Samuel Adams and Early Riots

1. Samuel Adams and Early Riots Have you learned about the Revolutionary War? Or about the Stamp Act? If so, then you probably already know who Samuel Adams is – but do you know that he was also known as a pamphleteer who helped people understand why revolution was important? What else did Samuel Adams do to influence America?

3. Some of the first uprisings in the colonies against the British government occurred along the eastern coast in the mid-1700s. There, dockworkers rebelled against the British Navy’s practice of impressment, in which Naval officers would try to force poor dockworkers to join their crews. Mobs of people rioted against impressments from the 1730s through the 1760s, from Charleston , SC to Boston , MA. Mob violence was common during the Revolutionary era in cities along the coast. The most famous incident of mob violence during the American Revolutionary era was the Boston Tea Party. Samuel Adams was a popular revolutionary leader and pamphleteer during the Revolutionary period. His widely-read pamphlets discussed topics like anti-impressment riots and the Stamp Act. These pamphlets played an important role in getting the public’s support for the Revolutionary cause. Adams was also a leader in the Boston Tea Party. Norman, J. (1781). The honble. Samuel Adams, esqr. First delegate to Congress for Massachusetts / J. Norman sc. Library of Congress: Prints & Photographs, Popular Graphic Arts.

5. Samuel Adams used his position as a pamphleteer to spread Revolutionary fervor throughout the colonies. In addition to organizing the Boston Tea Party, Adams helped draw attention to the Boston Massacre of 1770, depicted in the image here. Adams ’ pamphlets portrayed the British soldiers as evil, unfair and violent and the murdered citizens as brave people who died for the developing Revolutionary cause. Revere, P. (1770). "The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street, Boston on March 5, 1770." . Library of Congress: Exhibitions, John Bull & Uncle Sam: Four Centuries of British-American Relations .

7. This image of dockworkers during the Boston Tea Party shows that they were often a motley assortment of people from a variety of racial and ethnic groups. Berger, D. (1784). Die einwohner von Boston wersen den englisch-ostindischen thee ins meer am 18, December 1773 / D. Chodowiecki inv. et del. ; D. Berger sculpsit 1784. Library of Congress: Prints & Photographs, Popular Graphic Arts.

9. Rioters used tarring and feathering to intimidate supporters of the British during the Revolutionary period. This drawing from the 1830s depicts a scene in which Boston patriots tar and feather someone supposedly defending the British. Johnston, D. C. (1830). The Bostons paying the excise-man or tarring & feathering / copied on stone by D. C. Johnston from a print published in London 1774. . Library of Congress: Prints & Photographs, Popular Graphic Arts.