Emerging Revolutionary War welcomes back historian Derek D. Maxfield.
In March 1770 one of the most infamous events of the American revolutionary era took place outside the Custom’s House in Boston, when British soldiers fired into a crowd instantly killing three American civilians and wounding many others. It is, I hope, a familiar story. But this terrible tragedy was preceded, just a month earlier by a little-known event that took the life of a preteen boy.
While riding through the country-side attending to errands, John Adams stumbled upon, “a vast collection of people, near the Liberty Tree.” The large assemblage surprised the Bay State lawyer, who “enquired and found the funeral of the child, lately killed by Richardson.[i]”
Adams happened upon the services for eleven year old Christopher Snider, who had been fatally shot by Ebenezer Richardson on Feb. 22nd, 1770 in Boston. The Boston Gazette carried the story of how this tragedy had come about. “On Thursday, late in the forenoon a barbarous murder attended with many aggravating circumstances, was committed on the body of a young lad.[ii]”
A group of boys of various ages had been demonstrating near the home of a merchant that was known to have violated the nonimportation agreement then in place in the colonies (which had been enacted in answer to the Townshend Duties). This “piece of pageantry” the Gazette explained, was witnessed by “one Ebenezer Richardson, who…was an officer of the customs, long known by the name of an INFORMER, and consequently a person of a most abandoned character.[iii]” Richardson apparently charged into the fray and tried to break up the demonstration unsuccessfully. Failing in this, he disappeared into the merchant’s house.
When Richardson reappeared and employing the most “profane language” prepared to “perpetrate a villany,” according to the Gazette. Threatening to fire upon the group of boys, Richardson “swore to God that he would make the place too hot for some of them before night, and that he would make a lane through them if they did not go away.” Witnesses to the scene later testified that the boys in no way answered with violence to that point, though soon Richardson was chucking brickbats and stones at them. “This, however, brought on a skirmish, and Richardson discharged his piece laden with swan shot[iv].” Snider, hit in several places, was mortally wounded as well as another boy with non-life-threatening wounds.
In April Richardson and another customs official, George Wilmot, were indicted and tried for murder in Suffolk Superior Court. Wilmot was acquitted; Richardson was found guilty but was pardoned by the King. The King’s pardon, coming as it did on the heels of the Boston Massacre, was met with extraordinary criticism from the people of Boston and contributed to tension that was already pregnant with possibilities for further disruption of the relationship between crown and colony.
Watching the long train of carriages at Snider’s funeral, John Adams was troubled. Although the Boston Massacre was still a few weeks into the future, the barrister observed “this shows there are many more lives to spend if wanted in the service of their country. It shows, too that the faction is not yet expiring – that the ardor of the people is not to be quelled by the slaughter of one child and the wounding of another.[v]”
The Gazette was scathing in it’s assessment of the shooting. “This innocent lad is the first, whose life has been victim to the cruelty and rage of oppressors!” Cut down by an “execrable villain,” in concert with, and with the apparent encouragement of, other British agents, they “could not bear to see the enemies of America made the ridicule of boys.[vi]”
The hostility of the people of Boston at the time to the presence of British soldiers is quite understandable. It was a city of occupation. The British encampment, after all, was in the heart of the city on Boston Common. Martial law reigned and off-duty soldiers began to even snatch up jobs along the docks, ordinarily the sustenance of native sons. But when you layer in the shooting of adolescents – and killing of one – at the hands of British agents not a full month before, the temperament of Bostonians is even easier to understand. As the Gazette put it, “the untimely death of this amiable youth will be a standing monument to the futurity that the time has been when Innocence itself was not safe![vii]”
*Sources
[i] L.H. Butterfield, ed. Diary and Autobiography of John Adams. Vol. I. (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1962) 350.
[ii] Edes and Gill, Boston Gazette, February 26, 1770.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Ibid.
[v] L.H. Butterfield, ed. Diary. 349-350.
[vi] Edes and Gill, Boston Gazette, February 26, 1770.
[vii] Ibid.
The “Revolution” exhibition chronicles the weapons and tactics used in the conflict itself, from Lexington and Concord to Yorktown. And I was pleased to see an exhibition that focuses on the war in the south and the major players who led those events such as Daniel Morgan, the “Gamecock” Thomas Sumter, and the notorious Banastre Tarleton.
This farm area is also undergoing considerable change as it will now represent a Virginia farmstead during the Revolutionary War era. Not yet completed, a conversation with friend and farm site manager Jay Templin gave me an idea as to some of the changes that are coming. “We’re now presenting life during the Revolution so we’ll need to scale back; there will be changes to what we’re growing.” Said Templin. “We’ll certainly still be growing some tobacco but not the large field as in years past.”
sites within the city that interpret the story of the beginning of the American Revolution. Many sites are along the famous and popular “Freedom Trail.” The Freedom Trail winds through the city and connects historic sites, churches, monuments, museums and cemeteries that focus on the story of 18th century Boston. The trail can be identified by a double brick pattern located in the sidewalk. The 2 ½ mile trail begins at Boston Common and ends at the Bunker Hill Monument. Several sites in this book are included in the Freedom Trail, but there are others that are just as important that are not on the path of the trail. All the locations for this section are in walking distance, though we highly encourage you to use public transportation as driving in Boston can be challenging. Most attractions/sites in Boston are conveniently served by the “T” subway system.
Due to the expansion of the Boston shore lines over time, the actual location of Griffin’s Wharf is not near the water today. Some argue it was at the foot of Pearl Street near the intersection of Pearl Street and Atlantic Avenue. There is a plaque commemorating the Boston Tea Party located on Seaport Boulevard. To see the plaque, take Atlantic Avenue and make a right onto Seaport Boulevard, the plaque is located on the building to the right near the bridge (GPS: N 42.354147, W 71.050977).
The town meeting held on the night of December 16, 1773 at the Old South Meeting House was no ordinary meeting. Boston was well known for its public meetings, but this one was different. Frequently city leaders called town meetings to discuss important political, economic and social decisions facing the city or colony. The town meeting was a foundation of the political process for Massachusetts and much of the New England colonies. Royal authorities had watched these meetings more closely since the 1760s during the opposition to the Stamp Act. Colonial Whigs (anti Royal leaders) had used these meetings to protest British policies that they saw as threats to their liberties.
India Company. Before 1773, the company had to sell its tea in London and was subject to duties. The company had collected large quantities of tea in warehouses in London and was looking for a way to disperse the tea at a bargain. The Tea Act allowed the company to sell directly to American ports without paying the duties. This also forced American buyers to only purchase their tea from the East India Company, which was subject to a tax. The good news was the price of tea was reduced because the Company no longer had to pay the duties in London. Colonists resisted the notion that Parliament could force them to buy tea from the East Indian Company (many made a good living off of smuggled tea sales) and that they were required to pay a tax on the tea.
Many details remain unknown about who exactly the “Mohawks” were that marched on Griffin’s Wharf that night. The men used lamp soot and red ochre to disguise their faces and carried a wide assortment of weapons. As they made their way to the wharf, they yelled and “whooped” as Indians in a war party. If they had coordinated the timing with leaders in the Old South Meetinghouse, it is still unknown. The identities of most of these men either were never recorded or are lost to history; that is how tight their veil of secrecy was coupled with their sophisticated organization. As they made their way to the ships, the Whig leaders inside the Old South Meetinghouse stayed behind and were never directly part of what happened next.
Emerging Revolutionary War Era 
