Читать книгу The Handy Boston Answer Book - Samuel Willard Crompton - Страница 27

When did General Gage arrive?

Thomas Gage (1719–1787) came to Boston in May 1774, and the official trade stoppage began immediately. Even if a Boston skipper was lucky enough to evade port authorities, he would run into British ships of war anchored in the bay. For once, the British had the right combination of will power and military strength. They did not count on the reaction of the other colonies, however.

Until June 1774, Boston was essentially on its own, a town that had in some ways gone rogue. But that month, the leaders of most of the other colonies decided to help Boston in its time of need. Food and clothing were dispatched from other colonial towns, and though the Royal Navy blocked the harbor, General Gage did not prevent these articles from crossing The Neck. As a result, the people of Boston would make it through the winter of 1774–1775.

How important was Massachusetts to the establishment of the First Continental Congress?

Boston’s plight was the future plight of all the colonies, or so the argument ran. Twelve out of the thirteen colonies (Georgia refrained) sent delegates to the First Continental Congress, which convened in Philadelphia at the beginning of September 1774. The mood was troubled but also electric.

John Hancock, Sam Adams, and John Adams were all present at the Congress. They helped shape the pamphlets and essays that came out of the meetings in Philadelphia. Most delegates to the Continental Congress still considered themselves Englishmen, and subjects of King George III, but they were also in the process of becoming Americans. Their letters and memorials to the king and his ministers were not exactly defiant, but neither were they conciliatory. And while the First Continental Congress met, Boston went through another alarm, which suggested outright war was not very far off.

What was the Powder Alarm?

In September 1774, General Gage, who was also governor and commander-in-chief of Massachusetts, sent a strong detachment of soldiers to seize the powder magazine in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just across the Charles River. Though the powder had already been moved, and was out of reach, the mere movement of these men into the countryside caused general alarm. Within forty-eight hours, thousands of Massachusetts militiamen had gathered at Cambridge and Medford and were ready to take violent action against the British. When people calmed down and the rumors were dispelled, the militia went home, but General Gage could scarcely believe what had happened. He began to fortify The Neck at once to make sure no one could cross into Boston without his permission.

News of the Powder Alarm reached the Continental Congress at the same time that Massachusetts passed the Suffolk Resolves, named in honor of the towns of Suffolk County. While the Resolves did not call for outright rebellion, they stopped only just short of it.

What was life in Boston like during the winter of 1774–1775?

It was not an especially hard winter as far as the weather was concerned, but quite a few Bostonians—from the working class, especially—suffered from a lack of fuel. Upper-class Bostonians fared better, but some were already packing their bags, hoping to get out of town in the spring. And Bostonians of all social ranks disliked and mistrusted the British soldiers who were now in the neighborhood of four thousand strong.

General Gage, meanwhile, wrote London asking that his troop strength be increased to twenty thousand. Nothing short of this would enable him to control the situation in Massachusetts, he declared. And though Gage did not say so explicitly, it was increasingly apparent that other towns and colonies were almost ready to back Massachusetts. The First Continental Congress broke up in the autumn of 1774, but its delegates agreed to reconvene on May 10, 1775.

Was there even a remote possibility that armed conflict could be avoided?

By the early spring of 1775, the odds were nine in favor and only one against. Everyone in Boston knew it was likely that the British would move into the countryside; everyone in the countryside realized that Boston was the key to the strategic situation. General Gage was not eager for the confrontation, but his latest orders, direct from King George, left no room for discretion. Massachusetts was in a state of rebellion, the king wrote, and Gage must move to confiscate gunpowder from the rebels.

Was King George still in his right mind?

Moviegoers may remember the inspired performance of Nigel Hawthorne, who portrayed the aged king in The Madness of King George. In fact, George III was still in full possession of his senses in 1775, but his innate stubbornness had become even worse. Knowing that the king suffered from porphyria, a rare disease that results from the accumulation of porphyrins in the system, allows the modern-day observer to have more sympathy for this man known as the monarch who lost the American colonies.