Brooke Barbier - Boston in the American Revolution: A Town Versus an Empire

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2017 by Brooke Barbier

All rights reserved

First published 2017

e-book edition 2017

ISBN 978.1.43965.878.9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016947533

print edition ISBN 978.1.46713.588.7

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

To Cheryl & Jack

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

I began my career as a historian in Boston, where I often could walk about to see famous sites from the American Revolution. Later, I moved across the continent to a university in California, where I found a surprising number of students keen to know more about the nations origins in seaport cities of the Atlantic seaboard. Among them, Brooke Barbier stood out as intellectually curious and infectiously enthusiastic. In pursuit of her passion, Brooke moved to Boston to pursue graduate study, work in publishing and develop her own tours of the citys historic landscape. She has acquired a great love for the city, deep knowledge of its past and a rare talent for explaining history. Her expertise and devotion illuminate every page of this insightful and lively exploration of the revolution in the city where it began. As I read these pages, she becomes my guide to a history that has become her own. I especially recommend this book to readers seeking to know more about the social and political context of the intriguing old buildings that invite us to imagine the struggles of a now-distant century.

Alan Taylor

Thomas Jefferson Foundation Chair

University of Virginia

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to first thank all of the guests who have joined me on Ye Olde Tavern Tours. Your deep curiosity and interest in the lesser-known stories about Boston during the American Revolution motivated me to write this book.

As the research for this book is based mostly on secondary sources, I thank the historians and writers who have written before me whose scholarship, coverage of Bostons history or exquisite writing inspired me. These include, but are not limited to, Robert Allison, Charles Bahne, Bernard Bailyn, Benjamin Carp, David Hackett Fischer, Esther Forbes, Edmund S. Morgan, Nathaniel Philbrick, Annie Haven Thwing, Gordon Wood and Alfred F. Young. I am also indebted to scholar J.L. Bell, whose meticulously researched blog, Boston 1775, is a place to get lost for an afternoon. Most of all, though, I thank Alan Taylor for being a source of inspiration and awe to me for nearly two decades. His American Revolution class at the University of California, Davis motivated my first trip to Boston and exploration of the Freedom Trail. Not only is he an exceptional teacher, but he is also one of the top scholars in the country. Its not just me who says sohe has won two Pulitzer Prizes in history. I admire him unceasingly and was honored that he agreed to write the foreword for this book.

I thank several institutions simply for being. Their very existence makes Boston a rich center for visitors, residents, schoolchildren and scholars to study and appreciate history. These include the Boston Athenaeum, Boston National Historical Park, Boston Public Library, Freedom Trail Foundation, Massachusetts Historical Society and Paul Revere Memorial Association. I am especially grateful to the Bostonian Society for maintaining the most impressive building in the city, the Old State House, and have appreciated its collaboration in the past. My gratitude also extends outside Massachusetts to the New York Public Library, the Smithsonian Institute and the Library of Congress.

I thank the librarians and research specialists who helped me gain access to some of the incredible images youll find throughout this book, including Martina Beccari at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Jaclyn Penny with the American Antiquarian Society, who was especially heroic in tracking down images; Elizabeth Roscio at the Bostonian Society; Deb Sisum at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; and Catherine Wood at the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library.

Grub Street is a nonprofit writing center in Boston that helped me in the early stages of conceiving and mapping out this book. Teachers Katrin Schumann and Kevin Birmingham exceeded my expectations with their preparation and insight.

I am grateful to the team at The History Press for their work to transform my words into a book. Edward Mack was patient, communicative and helpful, all of which are wonderful qualities for an editor to have, and Abigail Fleming deftly helped me with the details of publication.

I thank my friends, who are spread from California to Boston, for their untiring support and enthusiasm. I especially acknowledge Sarah Nytroe, Ann West and Katie Coaster for reading various versions of my work and providing constructive feedback and cheerful encouragement to keep going. The Clios, Kristen and Nina, helped free up my schedule to write and edit by expertly giving tours. Two dear friends, Markus and Colleen, heard a lot about the process of writing this book and were always ready to have a beer and listen.

Finally, I acknowledge my family. To Danny, Briana and Matt, thank you for supporting my love of books, dating all the way back to you patronizing my library. Jessica and Wes, if you knew me then, I know that you would have supported my library, too. My dad passed on his interest in history to me, and I know that if he were alive today, hed be the first person to finish reading this book. To my mom, whose enthusiasm and support is limitless, thank you for your mighty love. And to Adam: You are patient, hilarious and forever willing to let me be me. I am so grateful.

INTRODUCTION

This book tells the story of how individuals in Boston reacted during an exceptional political and economic crisis lasting from 1763 to 1776. This is not a story about the people of Boston fighting for independence from the British Empire, as the colonists werent actually seeking to be independent for the vast majority of those years. The men in this story did not have a master plan to become the United States of America or even to split from the British Empire. It is easy to presume that they had such a plan when you know the end of the story, as you inevitably do with the American Revolution. (Spoiler alert: the colonists break free from the mother country.)

When reading this book, we must do our best to forget how the struggle ends because it takes away from the drama. If you already knew how it all turned out (and I ruined that a couple of sentences ago), youd miss the absolute improvisation and uncertainty surrounding the events youve known about since grade school. When our story begins in 1763, Boston is not a town eager to declare independence or fight in another war; rather, it is an economically depressed postwar town. The French and Indian War had just concluded, and thousands of men from Massachusetts had fought alongside the British as their allies. After the war, many colonists felt proud to be a part of the seemingly successful and ever-expanding British Empire. They werent longing to split from it.