There Will Be Blood

The Breed's Hill Gazette April 2009

By Dan Shippey & Michael Burns

The stillness before dawn was shattered by the peal of alarm bells and the sound of drums waking the countryside to the coming danger. Somewhere between 50 and 70 militiamen drew up into their formations in the middle of town on Lexington Green. Some of the militia were boys, some old men; some stood within view of their homes and families. Soon, the early light of dawn revealed a column of British regulars marching out of the fog--first dozens, then hundreds. Within moments, the guns would begin to fire, men would die, and the world would be forever changed. Why did it have to come to this? What made this moment on April 19^th 1775 inevitable?

15 years and counting down

In 1760, Customs officials in Massachusetts applied for Writs of Assistance. These Writs were, in effect, blank search warrants giving the officials permission to harass anyone and search anybody’s home, business or papers without showing that they had any cause to do so. Opposing this practice in court was Boston lawyer James Otis, who said it was "an instrument of slavery." Defending the right to privacy, he argued that the power to issue general search warrants placed "the liberty of every man in the hands of every petty officer." Otis continued, "A man’s home is his castle, and whilst he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ, if it is declared legal, would totally annihilate this privilege. Custom house office may enter our houses when they please and we are commanded to permit their entry. Their menial servants may enter, may break locks, bars, and everything in their way; and whether they break through malice or revenge, no man, no court, can inquire.” In the end, Otis’ argument delayed the action until it was tried in court a second time. If the crown was not convinced, the people of Boston were; they elected Otis to the Massachusetts General Court.

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11 Years and counting

By 1764, the British colonies in America were facing a financial depression. After the war against the French and Indians had been won, the colonial economy was weakened, and the British government was left with a depleted treasury. The Parliament’s answer was the Sugar Act, which may have been intended to raise revenue but in practice hindered commerce, tied up ships in port, made customs much more complicated, and sent violators to jury-less vice admiralty courts for trial. The last was a direct violation of the colonists’ basic British right to a trial by a jury of peers. Now colonists were starting to write and publicize resolves about their endangered rights in newspapers.

By March 1764, The British government was still in need of revenue, and now they needed to control those voices of dissent in the colonies as well. The colonies appealed to George Grenville that they were loyal and willing to raise revenue through a proper constitutional form in their own legislatures. Their appeals were ignored, and Parliament imposed the Stamp Act. A targeted tax, (social engineering if you will), the Stamp Act lay heavy taxes on all printed paper like that used for newspapers, legal work, and licenses. When word of the new tax reached the colonies, individual legislatures voted on resolves to make their protest known, and called for a united response that become known as the Stamp Act Congress.

The working class people responded differently. Forming into groups with names like The Sons of Liberty, they burned effigies of the appointed Stamp Masters, and sometimes attacked their homes. As trade began to slow, Parliament voted to revoke the tax. As word reached the colonies, the church bells rang in victory. The victory would be short lived.

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10 Years and counting

Lieutenant General Gage was finding it hard to convince citizens in New York to provide accommodations for his soldiers. The people of New York didn’t think they needed a standing army during peacetime. The Quartering Act stated that the provinces must house the soldiers and “upon neglect or refusal of such governor and council in any province," required any inhabitants (or in their absence, public officials) to provide them with food and alcohol, and providing for "fire, candles, vinegar, salt, bedding, and utensils" for the soldiers "without paying any thing for the same."

9 Years and counting

1500 British soldiers arrived in New York. The New York Provincial Assembly refused to comply with the Quartering Act. In reaction, Parliament suspended the Governor of New York and their legislature until they agreed to provide funds for the billeting of troops.

8 Years and counting

After the failure of the Sugar act and the Stamp Act, Parliament became determined to prove it had the power to tax the colonies. In 1767 it introduced the Townshend Acts. These acts were meant to raise money to pay for appointed Royal Governors and Judges that would act to enforce the King and Parliament’s directions and to more

effectively impose compliance with trade regulations. Included in the act were new taxes on paper, lead, paint, and tea, and there was also a measure to punish New York for their previous refusal to comply with the

Quartering Act. Angry protests against these new violations of the colonists’ rights rose up across the colonies, but especially in the largest American city, Boston.

7 Years and counting

With protests growing and citizens refusing the new taxes, in 1768 the British government sent troops to occupy Boston and force its citizens to submit to the new laws. Eventually, the number of troops grew to 1 soldier to every 5 citizens. Soldiers trained for war were forced to act as unwelcomed enforcers among citizens that resented their presence. The tensions rose and there were many incidents of the soldiers harassing the citizens as well as citizens harassing the soldiers.

5 Years and counting

The tense situation between soldiers and citizens in Boston boiled over. On March 5, 1770, after being jeered at and threatened by a mob of Bostonians, British soldiers fired into the crowd, killing five. The Boston Massacre would become a rallying cry for the cause of liberty and the rights of Americans. Soon after this, Parliament attempted to partially revoke the Townshend Act taxes. However, the tea taxes, the “independent” royal governors and magistrates, and the American Board of Customs all remained. Many citizens across the colonies determined to boycott English goods (especially tea) until England recognized their rights.

bos massacre

2 Years and counting

By 1773, Parliament believed it had devised a way to tempt Americans to give up their boycotts and protests and finally pay the tea tax. Their plan would allow tea that would normally have to ship through London (and be taxed heavily there) to be delivered directly to America. Once the small American importation tax was paid, they could buy the high quality tea cheaper even than their smuggled tea. Protestors successfully prevented the unloading of taxed tea in three colonies, but in Massachusetts the Royal Governor refused to let the tea ships return to England without delivering their tea. The idea was that once the affordable fine tea was unloaded it would surely be bought, the tax would be paid, and Massachusetts would have accepted taxation without representation. Instead of taking the bait, angry Bostonians led by the Sons of Liberty dumped the tea in the harbor.

1 Year and counting

After the destruction of the tea, Parliament and the King decided that they had not been hard enough on the protestors. Their new laws, called the Coercive Acts or (by Americans) the Intolerable Acts, included The Boston Port Act, The Massachusetts Government Act, The Administration Act and the 2^nd Quartering Act. These new actions closed the port of Boston completely, changed the government so that almost all positions were appointed by the Royal Governor or the King, outlawed town meetings, allowed Royal officials accused of crimes in the colonies to have their trials moved to England, and forced colonist to house and provide food for the occupying soldiers. The outcry in the colonies formed the first Continental Congress, who gathered to create a united response to these actions.

7 Months, the fuse is lit.

From before the French and Indian War, men throughout the colonies had formed militias and stocked gunpowder for their common defense. Now they were forming and drilling for the defense of their liberty. In September 1774, Boston Governor Hutchison decided that the militia’s supplies of gunpowder were dangerous and decided to implement some 18^th century gun control. He sent a force of 260 soldiers out at night to remove the supply of gunpowder from Charlestown (just outside of Boston). When people realized the powder was gone, an alarm went out and rumors spread fast. Some said that war had begun and that British ships were firing on the town of Boston. Several thousand men from as far away as Connecticut armed themselves and gathered in Cambridge. When word caught up that war had not begun, the rumors were put to rest, and the men went home. But the powder alarm had put them on edge. Paul Revere developed a network of lookouts and alarm riders ready to warn the militia if the army were to come again

0 Hour

April 19, 1775. The order had been given by Military Governor Thomas Gage to march 700 British Regulars to Concord and take control of the gunpowder there. On the way, Gage hoped they would capture the rebellious Sam Adams and John Hancock in Lexington. But Revere and his alarm network had already woken up the countryside. Drums called the members of the Lexington Militia to arms, and they assembled on their central green according to their legal rights. They were farmers and tradesmen, old men and boys, veterans of the old war and novices holding bird hunting muskets. Inside the meetinghouse, one man waited with a pistol stuck into the town’s supply barrel of gunpowder in case the soldiers tried to take it. The long neat lines of British soldiers took up formations in front of the massively outnumbered militia. Within moments the guns would begin to fire.

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