Please welcome phillip greenwalt. Phillip is the cofounder of emerger revolution war and a full time contributor to emerger civil war. He is the author or coauthor of two volumes in the emerger revolution war series and three volumes in the emerger civil war series and one of his books is downstairs. Phil graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in history from Wheeling Jesuit University and has a graduate degree in American History from george mason university. He is currently a supervisory park ranger with the National Park service in florida, you can ask him about fun snakes he might have seen recently. So with that, let us learn a little bit about why someone would want to burn down boston. [ applause ] i will move the microphone up, maybe one of them. So, yeah, im a park ranger in the everglades, so i did not bring any snakes so everyone can stay in the first or second rows, i know that was a big concern by rob and liz. But todays talk is centered on something a little farther north and being a Baltimore Orioles phan theres multiple reasons why i want to see boston burn, especially fenway, but today is the road to revolution and boston epicenter of that early colonial opposition to the parliament, to the british, to the pain in existence but i figured id sum it up in three dates, march 5th, 1770, december 16, 1773, lexington concord april 19, 1775. So thanks for coming, we will take questions. They are all important dates, though. Not to discredit them, they are all part of the timeline that ruptured the 13 british north american colonies from Great Britain that led to the creation of the United States of america, but events do not happen in a vacuum. Cataclysmic events like the three mentioned above are integral to the history of the American Revolutionary war but so are the smaller, mere bread crumbs or shall we say the paving stones on the road to revolution. These are the ones that lead up to the big meal, the bread crumbs, the happening that built a cause, the unified people. Boston in 17 let me see if i can do technology. There we go road to revolution. So i figured theres no more iconic photo to the road than showing the liberty trail there in boston, the brick path that takes you to some of these sites to encourage your visit. But try to get through four of these points, the background of boston, the sons of liberty, colonial perspective, the british perspective may to change your mind on poor general gades not gates and from words to war. But boston. This is a map from the book that is down stairs. Boston in 1765 had about 15,520 inhabitants living in about 1,67 o houses with a little less than 3,000 white males 16 years or older. The reason you picked 16 is thats the legal age to serve in the militia. In addition there were approximately 800 slaves. In this photo here you can see what was boston at the time of the revolution and what is boston now. Including if you visit lynch mere point where the british will land on the yearly he morning of april 18, the reason that it seems so far in land today, obviously its been filled in. They do d. Not land in the middle of a Business District on that morning. Numbers, though, in boston due to fluctuate obviously up to the reason 1765 is its the last real sense of the city prior to what happens in the 1770s. But before we get to that part we need to go back in time a little bit. Obviously this is one of the most famous iconic images, these are the causes. If you put them up in the multiple photos or pictures or images, the attack, the first martyr of the revolution, march 5, 1770 there. Then you have of course great symbolic what is amazing is of course the amount of literature. We think of today having social media and information at your fingertips. The colonists were very great about building pamphlets or communicating or spreading the word. Economies of correspondents, the 18 century social media facebook platform getting information out and so you see by images and the wording here and i did cut it off so you can see just some of the highlighted names there of the ones, of course, that match the initials on the graves really bring in the iconic image out. Further najs of course the Boston Tea Party where they do dump a bunch of tea bags into it and they float up no. A bunch of bricks there, over 300 i think 42 cases, but just like americans they do respect property, theyre only going to break observe the casts that hold tea. They put it into the harbor there. Another iconic just like that image there of the Boston Tea Party on the right and its a little shaded out, but there is an angel there showing kind of it was divine that they should dump tea into boston harbor. Lets go back even farther. We always ask the question how did the road to the revolution start or earlier today where did George Washington switch from being a member of the British Empire and proud of his british allegiance to being a revolutionary. Where did ones like samuel adams start. It might have started as early as 1740 with the land bank crisis in massachusetts. Obviously a lot of these people had land, they had resources, they had goods to sell, but they were not rich in hard currency so this idea populated that you could maybe use the land as a form of currency and you can see here two shillings and you could use this to sell, barter and trade. This was an effort of landowners and artisans to use their work products as currency which obviously became a very popular idea except for the merchants and the top refresh long of society who had money and access to the hard currency. In populous movement was a threat to livelihood and stations in society. Furthermore, when 5,000 supporters of the land bank marched into boston obviously this caused more consternation from the members high in society and the ruling elite. As quickly as letters could race across 3,000 miles of open water back to the British Parliament the proverbial kiss of death to the land bank idea happened when the supporters of land bank were termed or considered traders by the british articlement those who invested lost heavily, some lost more than they could bear, others became homeless and im prorch i wished. One of the latter was samuel adams the father of the future revolutionary samuel adams and that was the fruit that planted for this massachusetts son to become one of the most vocal supporters of the american independence. After the ruling and after the elder adams death the younger adams had to defend the family estate by seizure from the government. In this his mind served as a constant that britains power over the colonies could be exercised in arbitrary and destructive ways. Those destructive ways led to another bread crumb of james otis jr. Who was credited with coining the phrase taxation without representation. He is this gentleman right there. Taxation without representation is tyranny is was hinge thing. We usually drop off the last two words, i think if you went across the potomac you would say taxation without representation on license plates of the district of columbia. But tyranny is left off and we are going to leave it right there because we wont get into a current political conversation. Born in 1725 he hails from a family that will actually produce other revolutionaries such as Mercy Otis Warren and samuel otis who would become a president of the us senate afterwards. A daughter of james otis jr. Would marry a gentleman named beng listen lincoln a Major General in the Continental Army and second in command at yorktown. Initially hes appointed to advocate general he resigns when a promise as chief justice did not go to his father but to a long time opponent of the family Thomas Hutchinson who would become a staunch loyalist. He then represented merchants arguing against the legality of wrists of assistance and started a live long political thinkinger including entering into priegt pamphle pamphlets. If you want to be a revolutionary in boston or anywhere else write a pamphlet and used by revolutionaries to build interest. John adams in the picture way to the left there rumored otis as never one Whose Service for any ten years was so important and see sengs to the cause of his country as those of mr. Otis from 1760 to 1770. Furthermore, in the february of 1761 when he gave a fivehour oratory which is about as long as my talk today will be in the state house in boston, mr. Adams would remember otis as saying right there in quotes the child independence was then and there born. Every man of the immense crowded audience appeared to me to go away as i did. Ready to take against writs of assistance and against colonial independence. Otis did suffer from a mental illness, some believe it happened prior to an incident at a boston coffee house in 1769 but he was stuck over the head and would continue to deteriorate. Did he have moments of lucidity but most of his Public Service and public life was largely over by the end of the 1770s. He actually passed away suddenly standing in the door frame of his house and he actually was quoted earlier in life saying when it was time for him to return to the heaven or above shd he would go as being struck by lightning and he almost immediately later on seemed like he died being struck by lightning. So an interesting one there. Another one of those luminaries largely forgotten by the passage of time is this gentleman, in a great recent biography just came out on dr. Joseph warren. He is such an integral part that you cant get through anything in boston leading up almost to the revolution without having his name somewhere in that conversation. Whether its the night of april 18th when william dolls and that other gentleman paul revere go out on the night, who sends them . When all the rest, samuel adams, john adams are down at the Continental Congress who is left in boston . Mr. Warren. Who is serving as president of the committee of safety given the Major Generalship . This gentleman. Who writes the suffolk resolves which is drafted and submitted by the Congress Approved in mas. He meets his untime lie death at bunker hill which one of the great gentleman not only a medical genius but also a very practical thinker that could move between different echelons of society. He was so immensely felt the loss with a was so immensely felt that general gauge said warrens death and loss was equal to 500 men in equivalent. A nice tribute there by of course a sworn enemy. Other gentlemen of course for every big revolutionary you need the guys that can walk the streets and get the people protesting. William mou is one of them, he is the gentleman that could get the people up in arms, ardmore of a radical. Some believed that he was poisoned by the british, he would die shortly in october of 1774. He was one of the sons of liberty not at the Meeting House but down on the wharf probably leading or organizing part of the Boston Tea Party. He was very popular with the working classes and he had been if you willmenting public resentment since the town send acts. Of course this gentleman brewing beer, samuel adams so we dont need to talk about him. This is one of the sammy adams is a gentleman that suffers with gout, slovenly dressed and would have been a great story to bring out but a few years ago the History Channel did a documentary sons of liberty and hes suddenly 25, a gq model running across roofs. Im thinking youre missing the point of this gentleman and the true story behind samuel adams. If you ever watched that just kind in mind thats samuel adams not the 25yearold gq model in that show. The one guy of course i forgot or did not put up here and i figured that he would be later in discussions because his suing tour is on the bottom of a small document, john hancock. I figured in future symposiums out at the lyceum we will talk more about john hack dock. Maybe next year. On the other side of the coin we have gentleman such as these, lord dartmouth to the left, george germane, i like how they spelled his name down here and of course Frederick Lord north. As dr. En reeks was saying sometimes their grammar or writing did not adhere to certain rules and regulations, so you can see spelled a little differently there. These gentlemen dartmouth doesnt quite understand whats going on and he facilitates a march in 1774, he believes that the present madness of the people there in boston is not for answering events. Of course, george germane or lord sackville interesting character at the battle of midvin he defies orders, shunned by society but comes back in and takes over in november of 1775. Lord north the Prime Minister during the whole build up and eventually the war efforts that tried to subdue the american colonists. They are all trying to discuss with this guy, thomas gauge and growing up you read the first history books this guy, surprise, didnt have horns on his head how bad of a gentleman he was, but he actually when you read more on he does as much as anyone can trying to he is in a situation where has anyone been at work with your superiors dont know exactly the situation on the ground and youre trying to say whats going on in the field and trying to communicate between the two and then you realize theyre 3,000 miles away, by the time you get a letter to him its going to be six months. Who knows whats going to happen. Then you have your wife who is an american, might be a spy, you are not sure, you have to send her away. Then youre communicating with dr. Benjamin church. Its surprising that gauge had a good nights sleep in the whole time he is in boston. But he does have some of the support of gentleman isaac barr from the house of commons, says general gauge who is a man of great abilities. Unless at the same time you give him the sword in one hand, you give him the olive branch in the other. I think that sums up gauges efforts. Hes got a sword to try to defy the count he is but hes supposed to give the olive branch. At the same time the colonists are hit with what we call the intolerable acts or corrosive acts so now government has moved out of boston. Now you have to close the port of boston now, now you have the quebec act and quart erring act and things thing you know hes dealing with, okay, theres a lot of Unemployed People in the port, we have soldiers in the town, the government we have removed their chance to elect leaders and now if any of the british do get in trouble we dont have to try them in the colonies, we can send them 3,000 miles away. So obviously everything is peachy in boston at this time. So thats the gauge so statement he is battling trying to figure out what to do. He has a limited amount of manpower there. He is also at the cusp of British Colonial policies. Britain for years has let the colonies go by themselves, havent taxed them, now suddenly they need to pay for things like the french and indian war, need to pay for soldiers on the border, into he had to pay off the massive debt and need to incorporate some of the land theyve gained. Gauge is the guy in the wrong place at the right time being promoted to replace jeffrey amherst who left and returned to england. Gauge has been there in the colonies for years at a time. His buddy makes what is a harder part is hes now has also a bold and aggressive parliament after lord norths Administration Takes over. So does anyone want this job . Exactly. Hes in a tough situation, but as hes doing it he does try different methods. This is another picture of him trying to meet with the public there. Nice another image. All of these images are uncopyrighted they are from the new york public library, library of congress. If you search Boston Tea Party or boston before the revolution it comes up with these images. I invite you to do that if you have a few moments because it shows you list ogg gravy of how we remember from newspaper to primary sources its interesting to see why we study one subject and why we continue to study one subject. So in another piece of course he tries to move the british soldiers out to Castle William. I chose this image on purpose because it does not show a british flag, it actually shows the American Flag there. But it is showing a north view of Castle William and the harbor of boston. So at no time did Castle William ever fire a shot in anger or violence but it is where some of the troops will be housed to try to get them out of boston, another appeasement that gauge tries to commit with the colonies. But lets talk about so we are on the road to revolution and i know theres been a lot of social topics and i know military history is still important. These are two places where the revolution might have started. These are other bread crumbs on the path to revolution and one is of course salem. For once were going to talk about salem without witch trials and the other one is where some believe the first shots of the war happened and it happened in New Hampshire which is a very hard work for a baltimorean to say, i want to say hampshire but apparently thats off lord of the rings and not revolution war history. But so were going to go back in order. Salem is a very interesting story. Obviously gauge will submit, take troops out there in february of 1775. As he sends february 26 he sends Lieutenant ColonelAlexander Leslie with the 64th regimen, 224 troops seize the cannons and musicians. Remember cannons because theyre going to come back up. Colonel leslie was known by his fellow officers as a genteel little man who lives well and drinks clot claret. You would be great to be at happy hour at gats bees tavern later. He landed with his troops on marble head neck during