logo
Why Boston was such a tinderbox in the 1770s

Why Boston was such a tinderbox in the 1770s

Boston Globe03-04-2025
A group of artists working under the pseudonym "Silence Dogood" — the same pen name used by Benjamin Franklin — projected several messages onto the facade of the Old State House on Tuesday.
Diane Dwyer
The hat tip, new #rebels saluting the OGs, captured some of the come-and-get-us fury of Boston in the aftermath of the deadly 1770 riot on King Street, which Paul Revere branded a massacre. In time, the Massacre begat the Tea Party, the reaction to which propelled the Shot Heard Round the World, fired a quarter-millennium ago this month. But Boston's revolutionary ethos is far older than 1775, or 1770. And leveraging anniversaries was always part of it.
Get The Gavel
A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr.
Enter Email
Sign Up
Founded by British emigrants in 1630, the town that rose on a slender peninsula jutting into Massachusetts Bay was singular from the outset. Its leaders were Protestant reformers, denigrated as 'Puritans' by their enemies. They left an England on the verge of civil war, crossing a vast and furious ocean to plant a more perfect society. John Winthrop, the lawyer who became the colony's first governor, drew on the Gospel of Matthew
Advertisement
Historians have long and correctly insisted that we ought not overstate the degree to which the culture of Revolutionary or even Colonial Boston remained 'Puritan.' Yet the legacy of Boston's founding continued to matter in an increasingly commercial and cosmopolitan world.
It mattered demographically: Massachusetts was from the outset a family enterprise, with nearly equal numbers of men and women, who produced large broods of children, who married and multiplied across the stony soils of New England. The population grew quickly and remained disproportionately youthful, as in so many other developing economies then and since.
The trading economy they created was modest but vibrant. Bostonians imported more than they sold abroad, which would matter when the taxes hit. But their prosperity, such as it was, was shared widely. They were a middling people, the rich less rich and the poor less poor than in the land they'd left behind.
The Puritan 'Great Migration' to New England died in 1649, when the English Civil War ended, which meant that the generations rising thereafter did so within a relatively homogeneous society. There were blips of immigration — French Huguenots in the 1690s, Protestant Irish in the 1710s and again in the 1730s.
Advertisement
The streets of Boston teemed with people, for the most part, of common stock and common values. Ordinary men participated vigorously in public life, through a relatively broad electoral franchise. They imagined politics as a local affair. Elected officials at the town and Colony level knew themselves to be directly accountable to the people around them, especially on matters of the purse.
At first, the Old Testament shaped Boston's laws as well as its culture: a city of steeples and jails. The colonists' reputation as a coven of killjoys was lampooned in print as early as 1637 by a freethinking lawyer expelled from the godly Commonwealth for erecting a Maypole. This perception only increased after the deadly witch trials in Salem in 1692.
Yet if Puritanism bred a righteous stringency, it also nourished the skills of a self-governing people. The New England way of worship, called Congregationalism, insisted upon a direct relationship between the faithful and their God. Which meant reading the Bible, in English, at home, intensively. Literacy was a godly duty, and Massachusetts boasted some of the highest rates of it in the Western world. Mothers read the Word aloud to their sons, making the home a 'little commonwealth,' and women were people of ideas from the outset. Some of those sons went on to
Advertisement
Congregationalism bred printers as well as readers: The first press in British America — its type and hardware and even its paper imported — was set up in Cambridge shortly after the college was established.
Advertisement
A sculpture of Phillis Wheatley on The Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston.
David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
At midcentury, Bostonians were enormously proud of their Britishness. They fought and died in the Crown's great global war, now known as the
Few needed the reminder. When, 13 months later, the old king died and his grandson ascended the throne as George III, the patriotic men of Harvard used their printing press to send him an unctuous congratulatory ode in schoolboy Latin. And in 1763, when the war officially ended, Boston's James Otis, Harvard class of 1743 and a prominent lawyer, told the Boston Town Meeting, 'The true interests of Great Britain and her plantations are mutual, and what God in his providence has united, let no man dare attempt to pull asunder.'
Within a year, Otis would trade his hymn of praise for a protest song. The Crown's postwar tax levies punctured Bostonians' pride well before they pinched their pocketbooks. To a people used to local authority, who thought themselves exemplary Britons, the distant edicts rankled. Were these literate, liberty-loving Britons somehow lesser subjects? Their patriotism curdled, a sense of wrong feeding a culture of rights. 'A plantation or colony, is a settlement of subjects in a territory
disjoined
or
remote
from the mother country,' Otis wrote, in 1764, when the Sugar Act came into being. In the first pamphlet asserting Colonial prerogatives, he articulated a principle that would overspread the Eastern Seaboard: 'Colonists are entitled to as
ample
rights, liberties, and privileges as the subjects of the mother country are, and in some respects, to
more
.'
Advertisement
Benjamin Edes and John Gil, publishers of the Boston Gazette, printed Otis's pamphlet, which quickly spawned rejoinders from Caribbean writers whom the Sugar Act protected. The city's newspapers, long an engine of British patriotism, became a seedbed of American outrage. Through the Stamp Act crisis in 1765 and the military occupation of 1768 and the Massacre of 1770 and the dumping of the tea in 1773, Boston's presses kept the tide of outrage high, even when actual outrages ebbed. 'The Newspapers teemed with everything that could inflame the Passions,' complained the customs commissioner, Henry Hulton, stationed, for his sins, in Boston.
The passion was the point. And by the time a Continental Congress gathered in Philadelphia in the fall of 1774, pamphleteers like Otis and pressmen like Edes and Gil had done a great deal to make the plight of Boston a matter of urgent continent-wide concern. 'Every Scrap of Letter or Newspaper from Boston is read here,'
The delegates were right to worry. For as the 2025 artists' collective said — artists who called themselves Silence Dogood — hell had been waiting here all along.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Howard Stern's iconic radio show is facing cancelation as his $100M Sirius contract nears its end
Howard Stern's iconic radio show is facing cancelation as his $100M Sirius contract nears its end

Yahoo

time10 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Howard Stern's iconic radio show is facing cancelation as his $100M Sirius contract nears its end

Howard Stern's iconic radio show is set to be axed after a two-decade run with the broadcaster SiriusXM, according to a new report. The shock jock's contract with the digital radio giant is up for renewal soon, and SiriusXM doesn't expect he'll take them up on a new offer, sources told British tabloid The Sun. The Howard Stern Show experienced a surge in popularity after it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from 1986 to 2005. Stern, known for his direct and controversial persona, has interviewed dozens of A-list celebrities and even former Vice President Kamala Harris, a month before voters headed to the polls in November 2024. In recent years, he has been openly critical of President Trump, saying he 'hated Trump voters,' and branded them as stupid – an opinion that Trump retaliated to by saying that Stern "went woke" and lost listeners as a result. Stern's contract is up in the fall, and while Sirius is planning to make him an offer, they don't intend for him to take it, an insider told The Sun. 'Sirius and Stern are never going to meet on the money he is going to want. It's no longer worth the investment,' the person added. In 2004, Stern became one of the highest-paid radio figures in the U.S. after signing a five-year deal with SiriusXM worth $500 million. The insider claims that SiriusXM was not going to be able to keep up with paying Stern his salary. "But as far as him coming back to doing the show, there's no way they can keep paying his salary," the source said. "After you saw what happened with Stephen Colbert, it's like they just can't afford to keep him going." Another Sun source said Stern's political views were not working in his favor. "If Sirius isn't going to give Stern a good offer, I don't think it would have anything to do with his ratings," the source claimed. "It's more likely everything to do with the political climate." CBS recently announced that Colbert's The Late Show was set to be scrapped because of 'a financial decision,' however, many speculated that the move came because of the host's frequent satirical blows to Trump. Stern joined SiriusXM at age 50 in response to 'censorship' efforts during his time at Viacom by the Federal Communications Commission, which does not regulate the content of satellite programs. The FCC had been fining Stern's station for over a decade. Stern became the most fined radio host between 1990 and 2004, after the FCC issued fines totaling $2.5 million to radio licensees for airing material it considered to be indecent from his show, the highest amount of any American radio show. During his time as a judge on the talent TV series America's Got Talent from 2012 to 2015, his appointment was criticized by The Parents Television Council, the watchdog group that bemoans any suggestion of sex or profanity on TV, for his "reputation for sleaze and misogyny.' The Independent contacted Stern's representatives and SiriusXM for comment. Solve the daily Crossword

DoJ pushes for release of Epstein and Maxwell grand jury transcripts
DoJ pushes for release of Epstein and Maxwell grand jury transcripts

Yahoo

time10 hours ago

  • Yahoo

DoJ pushes for release of Epstein and Maxwell grand jury transcripts

Transcripts of the grand jury proceedings that led to the sex-trafficking indictments of the sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, include the testimony of just two law enforcement witnesses, the Department of Justice has said, as it argues for the documents' release. Top justice department officials disclosed in a filing late on Tuesday in New York City federal court that separate grand juries convened to consider the criminal investigations of Epstein and Maxwell, and had heard from only two witnesses. The revelation was made in the course of court wrangling over whether the transcripts of the proceedings should be unsealed, amid the continuing furor over the Epstein scandal which has roiled Donald Trump's second term. The Trump administration is urging the two federal judges who presided over the Epstein and Maxwell grand juries, Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer, to release the testimony, in an attempt to calm the uproar. Related: Ghislaine Maxwell demands immunity before testifying to Congress The Trump administration has come under intense pressure from the president's own base of supporters who were infuriated by the justice department's decision not to release any additional Epstein files about the late, disgraced financier's crimes involving the sex trafficking of girls. The decision jarred with the previous stance of senior administration figures, including Trump himself and the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, who had hyped the expected release of more details of the New York financier's businesses, travels and associations, including a possible list of his financial clients, which all further stoked conspiracies around the well-connected Epstein. Tuesday's submission states that the grand jury tasked with considering the criminal case against Epstein heard only from an FBI agent when it met in June and July 2019. A similar grand jury for Maxwell heard from the same FBI agent and a New York police department detective when it met in June and July 2020 and in March 2021. The memorandum was signed by Jay Clayton, US attorney for the southern district of New York, and included the names of Bondi and deputy attorney general Todd Blanche. Epstein took his own life in a federal jail in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges, officials say, but his case has generated endless attention and conspiracy theories because of his and Maxwell's links to famous people, such as royals, presidents and billionaires, including Trump. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring with Epstein in the sexual trafficking of minors. She was convicted in December 2021 on charges that she lured teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. Last week, she sat for two sets of interviews with justice department officials, including Blanche, in Florida, where she is serving her time in a federal prison, and answered questions 'about 100 different people', her attorney said. Trump has denied prior knowledge of Epstein's crimes and claimed he had cut off their relationship long ago. But he faces ongoing questions about the Epstein case.. On Tuesday, Trump spoke about connections between Epstein and the president's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. He claimed he evicted the financier from the resort because Epstein 'stole' young female staffers from him, including Virginia Giuffre, who went on to be a key witness against Epstein and Maxwell. Giuffre died in April. Maxwell has offered to testify before Congress but with conditions, including being granted immunity. Her lawyer has written to the House committee, which has subpoenaed her, saying that a deposition without immunity would be a 'non-starter'. The justice department memorandum says that unsealing the transcripts is 'consistent with increasing calls for additional disclosures in this matter'. The Associated Press contributed reporting Solve the daily Crossword

US House panel subpoenas Bill and Hillary Clinton for Epstein testimony
US House panel subpoenas Bill and Hillary Clinton for Epstein testimony

Yahoo

time10 hours ago

  • Yahoo

US House panel subpoenas Bill and Hillary Clinton for Epstein testimony

The House oversight committee on Tuesday issued subpoenas to Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as several former attorneys general and directors of the FBI, demanding 'testimony related to horrific crimes perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein'. The investigative committee's Republican chair, James Comer, sent the subpoenas in response to two motions lawmakers approved on a bipartisan basis last month, as Congress navigated outrage among Donald Trump's supporters over the justice department's announcement that it would not release further details about Epstein, a disgraced financier who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. The subpoenas raise the possibility that more details will become public about Trump's relationship with Epstein, which stretched for years but appeared to have petered out by the time Epstein was convicted of sexually abusing girls in 2008. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported on the existence of a sexually suggestive sketch and lewd letter Trump sent to Epstein as a 50th birthday gift in 2003. Related: Epstein scandal broadens as trove of letters from famous figures published The president and his allies have long flirted with conspiracy theories around Epstein's death in federal custody, but the justice department upended those by concluding he died by suicide and a long-rumored list of his client did not exist. That prompted some Trump supporters to criticize the president for failing to make good on his pledge to bring full transparency to the case, which Democrats moved to capitalize on by pushing congressional Republicans into tricky votes intended to make the Epstein case files public. Shortly before House lawmakers left Washington DC for Congress's August recess, the Republican congressman Scott Perry won an oversight subcommittee's approval to compel depositions from the Clintons and the former top federal law enforcement officials in a bid to reveal more about Epstein's activities. Democratic congresswoman Summer Lee also successfully pushed a motion to subpoena justice department files related to the case. In addition to the Clintons, the committee sent subpoenas to former attorneys general Jeff Sessions, Alberto Gonzales and William Barr, who served in George W Bush and Trump's presidencies, and Merrick Garland, Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder, who served under Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller also received subpoenas. In the letter to Bill Clinton, Comer noted that the former president had flown four times on Epstein's private jet, and repeated an allegation that he had 'pressured' Vanity Fair not to publish sex trafficking claims regarding Epstein. The chair further says that Clinton was 'allegedly close' with Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted on sex trafficking charges related to Epstein. 'Given your past relationships with Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell, the Committee believes that you have information regarding their activities that is relevant to the Committee's investigation,' Comer wrote. In his letter to Hillary Clinton, Comer draws a more tenuous connect, writing: 'Your family appears to have had a close relationship with both Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell'. In addition to details about them, Comer notes that Clinton 'may have knowledge of efforts by the federal government to combat international sex trafficking operations of the type run by Mr. Epstein'. Comer set Bill Clinton's deposition date as 14 October and Hillary's as 9 October. Others who received subpoenas were given dates ranging from mid-August through early October, while US attorney general Pam Bondi has until 19 August to release documents related to the case. In addition to the subpoenas, Republican congressman Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna are collecting signatures for a discharge petition to force a vote on legislation compelling release of the Epstein files. That vote is not expected to happen until the House returns from recess in early September. Trump has authorized the justice department to request release of the transcripts from the federal grand juries that indicted Epstein and Maxwell, while last week, deputy attorney general Todd Blanche interviewed Maxwell in Florida in what the White House said was a bid to uncover new details about the case.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store