Week 5: Great Britain and the American colonies

Required Reading
Introduction, Rioting in America – Paul Arne Gilje

 In the story of America, riots have been key mechanisms of change.

o USA born amid a wave of rioting.
o Riots like the Boston tea party and the Boston Massacre, combined with stamp act disturbances and
other instances of popular outrage transformed a colonial rebellion into a revolution.
 America had a tradition of popular disorder inherited from English traditions.
 Riots continued after independence – open rebellion against legal land seizures.
 Ratification of the constitution brough rioting between pro and anti-constitution forces.
 In early 1800s, there were significant anti-black disturbances.
 As labourers failed to gain or maintain identity in the wake of unrelenting changes to the workplace, they
soon took to rioting
o Many preferred to strike.
o Coercion was needed to enforce unity and persuade owners of the legitimacy of their demands.
 Before 1865, most violent strikes were local affair but after, they became national in scope.

Problems of definition

 The term “riot” encompasses many types of activity

o Much depends on the perspective of the individual – one’s peaceful demonstration is another’s riot.
 Working definition needs to include direction of the riot.
o Also needs to be precise in terms of how it defines force.
 Force may be said to been coercion or compulsion based upon violence.
o Riot also suggests the use of force outside the normal bounds of law, but how can one define the
normal bounds of law.
 During the American revolution, the British and American legal systems competed for
legitimacy.
 Can generally be said to derive from legitimate government however. #
 Are they acting in opposition to a law that isn’t even enforced?
 Definitions of riot also encounter the problem of spontaneity
o Most action that fits the above parameters ought to be considered a riot.
 Groups that also routinely break the law as a group are excluded from the category of riot.
 Racial conflicts like those between native americans and white anglo-americans are more apt to be described
as warfare as the issue of Indian sovereignty was at stake.

Rioting and Social History

 Rioting is a key field in social history

o Riots represent moments where people make themselves heard and reveal how they interact with
others in society.
 By studying rioting, one can uncover patterns in behaviour showing how the ideas and beliefs of people
change
 o But this approach assumes that mobs are rational – that they don’t act on impulse or are fickle – that
there must be a reason for the actions of rioters.
o Two components to this rationality
o 1. That the mob’s behaviour is linked to grievances of those involved in the riot.
 They seize upon objects that represent the forces that propelled them into the riot in the
first place.
o 2. The crowd of rioters make particular choices for activities – these are not random.
 Rioters in 18th century colonial American rarely killed anyone but they they turned to ritual
punishments that had roots in anglo-american culture to single out a violator of communal
norms.
 Some riots were also a form of amusement.
o Each member of the crowd joined for their own reasons.
 Riots house new rules, putting aside the normal rules of society.
o Rioters vary in method and intention across geographical spaces.

Riots and American History

 With the history of riots, the focus is on the Longue duree.

 Independence did not alter rioting dramatically but revolutionary ideals inaugurated a shift in perceptions of
society.
 The phases of rioting
o In the 17th century, riots were categorised by disturbances emphasising ritual and custom that
featured minimal violence, and extensive, sometimes violent, rebellions.
o In the early 18th century, a more cearly defined social hierarchy established itself – level of violence
decreased, ritualised crowd violence became the norm, and riots became a means of maintaining
community solidarity in the face of the few challenges posed by a market economy.
 Rioters clung to these form of riot even in the later 18th century.

Extract: The crowd finds its own mind in “Gary B. Nash., (2007) The unknown American
Revolution Pimlico”

 Bostonians took to the street to protest in stamp act crisis august 14th 1765.
o They hung an effigy from an elm tree.
o Andrew Oliver
o Crowd then cut down the effigy and carried it towards the town house, and then tore down the
building oliver had built for distributing the stamps.
 By the time of the stamp act, Grenville had already pushed through the Sugar Act, the Currency Act, and the
Stamp Act
o The moves confused colonial leaders – these measures tightened control of the colonies.
 Parliament began to appear like a violator of colonial rights.
o Stamp act raised the question of whether parliament had the right to raise revenue, an internal tax,
when the colonies had no representation in parliament.
o
 News of stamp act mob attacks in Boston reached elsewhere
o Rhode Island saw a mob build a gallows near the town house of Newport.
o They hoisted effigies of Augustus Johnston, Rhode Island’s stamp distributor, and two other hated
conservatives, Dr Thomas Moffat and lawyer martin Howard Jr
 They then marched on Howard’s house at dusk and broke all the window glass.
  Repeated this with Moffatt.
 Historians have argued that these attacks were the case of an intoxicated crowd spiralling out of control.
o But Nash argues that they acted from brooding resentments from past experiences and from
knowledge of events in other cities.
 They knew especially of the August 14 Crowd destruction of Andrew Oliver’s property
 Was also common knowledge that Howard displayed paintings of the duke of Cumberland
and figures in England that attracted popular fury for their anti-protestant and aristocratic
views.
 In New York, when the stamps for several colonies arrived, placard appeared throughout the town warning
people against distributing or making use of stamped paper.
o NY merchants agreed not to import any English goods until parliament repealed the stamp act.
 Across seaboard towns like Wilimgton and New Bern, they pushed and rioted for the resignation of their
stamp distributors.
 In Philadelphia, where the reaction to the stamp act was more restrained, Benjamin Franklin was a key
figure.
o When he lost his assembly street, he went back to London, recommended the appointment of John
Hughes as the Philadelphia stamp distributor.
 Hughes promised to never execute the stamp act.
 Many 18th century commentators saw common people as the “unthinking multitude”.
 Stamp act crowds of 1765 are better understood as large groups of disaffected citizens, largely from the
labouring ranks.
 Loyal supporters of English authority and colonial protest leaders underestimated the self-activating capacity
of the colonists.

Francis Bernard to the Board of Trade, 15 August 1765. Bernard Papers

 Bernard – a British colonial administrator who was governor of Massachusetts.

 Documents how he expected people to submit to the stamp act.
o At the very most he heard “murmurs” of unrest.
 Sees an Effigy of “M Oliver the secretary” – the stamp distributor in Boston.
 Sees a mob gathering to come to the town house, bringing the effigy.
 Went to M Oliver’s house to break all of the windows.
o He was not at the house – believed that he would have been murdered otherwise.
 Having raised a council, was determined that the only recourse to find the rioters was to issue a proclamation
for discovering the offenders.

August 16th

 Oliver was threatened with the destruction of his house by several men if he didn’t resign.
 Writes that he has never seen a riot so fierce in action nor in intention
o 50 actors in the riots
 Points to murmurs that anyone who executes the stamp act will be killed.
 Bernard has no choice but to bend to the will of the masses

Boston-Gazette, 19 August 1765 – Account of the first riot of 14 August

  Burning of an effigy
 Demolition of windows

Thomas Hutchinson to Richard Jackson, 30 August 1765

 Hutchinson was governor of Massachusetts

 Heard whispers that a mob would attack some admiralty officer houses.
 Then heard that the mob would come for him
 The mob demolished his house
o Ransacked the house and carried off £900 in money
 Thinks he had lost at least £3000 worth of property through damages.
 Believes that is parliament makes concessions then they may endanger the loss of their authority over the
colonies.

Francis Bernard to the Earl of Halifax, 31 August 1765. Bernard Papers

 Bonfire was lit before the town house

o Went to M Paxton’s house – the Marshall of the court of admiralty
 Went to M Hallowell’s Comptroller of the customs, broke into his house
o States that the mob were taken over by “irresistible fury” and wanted to murder him
o Estimated that the loss of this house was £3000
 Doesn’t think there to be an end to the violence in the foreseeable future.

Boston-Gazette, 2 September 1765

 Documents how a mob pulled down a building belonging to the secretary of the province
 Issued the proclamation to animate the officers and military to bring all of those involved to justice.
 Promises a £100 reward to anyone who can detect anyone.

William Almy to Elisha Story (29 August 1765)

 Mob erected a gallows near town house

o Hung up effigies of howard, Moffatt, and the “stamp master”
o On Howard’s breast was written “insidious, infamous miscreant, and paracide martinius scriblerius”
o On one of the posts was written “we have an hereditary indefeasible right to a halter”
 Boot hung over the doctor’s shoulder with a devil peeping out of it.
 Song written on the post of the gallows too
o “he who for a post or base sordid pelf his country betrays, makes a rope for himself”
o “we are justly oblig’d to our sons to make good all internal taxes let us then nobly spurn these
effigy;s first, then next the stamp papers burn”

The Deplorable State of America, or Sc___h Government, anonymous, March 22 1765

  A seated Brittania offers a pandora’s box symbolising the stamp act to America
 Minerva recommends that America not take it
 A floating boot representing the Earl of Bute – a Scottish Tory
o Said to be the power behind the throne, in control of George III
o A reference to jacobism – Scottish jacobitism.
 King of France on the right.
 A British cartoon produced in London
o There are stamp act riots in London as well as in America.
o Most people are opposed to the government.

Seminar

 Either extremity of riots

o Rebellions and isolated instances of crime.
 Use of force outside usual bounds of law.
 Riot also sometimes defined by who is targeted
o If a governor’s house is attacked, a letter will be sent back to London calling it a riot.
 Mobs are targeting those linked with the British regime but not overtly towards the British.
 Boston riots
o A very small area
o Very densely populated
 Stamp distributors gained a commission on stamps issued
 Have to ask questions about who the mobs are targeting and why.

Stamp act riot questions

1. Who are the rioters?

a. Largely working class but with middle-class leadership – wealthy sons of liberty started it but then
the working class came in.
b. Bernard speaks about “50 gentleman actors” involved in the riots.
2. Who were the organisers?
a. In Newport, led by Ellery, Samuel Vernon, and merchants – merchants most likely to be affected by
the stamp tax – made a lot of contracts done on paper – merchants boycotted British goods in New
York.
3. Who were the victims?
a. Colonial administrators – rich
4. Who were the observers?
a. Other wealthy people
5. Who were the law enforcers?
a. Officer and military - sheriffs
6. What was the British reaction?
a. Not so concerned as they have experience of people rioting
b. But more concerned by the burning down on Hutchinson’s house.

 Nash argues that the rioters are complaining of an unfair wealth divide
o Is why they go into Hutchinson’s house and steal his property – his wealth
 Rhode Island is the most democratic colony in America – also makes it the most radical
 o When Moffatt and Howard write pamphlets, they are accused of being Jacobites and are being
targeted.
o Is an issue specific to Rhode Island.
 Hutchinson writes as he wants money after having had his house ransacked.
 Bernard wants to protect his job.
 Boston-Gazette publishes 5 days after the fact perhaps because it is fearful of the authorities.