Modern Boston History Exam

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Week 1.1 Boston by 1800 History 385

Julie de Chantal

History up to here Today, I would like to give you an overview of the history of the city up to 1800. This material will help you situate the history that we will be talking about during the class. It will be important to understand it since it is the foundation on which we will build this class in the upcoming weeks.

Pre-settlement Boston is located on the Shawmut peninsula which was originally connected to the rest of the state by a narrow isthmus, called the Boston neck. The original city was surrounded by Boston’s Harbor, the Back Bay, and the estuary of the Charles River. Archeologists have found prehistoric Native American sites which show that the peninsula was inhabited for over 12,000 years. They made these discoveries during the construction for the Big Dig in the 1980s and the 1990s, and gathered more than 1000 boxes of evidence to be preserved. They were surprised to have found so much, since the city’s terrain had been heavily modified in the past 400 years.

So who lived in Boston? By the time of the first contact, the tribes established to the North and South of what is now downtown Boston were the Mystic Tribe (also known as Pawtuckeog or Pawtucket) and the Naponset Tribe. Both tribes had a complex political system based a matrilocal and matrilineal organization (matrilocal = stay with the mother’s family, and matrilineal = bloodlines through the mother’s family). The Mystic tribe had even chosen a woman as their leader. Because the Natives who lived in the area did not maintain written records, we can only see her presence in white records which called her “Squaw Sachem.” When she signed her name, she used a stylized bow and arrow.

The principle settlement of the Mystic tribe was named Mishawum, and was located in Charlestown near the current site of Bunker Hill Community College. The site contained several traditional Native homes, one English style home, and a palisade to prevent invasions from the outside, especially from the North. The tribe’s territory included the Charles and Mystic rivers, the Rivers’ mouths, and some of the Islands in the Boston Harbor

When the first settlers arrived in America, nearly 90% of the Native population was decimated due to their lack of immunity to diseases carried by the Europeans. (This is debated among historians. There are other causes for the annihilation of Native Americans after contact).

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The Settlement Who were the Europeans who settled in Boston? For the most part, the settlers who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony were from England. At the time, England was lagging behind other countries in terms of colonization. • Spain had already established itself in South America since 1492. • Portugal claimed Brazil in 1500 • France had claimed what became New France in 1534

Some of the following issues might explain the lag in colonization. Since the reign of Henry VIII (King from 1509-1547), England had been unstable both politically and religiously. Henry’s disagreement with the Catholic church about the annulment of his marriage, led the King to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from the Pope’s authority. The reformation created tensions between Catholics and proponents of the reform which intensified in the following years. During the reign of his daughter, Mary, Catholicism was reestablished (her mother was Catherine of Aragon (Spain), as a result Mary was a staunch Catholic) and Protestants were persecuted. When Mary died, her sister Elizabeth I took the throne and reestablished Protestantism. Although she was tolerant of Catholics, she did not tolerate Radical Puritans who were pushing for reform.

The Puritans The Puritans, who had been in exile under Mary I, returned to England during Elizabeth’s reign. They had attempted to purge the Church of England (Anglican Church) of its Catholic remnants. This “purification” led to them calling themselves Puritans. Because they felt alienated from their own government, a number of them decided to leave England, and to establish themselves in the Netherlands and in North America. But they were not the only ones to come to the East Coast of what is now considered the United States.

Difference between Puritans and Pilgrims? Let’s pause a second here. The following is really important to understand. The Pilgrims (the ones whom we associate with Thanksgiving) were not the same as the Puritans. • The Pilgrims are separatists. They wanted to be on their own to practice their religion as they

saw fit, without any outside interference, and without having to interface with the rest of society. Many other groups at the time had the same separatist goals -> Quakers, Amish, Mennonites, Shakers, Moravian Brethren.

• The Puritans were NOT separatists. They are part of the Church of England as I mentioned but did not want to separate from society. Instead, as we will see, they wanted to create a model society for people to live in which would be “pure” according to their precepts.

With this in the background— the political instability in England, the English Reformation, and the Puritans—let’s look at how this all comes together in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

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Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded in 1628 by the Massachusetts Bay Company. The company had attempted to settle in North America a few times without success prior to the founding of the colony. Before leaving England, the share holders of the company signed the Cambridge Agreement which set the conditions under which the settlement would take place. • Local control over the colony • Self-governing colony who answered only to the English Crown (we know for that reason

that they still thought of themselves as English subjects) • non-emigrating shareholders sold their shares of the company to those who emigrated. • the colony and the company became one as they crossed the Atlantic. • People who signed: Richard Saltonstall, Thomas Dudley, William Vassall, NIch. West, Isaac

Johnson, John Humphrey, Thomas Sharp, Increase Nowell, John Winthrop, William Pynchon, Kellam Browne, William Colbron

Who immigrates? Contrary to the settlements in the South, for example with Jamestown, the majority of the population who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony were families. • The gender ratio, for that reason, was not as overly male as it was in the South. • A large number of them were Puritans but not all. • because the Puritans were a majority, their beliefs about gender roles, laws, and religious

holidays were transported with them during the settlement. (Since Christmas had pagan roots for example, they did not celebrate Christmas)

One clarification here, we often talk about puritanism as a form of oppression. It is a bit misguiding since the Puritans were not so repressive. Yes, they wanted to purify the church from its Catholic elements, and yes, they believed in sex within marriage, but for the most part, they did not restrict people from doing much. The Puritans were pragmatic (since they were colonizing the continent, they encouraged reproduction) and applied laws that were standard in England as well. They did not give women more or less rights than they had in England. They gave and limited political rights in the same way that they were limited in Europe. To some extent, they simply reproduced what they knew from before the settlement on the continent.

The first years of the settlement were difficult. The settlers lived in basic structures. As more arrived, they found that the early towns did not have space for them, so they had to expand the boundaries, confronting Native Americans who “happened to be in the way.” It is a life on the frontier if you will during that time. Throughout the 1630s, nearly 20,000 people came to settle in what is now New England.

Boston Boston itself was founded in 1629. It was first called Trimountaine after the tree mountains that surrounded the area but was renamed in September 1630 Boston after Boston in Lincolnshire, England, where a number of the settlers came from. At the beginning, the settlement was limited

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to the peninsula, but extended as more settlers came to establish themselves in the colony. (see map of Boston in 1630 on slide 2)

John Winthrop He was born in 1587/88- died 1649.

[The / in the date for those years indicates that they were still using the old Julian Calendar which did not take leap years into consideration. Britain and its colonies began to use the Gregorian calendar in 1750 when Britain passed the Calendar Act of 1750. Countries of Western Europe had begun to shift to the Gregorian in 1582. The Calendar Act also made January 1st, and not March 25, the beginning of the civic year.]

John Winthrop was not involved in the creation of the Massachusetts Bay Company. He got involved in 1629 when King Charles I, who was anti-Puritan, began to crackdown on non- conformist religious thought. At the time, Winthrop signed the Cambridge Agreement and was elected the governor of the colony and of the company.

Remember what I said about model city? Prior to landing in America, John Winthrop preached the sermon called “A Model of Christian Charity” in which he argues that Boston will become an an example of communal charity, of affection, and of unity to the world.

He said: “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.”

In other words, if the experiment (building Boston as a pure city) failed, they would become an example of what not to do across the world, and would most likely be facing the judgement of God. His sermon, remembered as “the City Upon a Hill,” cast Boston as a city with a religious mission.

This mission which will have two main repercussions. Bostonians will put an: • emphasis on Education • emphasis on both religious tolerance and intolerance

Education Prior to the Reformation (the emergence of the Protestant faith in Europe), religion was almost always experienced by folks through the intermediary of a priest. After the reformation, priest remain in power but the relationship with God becomes a more personal affair. For that reason, people need to read in order to be able to read the Bible. As a consequence, the colonists opened the first public school in North America in 1635. Does anybody know which public school this might be?

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Boston Latin School Founded in Boston 1635, based on the models that the Puritans had seen in the Latin School model which emphasized learning religion, Latin, classic literature. Since the tax system is in its infancy in the colony, the school will be funded by private donations in kind (money or goods & services) and in land. As time goes, the school became the preparatory school for Harvard University which was founded in 1636 as Harvard College

Harvard College The College was founded by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (the Province legislature was called and is still called today the Great and General Court). It was originally named The New College or the College at New Towne. It was renamed Harvard College in 1639. The college was obviously a religious school and trained most of the Puritan Ministers who had grown up in the colonies.

Harvard was the first press for the English North American market. The first bookshop opened in Boston in 1647. By 1711, thirty stores served the needs of the 9,000 people who live in the city. (Think about how many bookstores are in your city vis à vis the number of residents!). These bookstores sold books, atlases, maps (Bostonians and their contemporaries are obsessed with maps which is logical since it is a settlement colony), pamphlets, and religious materials.

Demographic picture From this, you have to understand that those who immigrated at first, were people who came from what we could consider to be either the upper-middle-class or the elite today. The idea that one would pay for transportation to come to the colony, establish themselves, then have their children learn Latin and be literate in an environment where your life is in danger on a daily basis, reflects a level of personal achievement that is rarely seen in other colonies (the rich planters for example in Jamestown). For that reason, there is pressure on most colonists to conform to the majority’s beliefs and lifestyle. Those who diverged, were often shunned from the community.

Intolerance Although the constitution of the United States sets the country as religiously tolerant, the colonists were not there yet. People who did not obey the spoken and unspoken rules of the colony were pushed away from their community

Anne Hutchison Mother of 15, wife of a successful merchant, was excommunicated in 1638. When they arrived in the colony, the Hutchisons joined the Boston church. Not long after their arrival, Anne began hosting religious meetings to women who wanted to discuss the sermons that they had heard at the church. During the meetings, she offered her own views and interpretations of the sermons and of religious matters. Because she was a woman, she was not supposed to do so, hence triggered a controversy on the role of women in the church. The controversy grew with

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time and challenged the base principle of the church. She was tried at the civil level and was then tried at the Church level and excommunicated. Hutchison and some of her supporters were banished from the colony, and established their own settlement in Portsmouth which is now part of Rhode Island.

Mary Dyer Something similar happened to Mary Dyer, a Quaker, who was hanged in Boston in 1659. Like Hutchison, she also organized Bible groups. While not banished like Hutchison, she moved to Portsmouth, RI. In 1658, the Massachusetts legislature passed a law banning Quakers. Quakers were to be arrested and imprisoned, then banished from the colony. If they were arrested again, they could face death by hanging. That pretty much tells you what happened with Mary Dyer. She came to Massachusetts to protest the law, was arrested, banished, returned to protest again, was arrested, imprisoned, and after the third time, received a death sentence. She and two of her friends were hanged in the Boston Common. In memory of this, October 27 is now International Religious Freedom Day to recognize the importance of Freedom of religion.

Witchcraft Some were also convicted of witchcraft throughout the 17th century. There are two main witch- hunts in the colony during that period, one spans from 1648 to 1663 and the other is toward the end of the century with what became known as the Salem witch trials.

Margaret Jones, a midwife, was one of the first victims of the first witch hunts. We don’t know much about the accusations that she faced but know that she was convicted by the General Court. The accusations that we know of were all linked in one way or another to her practice as a midwife. She was the first person to be hanged after a witchcraft conviction in Boston in 1648.

By the 1700s: How does the Colony look like?

Demographic The majority of the people who live in Boston are white English people. The first generation of American born people are already adults at that point. Most were English, Scots-Irish, some Huguenots (Protestants) from France, and some Germans. It is not until the 1840s that we will see Catholics (for example Irish) coming to the city in large numbers.

By 1700, between 200 and 300 Jews, especially Sephardic Jews from Spanish and Portuguese ancestry, had arrived in the United States. Solomon Franco was the first Jewish person to live in Boston. He had first settled in New Amsterdam (New York City, settled by the Dutch) then moved to Boston in 1649, however, he was not allowed to settle in the city. The General Court voted to “allow the said Solomon Franco, Ye Jew, six shillings per week out of the treasury for ten weeks for his subsistence til he could get his passage into Holland.” He left after the ten weeks. The policies toward Jews softened overtime. Records show that in 1674 a Portuguese Jew named Roland Gideon formed a business partnership with Boston merchant Daniel Barrow. In

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1716 Jewish merchant Isaac Lopez opened a Boston establishment; a few years later, two other merchants followed in his footsteps.

Slavery There is a really small number of slaves in Boston in the first years of the colony. African slavery began around 1637 with the Pequot war. Because of the position of Boston as a port city, a number of cargos passed by the colony to bring supplies—such as cotton, tobacco, and sugar— and brought African slaves as well. Some Boston merchants became deeply involved in the slave trade, with most of the trade being linked to the city in one way or another. By 1670, Boston ships had pioneered the slave trade with Madagascar, and were selling to all colonies. The slave trade enriched many families in the city allowing them to rise in the social hierarchy.

Until the 1660s, slavery is not a hereditary condition hence why such a trade is important. Slaves usually regain their freedom after a number of years in the colony and have to be replaced by new slaves. The fact that they become free after a number of years will influence the position of African Americans in Boston.

Diseases Most of the population is affected by diseases at one point or another. For example, between 1636 and 1698, the city deals with 6 smallpox epidemics. The same happened between 1721-1722. During that epidemics, 5889 people caught smallpox and 844 people died of the disease, nearly 14% of the population. Another 15% left the city in panic, spreading the disease to neighboring towns.

Following the epidemics, Zabdiel Boylston and Cotton Mather came up with the idea of inoculating people against the disease. Boylston used the pus from an infected person’s boils, to inoculate his two slaves and his 13 year old son. Almost at the same time, a slave taught Cotton Mather (a minister) what they did in his home country to protect people against diseases. Learning of what Boylston had done, Mather supported his efforts and helped him as much as he could. But the idea of inoculating people against diseases was very controversial at the time, to the point where Boylston was attacked physically. He and his family received threats. Most doctors at the time felt that he was going against all principles of modern medicine. He was forced to hide. He could only visit his patients in the middle of the night and disguised. So Mather arranged for Boylston to travel to London to publish his results. Boylston became a fellow of the Royal Society, and finally was able to return to Boston a few years later.

Economically Economically speaking, by 1700 and despite all of the diseases which plagued the residents, the city was the most important urban center in New England. Farming remained the largest economic activity around the city. Fishing and commerce were central to the city’s survival. Salem was still the largest port until the War of 1812, but Boston follows in second place. Shipbuilding was a fast-growing industry at the time.

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The Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first colony to issue paper money in North America. Boston soon became an important banking center for the nation. There was a shortage on coins, gold, and silver, so the paper money gained in importance in the early 18th century.

There was a large number of artisans in the city. We already talked about the printing industry but as people came to the colonies, they brought their knowledge and training and established themselves as silversmiths, blacksmiths, carpenters, glass makers, tailors, millers. As “medicine” evolved, some took on the roles of doctors, dentists (who were also often times, ferriers or silversmiths like Paul Revere), lawyers, etc. Most people had multiple jobs to make ends meet.

In the early first half of the 18th century (before 1750s) the Enlightenment challenged the ways in which people lived in the colonies. People like Thomas Paine, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Condorcet, and Montesquieu (the philosophers who theorized the relationship between citizen and government) were widely read in Massachusetts. Following the French and Indian war (1754-1763), the relationship soured between England and the colonies.

March to the War The relationship deteriorated when England imposed a large tax burden on the colonies. England was deeply indebted over the war against France, and felt that the colonists should share the burden. Up to that point, the Parliament taxed some goods which were sent to the colonies but for the most part failed to collect them. In 1764, however, the British Parliament imposed a tax on sugar, and this time set up a system to collect the money. The following year, it imposed the Stamp Act which required the use of embossed paper for legal documents and other printed matter. The paper needed to be produced in London and to carry the stamp in order to be considered legal.

You can imagine how difficult this was for the printing industry which was really important in Boston. In response, the colonists began to boycott products. The slogan of the campaigns against the Stamp Act became “No taxation without representation.” The colonists considered the taxes as a violation of their right as Englishmen not to be taxed without consent.

Women also participated in boycotts. They began to produce the homespun, fabric made in the city. Women organized home-spinning parties and demonstrations. They signed petitions to force the Parliament to repeal the taxes. The boycotts and demonstrations were often a place where women could get involved in the political arena. You have to remember that they did not have the right to vote at the time.

British merchants and manufacturers also pressured the Parliament to abolish the taxes. They were often threatened by the colonies to boycott their products. The merchants did not want to take the chance of their products not being bought after they had crossed the Atlantic. London repealed the Act on March 18, 1766 but Parliament affirmed its power to legislate for the colonies by passing the Declaratory Act.

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In 1767, the British Parliament passed the Towshend Acts which imposed taxes on a larger number of goods, including paper, paint, glass, and other products that were imported into the colonies. The colonists organized more boycotts and harassed customs personnel who had been assigned to the colony to collect the taxes. England had doubled the number of Crown officials to collect the taxes. Furthermore, it limited the autonomy of the colonies in the colonies governing assemblies. Tension rose to an unprecedented level. In October 1768, in response to the colonists protests, British troops arrived in Boston and occupied the city.

Following the Townshend Act, the Massachusetts assembly started a campaign by signing petitions to the King, asking that he repeal the act. They also sent the Massachusetts Circular Letter to other colonial assemblies to ask them to join the resistance movement. They called for the boycott of merchants importing the taxed goods. The tensions between Bostonians and the British Soldiers led to a severe clash in March 1770.

Boston Massacre (image by Henry Pelham, published by Paul Revere)

On March 5, a British soldier stood on guard outside of the Custom house of King Street (now State Street). A young wigmaker called out to a British officer, not far from him, who had not paid his bill. The officer ignored him. A soldier argued with the wigmaker to tell him that he should be more respectful to the officer. They exchanged insults. The soldier ended up striking the wigmaker on the head with his musket. The confrontation attracted a large crowd. They continued fighting. The crowd grew larger and more boisterous. The church bells rang, (usually they only rang because of a fire), and brought more people to the street. More than 50 people surrounded the soldiers at that point. Bostonians who had just arrived started throwing objects at them, challenging them to fire their weapon. More soldiers came to the soldiers’ rescue.

They held off until someone hit one of the new soldiers, and made him drop his musket. He was so angry that he gave the group the order to shoot in the crowd. Soldiers hit a total of 11 men. 3 died instantly (Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, and Crisps Attucks, a mixed race runaway slave). Samuel Maverick died a few hours later, Patrick Carr died two weeks later. The soldiers were eventually arrested and Bostonians demanded that the troops be withdrawn from the city.

The events increased the anti-British sentiment all over the colonies and lead to the development of anti-British propaganda hence why we know the event as the Boston Massacre

The Tea Party In 1773, the Parliament seemed to have forgotten what happened with the other laws before and imposed the Tea Act. (You have to remember that Bostonians are really British in their habits and drink a lot of tea) The resistance grew beyond the usual boycotts and protests. It was no longer a question of taxes but about how Britain controlled the colonies, created monopolies, and lacked respect for the colonists.

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In all the colonies, protesters managed to either have the tea consignees (special agents appointed to receive and sell the tea) to resign their post or return the tea to England. However, the Governor of Massachusetts was holding his ground. His family was involved in the trade, so there was no budging on that side. When the Dartmouth, a tea ship, arrived in Boston Harbor, Samuel Adams called for a meeting at Faneuil Hall. So many people came that the meeting had to be moved to the Old South Meeting House.

The rule had been that the ships needed to be unloaded and the duties paid within 20 days of arrival. Otherwise, custom officials could confiscate the cargo. The meeting assigned twenty-five men to watch the ship, and prevent it from being unloaded. The governor refused to let the ship leave the port without paying the duty. Two more ships arrived (A third wrecked on the Cape before making it to the Harbor). After receiving a report that Governor Hutchinson had again refused to let the ships leave, Adams announced that “This meeting can do nothing further to save the country.”

A number of historians and contemporaries felt that his statement was the code word to trigger the Tea Party. However, his statement was not printed until well after his death. The interpretation possibly came from his great-grandson writing his biography. That being said, about 15 minutes after his statement, people started leaving the meeting house. Adams tried to make them stay because the meeting was not over. Some people got ready to take action, for example by putting on Mohawk costumes and make up to conceal their identities. That night, boarded the three ships and dumped all of the tea in the harbor.

Adams started publicizing the events and defended them. He argued that the Tea Party was not the act of a lawless mob, but was instead a principled protest because it was the only remaining option the people had to defend their rights.

Response The British authorities had no choice but to close the Boston Harbor (until the colonists paid for the destroyed tea) as a response to the Tea Party. They also put in place the Coercive Acts (also called the Intolerable Acts) which were meant to punish the colonists for their defiance. • They took away the Massachusetts Charter and brought it under control of the British

government. This limited the ability of the colony to self-govern since the governor had to call all of the public meetings.

• The Administration of Justice Act allowed for the trials to be held in Great Britain instead of in the colonies if the governor did not feel that the accused could get a fair trial. The witnesses would be reimbursed but only after traveling at their own expense.

• Finally, the government imposed the Quartering Act which allowed British troops to be housed in unoccupied buildings, at any point.

Tensions rose obviously between the British and Bostonians in the following years. As you might already know, the country entered military combat in April 1775, when General Gage sent 700 men to seize munitions stored in Concord. Several riders, including Paul Revere, were

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dispatched to alert the countryside. When the British reached Lexington, the next morning, a militia was waiting for them. They exchanged fire, 8 Minutemen were killed. The British continued to Concord but once they arrived, the munitions were not there. The Battle of Lexington and Concord triggered the Revolutionary War.

A number of people leave Boston during the Revolutionary War. Loyalists, in particular left the area to go to other British colonies, mainly what is Canada today. A number of people left because blockades prevented supplies from reaching the city. So, what is the legacy of the Revolutionary War for Boston?

Legacy Following the Revolutionary War, Massachusetts became a state. John Adams, who will become the 2nd president, drafted the State Constitution which was ratified in 1780.

Slavery In the early 1770s, slavery was still present in Massachusetts. Slaves had to abide by a number of rules: they could not be in the streets after 9 pm (remember that streets are dark at the time due to the lack of lighting), they could physically fight with white people, and could not intermarry. By the 1770s, a number of Black people had sued their masters for their freedom.

With the new State Constitution, though, some Massachusetts residents felt that the principles of liberty and slavery had become incompatible. Through its Constitution, the state abolished slavery. However, it took several drafts to get to this point. The Massachusetts Legislature in 1777 had tabled a proposal for gradual emancipation. In 1778, a draft of the State Constitution legally recognized slavery and banned free Blacks from voting. However, in 1783, the Quock Walker case—in fact several cases lumped in together under Walker’s name— analyzed the wording of the 1780 Constitution to see if slavery should remain. The Constitution contained the following words: “all men are born free and equal, and have ... the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberty.” Chief Justice William Cushing argued that the State Constitution had, in fact, granted rights that were incompatible with slavery. So, in 1783, Black men not only got the right to be called citizens, they also received all of the rights that white men had. In this sense, Massachusetts becomes the first state to give universal voting rights to all men.

Religion Like its federal counterpart, Massachusetts Constitution dropped all religious tests for political office. Despite its religious past and the presence of the Puritan heritage, Massachusetts adopted freedom of religion as one of its tenets.

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Economic position By the end of the War, Massachusetts entered an economic recession. However, it did not remain in that position for long. At the turn of the century, which we will see next week, Massachusetts became a leader in the first industrial revolution.

Boston’s position in terms of ship transport gave the city a clear advantage in the nation. Because of the flow of money, a number of companies had their headquarters in Boston: The Boston Manufacturing Company and the Boston Sugar Refinery are two examples of this trend.

Population By 1800, 24,937 people lived in Boston, 23,763 were white, 1,174 were Black. A number of Black people had escaped the South during the Revolution and chose Boston as their home.