A Note on Mobs in the American Revolution

Bibliographic Data

ID9401647
AuthorsGordon S Wood (corresponding author)
Year1966
Volume23
Issue4
Pages635-635
Publication date1966-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe William and Mary Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0043-5597 • E-ISSN: 1933-7698
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1919130
OpenAlexW2312271703
LanguageEN
Citations received10

T here used to be time when we thought that mob violence in the preindustrial age of the eighteenth century was strictly European phenomenon. In recent years, however, we have been made increasingly aware of how important and prevalent mob activity was in early American history. From the time of the first settlements on through the eighteenth century, social eruptions and popular disturbances were recurrent event in the American colonies. Mob rioting at one time or another paralyzed all the major cities; and in the countryside violent uprisings of aggrieved farmers periodically destroyed property, closed courts, and brought government to halt. With such history of popular disturbances in the colonies it was not surprising then that mob action would become, as the Tories pointed out, a necessary ingredient in fomenting the American Revolution. Mass Arthur M. Schlesinger reminded us in I955, played dominant role at every significant turning point of the events leading up to the War for Independence. Mobs terrified the stamp agents into resigning and forced repeal of the tax. Mobs obstructed the execution of the Townshend Revenue Act and backed up the boycotts of British trade. Mobs triggered the Boston Massacre and later the famous Tea Party. And even after the Revolution had begun civilian mobs behind the lines systematically intimidated Tory opponents, paralyzing their efforts or driving them into exile. In short, the American colonies were no more free of urban and rural riots and disturbances than eighteenth-century England and France.' Yet while recognizing that eighteenth-century crowd disturbances were as prevalent in the colonies as in Europe, almost all historical accounts of American mob activity have suggested that the colonial mobs were fundamentally different from their European counterparts. True, the American Revolution produced mob violence, but these crowd disturbances, most historians imply, were by no means comparable to the

Political science · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Cuban History and Society · History · Race, History, and American Society

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub