Boston 1775

Jack Rakove is the William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies emeritus at Stanford University, with parallel appointme...

Enemies to Their Country: The Marblehead Addressers and Consensus in the American Revolution is Nicholas W. Gentile’s first book, just publ...

Lining up the sparse mentions of sedan chairs in colonial Boston reveals a clear pattern: they were used to transport sick people . In 167...

Thomas Newell ’s diary makes clear that he opposed Parliament ’s tea tax in 1773, as most Bostonians did. On 2 December, for instance, he wr...

As long as I’m discussing nomenclature for Boston’s political groups in the 1760s, I’ll tackle “the Union Club.” America’s first public, ...

At the start of February 1770, the big news in Boston was the non-importation movement, and particularly the weekly demonstrations by schoo...

Ebenezer Richardson reportedly went into hiding in Philadephia in mid-October 1773, just as the tea crisis heated up. For the next sever...

On 10 Mar 1772, as described yesterday , Massachusetts’s high court delivered a royal pardon to Ebenezer Richardson , convicted twenty-three...

On 21 Apr 1770, as recounted back here , a Suffolk County jury found Ebenezer Richardson guilty of murdering young Christopher Seider . ...

When the ministry in London chose supportive gentlemen for the Council under the Massachusetts Government Act, one was William Vassall (17...

Daniel Leonard (1740–1829) was born into a wealthy family in Norton. He went to Harvard College , where he ranked third in the class of 17...

Gov. Thomas Hutchinson prorogued the Massachusetts General Court on 8 Mar 1774, stating: I have passed over without notice the groundless...

Among the many disputes between Gov. Thomas Hutchinson and the Massachusetts General Court was one over how new laws were designated by ...

I’ve traced the Massachusetts General Court ’s slow march toward impeaching Chief Justice Peter Oliver in February 1774 for accepting a sal...

Even before Lt. Gov. Andrew Oliver died on 3 Mar 1774, Gov. Thomas Hutchinson knew he had to postpone his trip to Britain. Oliver would ...

When the Massachusetts house informed Gov. Thomas Hutchinson on 25 Feb 1774 that it had voted to impeach Chief Justice Peter Oliver , his...

On 24 Feb 1774, the day that the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court voted to impeach Chief Justice Peter Oliver , Gov. Thomas H...

John Adams ’s memoir, as quoted yesterday , offers his recollection of how he informed the Massachusetts assembly about the possibility of...

One of the Massachusetts Whigs’ complaint about Thomas Hutchinson in the 1760s is that he amassed too many offices for himself. Hutchinso...