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In a Rebellious Spirit: The Argument of Facts, the Liberty Riot, and the Coming of the American Revolution
Auflage
1
Ort / Verlag
University Park, PA: Penn State University Press
Erscheinungsjahr
1990
Quelle
Alma/SFX Local Collection
Beschreibungen/Notizen
A fresh view of the legal arguments leading to the American
Revolution, this book argues that rebellious acts called "lawless"
mob action by British authorities were sanctioned by "whig law" in
the eyes of the colonists. Professor Reid also holds that leading
historians have been misled by taking both sides' forensic
statements at face value.
The focus is on three events. First was the Malcom Affair
(1766), when a Boston merchant and his friends faced down a
sheriff's party seeking smuggled goods, arguing that the search
warrant was invalid. Second was a parade in Boston to celebrate the
second anniversary (1768) of the repeal of the Stamp Act-an
occasion when some revenue officials were hanged in effigy. Third
was the Liberty "riot" (1768), when customs officers boarded John
Hancock's ship and were carried off by a crowd including the
aforementioned Malcom.
Legal inquires into the three events were marked by hyperbole on
both sides. Whigs depicted Crown officials as lawless trespassers
serving a foreign tyrant. Tories painted the Sons of Liberty as
lawless mobs of almost savage ferocity. Both sides, as the author
shows, had extralegal motives: whigs to enlist supporters in the
other colonies for the cause of independence; tories to bring
British troops and warships to Massachusetts in support of the
status quo. Both succeeded in their polemical aims, and both have
gulled most historians.