Crisis with England Part 3 – Townshend Duties, Boycotts, and the Boston Massacre

Background: Post–Stamp Act Shock and English Fiscal Pressure

• After the repeal of the Stamp Act, England remains burdened by war debt and the English public still clamors for tax relief, believing the North American colonies pay too little.
• Parliament is startled by the unity and vehemence of colonial resistance and looks for a new revenue scheme that will appear more palatable than the Stamp Act.

Charles Townshend’s Fiscal Blueprint ( "External" Duties — $1767$ )

• Charles Townshend (Chancellor of the Exchequer – British equivalent of a Secretary of the Treasury) proposes a series of taxes meant to raise $\$100,000$ annually to "defray colonial expenses."
• Taxes are levied on English-manufactured imports that colonists cannot legally make for themselves: lead, paper, tea, glass, paint.
• Collection is to occur in England before shipment. Manufacturers pay first, then embed the cost into the selling price; colonists encounter it as a higher retail price.
• Although Townshend calls them "external" (because they relate to trade), colonists recognize them as internal revenue measures whose aim is to fill the imperial treasury, not to regulate commerce.
• Significance: First time intra-imperial trade itself has ever been taxed. This violates a long-standing colonial distinction that Parliament may regulate trade but may not tax for revenue.

Earmarking, Political Control, and Loss of Influence

• Money from the duties is ear-marked (reserved for a specific use): paying the salaries of royal governors, judges, and customs officials in the colonies.
• Colonists previously paid many officials through local property taxes, giving assemblies leverage; earmarking removes that leverage, diminishing colonial self-government.
• Instructor’s analogy: If students decided whether to "take up a collection" to pay a professor after final grades were issued, every student would magically earn an $A^{+}$— because payment equals influence. If the university pays directly, the professor can fail everyone without consequence.

Economic + Political Objections

1. Economic – Cost of living rises; colonists subsidize Britain’s treasury.
2. Political – Accepting the tax concedes Parliament’s right to tax internally and erodes local authority built since $1619$ (House of Burgesses).

Early Colonial Counter-Strategies

• Smuggling (well-developed black market) — import French/Dutch goods.
• Home manufacture / DIY — spin homespun cloth, blow local glass, skip painting houses for a year. Everyday chores become political theatre.
• Doing without — deliberate austerity signals resistance.

The Circular Letter and “$92$”

• Committees of Correspondence (successor to the Sons of Liberty) circulate protest letters to each assembly; Massachusetts drafts a particularly forceful Circular Letter declaring:
  • Parliament may regulate trade.
  • Townshend duties are internal and therefore unconstitutional.
  • No hint of rebellion—only constitutional protest.
• Parliament demands a retraction; several colonies apologize, but Massachusetts refuses, voting $92$–$0$ to stand by the letter.
• "$92$" becomes a pop-culture badge of defiance: written on shirts, tavern signs; drinkers offer "$92$ toasts" to Massachusetts.
  • Instructor’s comic scale: reach $10$ toasts ⇒ join a fraternity/sorority; reach $20$ ⇒ join Alcoholics Anonymous.

Non-Importation & Economic Boycott (Colonial Grand Strategy)

• Because the tax is prepaid, colonists cannot target a single stamp distributor; instead they concoct non-importation agreements — a united refusal to buy any goods bearing Townshend duties.
• Rationale: North American colonies constitute about $\frac{1}{3}$ of all British exports. Boycott will pressure merchants who will then lobby Parliament for repeal.

Mass Mobilisation Tools (Borrowed from the Great Awakening)

• Revival-style preaching: shift the sermon from peril of the soul to peril of liberty; urgency, mission, moral duty.
• Committees of Correspondence transform into grass-roots enforcers:
  • Door-to-door persuasion, public shaming.
  • Vigilante tactics escalate if persuasion fails.

Example: The $5,000 Seville Row Suit

1. Colonist flaunts an imported $\$5,000$ English suit (≈ modern Armani).
2. Step-wise coercion: polite talk → ruin suit with cream → alleyway beating → full-scale tar-and-feathering.
   • Tar (warm, not boiling) + feathers + a noose = psychological terror, bodily pain, public spectacle.
   • Observers often capitulate immediately (“Hand me the pledge!”).
3. Ethical Reflection: When does righteous protest morph into mob rule?

Social Levelling Effects

• Like the Great Awakening, boycott campaigns erode class deference. Ordinary folk become less willing to obey social “betters” or elite prescriptions for public/private behavior.

Results: British Economic Pain & Partial Repeal (London, March $1770$)

• Boycott succeeds: British economy dips into recession; government collects negligible revenue (goods pile unsold, manufacturers throttle production).
• **Date to know: $03/05/1770$ — Parliament repeals EVERY Townshend duty *except the tax on tea* (kept as a "principle of sovereignty").
• News takes ≈ $6$ weeks to cross the Atlantic; colonists are initially unaware.

Colonial Celebration (Once News Arrives)

• When repeal becomes known, streets fill with "Huzzah!" parties.
• Effigies of Townshend are paraded; mock funeral staged: a coffin labeled "Townshend Duties $1767$–$1770$" is buried and then urinated upon — last, risk-free insult to a powerless foe.

The Boston Massacre (Same Date – Local Time $03/05/1770$)

• Contextual friction: Poorly paid British troops moonlight for jobs, angering Boston laborers; mutual resentment grows.
• Night sequence (≈ $21{:}00$):
  1. Lone sentry outside Customs House harassed by $5$–$6$ drunken townsmen (“Fire, ye bloody lobster-back!”).
  2. Sentry calls reinforcements; Captain Preston arrives with $7$ additional soldiers.
  3. Crowd swells to ≈ $200$ after someone mistakenly rings the church fire bell.
  4. Icy snowball (with rock) strikes a soldier; musket falls, discharges accidentally.
  5. Confused about orders (firing without command = execution; disobeying command also = execution), soldiers unleash a ragged volley.
  6. Result: several colonists dead/wounded.
• Immediate legal aftermath: Preston and soldiers arrested, charged with murder.

Paul Revere’s Engraving – Propaganda in Action

• Rapidly distributed woodcut depicts:
  • Soldiers in perfect firing line; Preston ordering "FIRE!" from the rear.
  • Daylight setting, gruesome gore, innocents & a random puppy.
• Trial (defense led by John Adams) shows:
  • No Preston order; first shot accidental; nighttime darkness.
  • Jury acquits; nevertheless, engraving cements public memory — deliberate distortion for political ends = propaganda.

Aftermath & “Lull” ($1770$–$1773$)

• Damage to British authority "already done."
• Once repeal news spreads, tensions ebb; minor skirmishes persist but both sides step back from the brink.
• Sets the stage for the Tea Act of $1773$ and renewed crisis.

Connections, Implications, Take-Aways

• Townshend program shows Britain learning the wrong lesson from the Stamp Act: shifting form, not substance.
• Earmarking revenues foreshadows today’s highway or gasoline taxes; also illustrates how control of the purse equals political influence.
• Mass mobilisation methods (revivalist rhetoric, vigilante spectacle) forge a shared American political identity while raising ethical questions about violence vs. liberty.
• Economic leverage (non-importation) demonstrates colonies’ importance: $\frac{1}{3}$ of British exports — a strategic fact repeatedly exploited through the 1770s.
• Propaganda’s power (Revere engraving) anticipates modern media battles: once images fix belief, later facts seldom erase them.

Key Dates & Numbers (Quick Reference)

• Townshend Duties enacted: $1767$
• Fund-raising goal: $\$100{,}000$ per year
• Massachusetts refusal vote: $92$–$0$ (symbol “$92$”)
• Parliament repeal (except tea): $03/05/1770$
• Soldiers vs. townsmen at Boston Massacre: $8$ soldiers vs. ~$200$ townspeople
• News transit time London → colonies: ≈ $6$ weeks
• Next major flash-point: Tea Act, $1773$