5 the Strains of Empire

NASH.7654.CP05.p154-185.vpdf 9/1/05 3:22 PM Page 154 CHAPTER 5 The Strains of Empire A View of the Town of Concord (April 1775), attributed to Ralph Earle. (Attributed to Ralph Earle, View of the town of Concord (April 1775) Concord Museum, Concord, MA) American Stories A Shoemaker Leads a Boston Mob In 1758, when he was 21 years old, Ebenezer MacIntosh of Boston laid down his shoemaker’s awl and enlisted in the Massachusetts expedition against the French on Lake Champlain—one battle in the war that was raging between England and France in North America, the Caribbean, and Europe.The son of a poor Boston shoemaker who had fought against the French in a previous war, MacIntosh had known poverty all his 154 NASH.7654.CP05.p154-185.vpdf 9/1/05 3:22 PM Page 155 CHAPTER OUTLINE life. Service against the French offered the hope of plunder or at least an enlistment The Climactic Seven Years’ bounty worth half a year’s wages. One among thousands of colonists who fought against War the “Gallic menace” in the Seven Years’ War, MacIntosh contributed his mite to the cli- War and the Management of mactic struggle that drove the French from North America. Empire But a greater role lay ahead for the Boston shoemaker.Two years after the Peace Outbreak of Hostilities of Paris in 1763, England imposed a stamp tax on the American colonists. In the mas- Tribal Strategies sive protests that followed, MacIntosh emerged as the street leader of Boston’s ordi- Consequences of the Seven Years’ nary people. In two nights of the most violent attacks on private property ever wit- War nessed in North America, a crowd nearly destroyed the houses of two of the colony’s most important officials. On August 14, they tore through the house of Andrew The Crisis with England Oliver, a wealthy merchant and the appointed distributor of stamps for Sugar, Currency, and Stamps Massachusetts.Twelve days later, MacIntosh led the crowd in attacking the mansion of Stamp Act Riots Thomas Hutchinson, a wealthy merchant who served as lieutenant governor and chief Gathering Storm Clouds justice of Massachusetts.“The mob was so general,” wrote the governor,“and so sup- The Growing Rift ported that all civil power ceased in an instant.” The Ideology of Revolutionary For several months, the Boston shoemaker’s power grew. Called “General” Republicanism MacIntosh and “Captain-General of the Liberty Tree,” he soon sported a militia uni- A Plot Against Liberty form of gold and blue and a hat laced with gold.Two thousand townsmen marched be- Revitalizing American Society hind him in orderly ranks through the crooked streets of Boston on November 5 to demonstrate their solidarity in resisting the hated stamps. The Turmoil of a Rebellious Five weeks later, a crowd humiliated stamp distributor Oliver. Demanding that he People announce his resignation before the assembled citizenry, they marched him across Urban People town in a driving December rain.With MacIntosh at his elbow, he finally reached the Patriot Women “Liberty Tree,” which had become a symbol of resistance to England’s new colonial Protesting Farmers policies. There the aristocratic Oliver ate humble pie. He concluded his resignation Conclusion: On the Brink of remarks with bitter words, hissing sardonically that he would “always think myself Revolution very happy when it shall be in my power to serve the people.” “To serve the people” was an ancient idea embedded in English political culture, but it assumed new meaning in the American colonies during the epic third quarter of the eighteenth century. Few colonists in 1750 held even a faint desire to break the connection with England, and fewer still might have predicted the form of govern- ment that 13 states in an independent nation might fashion.Yet 2 million colonists moved haltingly toward a showdown with mighty England. Little-known men such as Ebenezer MacIntosh as well as his historically celebrated townsmen Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and John Adams were part of the struggle. Collectively, ordinary people such as MacIntosh influenced—and sometimes even dictated—the revolutionary movement in the colonies. Though we read and speak mostly of a small group of “founding fathers,” the wellsprings of the American Revolution can be fully discov- ered only among a variety of people from different social groups, occupations, re- gions, and religions. This chapter addresses the tensions in late colonial society, the imperial crisis that followed the Seven Years’ War (in the colonies, often called the French and Indian War), and the tumultuous decade that led to the “shot heard round the world” fired at Concord Bridge in April 1775. It portrays the origins of a dual American Revolution. Ebenezer MacIntosh, in leading the Boston mob against Crown officers and colonial collaborators who tried to implement a new colonial policy after 1763, helped set in motion a revolutionary movement to restore ancient liberties thought by the Americans to be under deliberate attack in England. This movement eventually escalated into the war for American independence. 155 NASH.7654.CP05.p154-185.vpdf 9/1/05 3:22 PM Page 156 156 PART 1 A Colonizing People, 1492–1776 But MacIntosh’s Boston followers were also venting and had lost faith that opportunity and just relations years of resentment at the accumulation of wealth and still prevailed. This sentiment, flowing from resent- power by Boston’s aristocratic elite. Behind every swing ment of what many believed was a corrupt, self-indul- of the ax, every shattered crystal goblet, and every gent, and elite-dominated society, produced a commit- splintered mahogany chair lay the fury of Bostonians ment to reshape American society even while severing who had seen the conservative elite try to dismantle the colonial bond. As distinguished from the war for in- the town meeting, had suffered economic hardship, dependence, this was the American Revolution. NASH.7654.CP05.p154-185.vpdf 9/1/05 3:22 PM Page 156 156 PART 1 A Colonizing People, 1492–1776 THE CLIMACTIC SEVEN 1763, England matched its strength against France, YEARS’ WAR its archrival in Europe, North America, and the Caribbean. These wars of empire had tremendous After a brief period of peace following King George’s consequences for the home governments, their colo- War (1744–1748), France and England fought the nial subjects in the Americas, and the native North fourth, largest, and by far most significant of the American tribes drawn into the bloody conflicts. wars for empire that had begun in the late seven- The Peace of Utrecht (see Chapter 4), which teenth century. Known variously as the Seven Years’ ended Queen Anne’s War (1702–1713), brought vic- War, the French and Indian War, and the Great War tor’s spoils of great importance to England. The gen- for Empire, this global conflict in part represented a eration of peace that followed was really only a showdown for control of North America’s interior time-out, during which both England and France between the Allegheny Mountains and the strengthened their war-making capacity. Britain’s Mississippi River. In North America, the Anglo- productive and efficiently governed New World American forces ultimately prevailed, and their vic- colonies made important contributions. Though tory dramatically affected the lives of all the diverse known as a period of “salutary neglect,” this was ac- people living in the huge region east of the tually an era when the king and Parliament in- Mississippi—English, German, and Scots–Irish set- creased their control over colonial affairs. tlers in the English colonies; French and Spanish Concerned mainly with economic regulation, colonizers in Canada, Florida, and interior North Parliament added new articles such as fur, copper, America; African slaves in a variety of settlements; hemp, tar, and turpentine to the list of items pro- and, perhaps most of all, the powerful Native duced in the colonies that had to be shipped to American tribes of the interior. England before being exported to another country. Parliament also curtailed colonial production of articles important to England’s economy: woollen War and the Management of Empire cloth (1699), beaver hats (1732), and finished iron England began constructing a more coherent ad- products (1750). Most important, Parliament ministration of its far-flung colonies after the passed the Molasses Act in 1733, an attempt to stop Glorious Revolution of 1688. In 1696, a professional New England from trading with the French West Board of Trade replaced the old Lords of Trade; the Indies for molasses to convert into rum. Parliament Treasury strengthened the customs service; and imposed a prohibitive duty of six pence per gallon Parliament created overseas vice-admiralty courts, on French slave-produced molasses. This turned which functioned without juries to prosecute smug- many of New England’s largest merchants and dis- glers who evaded the trade regulations set forth in tillers into smugglers, for a generation schooling the Navigation Acts. Parliament began playing a them, their ship captains, crews, and allied water- more active role after the reign of Queen Anne front artisans in defying royal authority. (1702–1714) and continued to do so when the weak, The generation of peace ended abruptly in 1739 German-speaking King George I came to the throne. when England declared war on Spain. The immedi- Royal governors received greater powers, got more ate cause was the ear of an English sea captain, detailed instructions, and came under more insis- Robert Jenkins, which had been cut off eight years tent demands from the Board of Trade to enforce earlier when Spanish authorities caught him smug- British policies.

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