The tarring and feathering of Commissioner of Customs John Malcolm, a loyalist, by patriots under the Liberty Tree in Boston, 1774
In 1763, colonists across British North America could not have been prouder to be citizens of the British Empire. Fighting shoulder to shoulder with redcoat soldiers, the colonists had trounced their mutual enemies in the French and Indian War. In towns and cities across America, King George, his ministers, and his military were toasted. Grateful New York colonists erected a statue to their great king—a testament to the belief that their future lay with him.
On July 9, 1776, a crowd of American soldiers and sailors tore down that statue and melted its precious lead into 42,088 musket balls to fire at the king’s army. The two sides were now at war—delegates in Philadelphia had finalized the Declaration of Independence just five days earlier—and that war would rage for the next seven years.
Historian Richard Bell explores the tumultuous 13 years between 1763 and 1776 and examines the extraordinary events that turned loyal British colonies into a united confederation willing to go to war to achieve independence.
10–11:15 a.m. Stamps and Mobs
The Stamp Act was not supposed to be controversial. But when the British Parliament authorized this new tax on the commercial use of paper in 1765, it sparked unprecedented protests that forged common cause between merchants and consumers.
11:30 a.m.–12:45 p.m. Redcoats and Snowballs
In 1768, Parliament sent four redcoat regiments to Boston to keep the peace. Instead, these occupying troops and the residents of this struggling port city taunted and antagonized each other. After two years of escalating provocations, the powder keg finally exploded on March 5, 1770, when a fistfight and a stray snowball triggered a shoot-out that left five local men dead in the street.
12:45–1:15 p.m. Break
1:15–2:30 p.m. Tea and Tar
The imperial crisis sprang back to life in December 1773 when a team of working men acting on behalf of leading smugglers like John Hancock threw cases of East India Company tea into Boston’s muddy harbor. Later known as the Tea Party, this act of property destruction and terrorism poisoned relations between Crown and colonies as never before.
2:45–4 p.m. Hearts and Minds
In the wake of the Tea Party, most colonists still hoped for a peaceful reconciliation with King and Parliament. But that was about to change. Focusing upon the propaganda efforts of a small group of patriots this concluding talk examines why ordinary people—in Boston and across 12 other mainland colonies—finally embraced armed resistance and the cause of independence.
Bell, a specialist in the American Revolutionary era, is a professor of history at the University of Maryland and is at work on a global history of the Revolutionary War.
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