Boston and the Dawn of American Independence by Deming Brian;

Author:Deming, Brian; [Deming, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Westholme Publishing

On June 1, Hutchinson, with daughter Peggy and son Elisha (but not Elisha’s pregnant wife), stepped aboard the Minerva and was soon off to England and exile.

The same day, the Boston Port Act went into effect. Naval vessels were positioned to stop inbound traffic, and that was that. The port was slammed shut. There was no violence, no noisy mobs on the streets. Just the tolling of bells and calls for fasting and prayer, as if in mourning. Printer Boyle predicted in his journal that soon “this devoted Capitol will be reduced to the utmost distress. God send us speedy Relief.”24 Rowe noted in his diary: “Poor Unhappy Boston. God knows only thy wretched Fate. I see nothing but misery will attend thy Inhabitants.”25

The next day, Rowe learned for the first time about Parliament’s act to change the Massachusetts government. He predicted it would “sour the minds” of the people: “I am afraid of the Consequences that this Act will Produce. I wish for Harmony & Peace between Great Britain Our Mother Country & the Colonies—but the Time is far off. The People have done amiss & no sober man can vindicate their Conduct but the Revenge of the Ministry is too severe.”26

Soon soldiers came ashore. One regiment on June 14 and another the next day stepped onto Long Wharf and marched to the Common, where they set up camp. The Common, wrote Henry Pelham, “glows with warlike Red. The fireing of Cannon, the Rattling of Drums, the music of the fife, now interrupt the pleasant silence which once rendered it so peculiarly deligh[t]ful.”27 Another Bostonian, Thomas Newell, recorded in his diary: “Most of the stores on the Long Wharf are now shut up. Thus we are surrounded with fleet and army; the harbor shut, all navigation cease, and not one topsail to be seen but those of our enemies. Oh, let not posterity forget our sufferings.”28

On July 4 and 5, two more regiments came ashore. In Salem on August 6, yet another regiment arrived, and orders were sent for still more. Gage was confident that this massive force would give Loyalists, so long intimidated and cowed into silence, some backbone to demonstrate support for British authority. Gage wrote to Lord Dartmouth: “Your Lordship will observe, that there is now an open opposition to the faction, carried on with warmth and spirit unknown before, which it is highly proper and necessary to cherish and support by every means; and I hope it will not be very long before it produces very salutary effects.”29

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