Quote from: Unbridled Liberty on April 02, 2014, 08:04:38 PM
FD,

S2S knows the answer. He was just giving the OP an opportunity to work it out on his own.  Teaching him how to fish, as it were.  But thanks for posting the references.

UL

Couldn't help myself -- just bustin' with History!

O0
For Liberty, each Freeman Strives
As its a Gift of God
And for it willing yield their Lives
And Seal it with their Blood

Thrice happy they who thus resign
Into the peacefull Grave
Much better there, in Death Confin'd
Than a Surviving Slave

This Motto may adorn their Tombs,
(Let tyrants come and view)
"We rather seek these silent Rooms
Than live as Slaves to You"

Lemuel Haynes, 1775

fisherdawg

Quote from: Unbridled Liberty on April 02, 2014, 09:53:49 PM
JustJax,

Do some research on the phrase "country people" in relation to the writings and sentiments of parliament, Gage and other redcoat officers.  The phrase was used in utter contempt.  If it seems that the Crown's tyranny was not felt as much outside of Boston, it is probably mainly because the Redcoats tended to stay out of the countryside, as it was hostile territory, and because  the patriots did a preemptive strike by removing Tory militia leaders and replacing them with their own officers by popular vote.  The economic effects of the Intolerable Acts were also felt deeply in the countryside, since free trade in/through the port of Boston was severely limited.

UL

"bumpkins" "Brother Jonathon" "Yankee Doodle"
If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. (James Madison)

"Young man, what we meant in going for those Redcoats was this: we always had governed ourselves and we always meant to. They didn't mean we should."
(Captain Levi Preston, of the Danvers militia, at age 91, remembering the day)

That it is an indispensable duty which we owe to God, our country, ourselves and posterity, by all lawful ways and means in our power to maintain, defend and preserve those civil and religious rights and liberties, for which many of our fathers fought, bled and died, and to hand them down entire to future generations.  Suffolk Resolves, September 9, 1774, attributed to Dr. Joseph Warren

JustJax

Thank you so much, folks, for all this great information.  American Insurgents is a fascinating "read".  I got it on audio and listen as I'm driving around.  I knew little bits and pieces of this but getting a much better picture of how closing the port of Boston changed things. 

The more I read the more I just roll my eyes when folks say the Revolutionary War was about taxation without representation.

Again, thank you guys so much for pointing me in the right direction.

Jax