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PLYMOUTH IN THE
REVOLUTION:
a community in conflict |
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In 1765, Parliament passed
the Stamp Act. The act taxed almost all sorts of paper, including
newspapers, legal documents such as marriage licenses and diplomas, even liquor licenses
and playing cards by requiring them to carry a purchased stamp. The tax was to
defray the expenses of the costly French and Indian War, a war waged on American soil for
the benefit of the colonies. Colonists across America were enraged because they had
no voice in the matter. After violent demonstrations and riots across the Colonies,
the act was canceled the next year.
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Records of the Town of
Plymouth
October 21, 1765 : |
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Judge Peter
Oliver of Plymouth County
Origin and Progress of the American Revolution: |
| Our youth,
the Flower of this country are many of them slain, our treasure exhausted in the service
of our mother country, our trade and all the numerous Branches of Business Dependent on it
Reduced & Almost Ruined By severe acts of Parliament & now we are threatened by a
Late Act of Parliament with being Loaded with internal taxes, without our consent |
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The
Design of raising Moneys, by Stamps in the Colonies, was in Order, that they should
Contribute to the lessening of that immense Debt which the British Nation had contracted
in the late War...
It was a right that was justifiable by the Principles of the English constitution. |
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Parliament imposed a new tax in 1767.
The Townsend Act taxed glass, lead, paper, paint and tea. Many Massachusetts
colonists protested the taxes by boycotting British goods. Groups of patriotic
women known as "Daughters of Liberty" made their own cloth as an alternative to
British silks. Instead of British tea, they drank herbal brews of sage and other
local plants. |
Silver teapot, made in London in
1754.
Owned by the Otis family of Barnstable |
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Records of the
Town of Plymouth
March 24, 1774 : |
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Resolves of the
Town of Marshfield
January 31, 1774 : |
| Whoever Continues to Sell or
shall for the future expose for Sale in this town any India tea is & ought to be
Considered as an Enemy to the rights of America |
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This town ever have and always will be
good and loyal subjects to our Sovereign Lord, King George the 3rd, and will observe, obey
and enforce all such good and wholesome laws as are... made by the Legislature |
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James Thacher of
Cape Cod & Plymouth
Military Journal : |
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Judge Peter
Oliver of Plymouth County
Origin and Progress of the American Revolution : |
| Tea drinking is almost
tantamount to an open avowal of Toryism. Those who are anxious to avoid the odious
epithet of enemies to their country, strictly prohibit the use of tea in their families |
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The
Ladies were so zealous for the Good of their Country, that they agreed to drink no Tea,
except the Stock they already had by them; or in Case of Sickness. Indeed, they were
cautious enough to lay in large Stocks before they promised; & they could be sick just
as suited their Convenience |
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Plymoutheans also consciously used the memory
of their ancestors, the Pilgrims, to justify political decisions.
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Samuel Baldwin, Pastor of
First Church, Hanover
in a sermon preached at Plymouth on 22 December 1775 : |
| Forced into an unnatural civil war, we
are followers of [the Pilgrims] in tribulation, in defense of the liberties, the mighty
blessing, descended from them to us as a natural inheritance |
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Plymoutheans were divided on the
proper response to British oppression. Click
HERE for the story of Plymouth's Old
Colony Club, destroyed by this division.
Even though public opinion in the town was not
unanimous, on 21 May 1776, Plymouth Town Meeting instructed its representatives
to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress to declare for independence :
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We your
Constituents do instruct ...
that you exert Every power in you Vested in Defense of the Rights, the Liberty's and
Property's of the American Colonies in General & of this Colony in Particular in
opposition to the impious effort of the proud, the Imperious & worse than Savage Court
of Great Britain, which Seems to be lost to Every Sense of Justice & determined to
deluge all America in Blood & carnage...
that you without Hesitation be ready to declare for Independence on Great Britain in whom
no Confidence Can be Placed Provided the Honourable the Continental Congress shall think
that measure necessary |
Plymouth Rock, long associated
with the Forefathers, came to symbolize the spirit of rebellion and separation.
During the Stamp Act controversy of 1765, the Pilgrims and their
struggle for religious freedom were linked to the colonists' struggle for political
liberties.
In 1774, a group of citizens led by Theophilus Cotton moved Plymouth Rock from the
waterfront to Town Square, where it could be seen by all as a symbol of liberty. As
the Rock was moved, it split. An observer compared the Rock breaking in two to the
growing division between the King and colonies.
In 1775, James Thacher saw Plymouth Rock and was moved by its significance :
This Rock, with its associations, would seem almost capable of imparting that
love of country, and that moral virtue, which our times to desperately require... Can we
set our feet on their rock without swearing, by the spirit of our fathers, to defend it
and our country? |
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The Royal Arms, a Lion and a
Unicorn flanking the seal of George III painted in oil on a wooden board, hung in
Plymouth's Court House. The arms were one of many reminders of the allegiance owed
to the crown. Official town and county documents began with the phrase "In His
Majesty's name."
By the early 1770s, many colonists were beginning to lose faith in King George and
Parliament. "His majesty's name had lost its power; it can have no charms with
the sons of liberty," said James Thacher, a young army surgeon, in 1776.
Others, however, remained loyal to the King. While they may have disagreed
with his actions, they felt that disloyalty was treason. After the outbreak of the
war, Plymouth Loyalist Gideon White, fearing for the safety of the Royal Arms,
"rescued" them from the rebels in Plymouth and took them to Nova Scotia.
His descendants returned the Arms to Plymouth in 1859. |
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