Johnny occasionally visits Cilla at the Lyte family mansion.
It bothers him that Lavinia’s attention has gone to Isannah’s head,
but it bothers him more to see Cilla treated like a common servant.
Mrs. Bessie, the Lyte’s cook and Cilla’s new best friend, is an
ardent Whig and a secret ally of Samuel Adams. She tells Johnny
that the Sons of Liberty plan to tar and feather the Lytes at their
country home, but she promises to protect Cilla and Isannah.
Analysis: Chapters VI–VII
As the rebel colonial forces begin to mobilize, resorting
to action instead of just words, Johnny grapples with the complex
morality of violent political protest. We see in these chapters
that mob violence, rational political theory, and exuberant optimism
all drive the Revolutionary fervor in colonial Boston. Whigs engage
in acts of random violence, such as tarring and feathering Tory
families, as well as in controlled acts of violence under the guise
of political protests like the Boston Tea Party. Though Johnny believes
in the political rhetoric behind such acts as the Boston Tea Party
and the harassment of Tories, he is not convinced that lofty ends
justify the violent means. Johnny does not actually examine the
issues of Whig violence in an explicit, intellectual way. He is
excited by the rational, idealistic underpinnings of rebellion,
but sickened by the fact that human beings must be harmed, or even
killed, to implement these rebellious ideas. Violence, however,
particularly mob violence, is the only tool available to the Whig
colonists, who wield no other power over England. Nearly a decade
of fruitless boycotts and diplomatic political agitation has taught
them that nonviolent means are not sufficient for their end.
In response to the Boston Tea Party, the British government passed
a series of legislations known in the colonies as the -Intolerable
Acts. The Intolerable Acts not only ordered that the port of Boston
be closed until all the tea was paid for, they also -dictated that
British officials accused of violence be tried in English rather than
American courts, that British troops could be quartered in any town
in Massachusetts, and that the Massachusetts charter be amended
to greatly reduce the colony’s right to self-government. We see
in Chapter VII that outrage over these acts spread far beyond Massachusetts,
uniting the thirteen colonies for the first time. Not only did the
other colonies provide Boston with food and other provisions, but
also the leaders of other colonies began to seriously discuss a
plan for a unified secession from Britain.
When the British forces occupy Boston, the idea of war
and enemies becomes confusing for Johnny, as it does for many colonists. Though
the colonial population resents the ruling British, there is little
resentment toward the actual British troops. In fact, many colonials
are friends with the British soldiers, as in the case of Johnny’s
friendship with Lieutenant Stranger or the romance between Madge
Lapham and Sergeant Gale. The soldiers are generally well behaved
and not intrusive. In addition, apart from the officers, they are
mostly poor boys who are no better represented in Parliament than
the colonists. There is still the sense that the soldiers and the
colonists belong to the same group, since the colonists thought
of themselves as British citizens, and even intense political conflict
could not shatter their cultural identity.
The tensions between the British soldiers and the colonists
serve to illustrate the origins of many of our country’s most fundamental laws.
The British harass Mr. Lorne and other printers of rebellious newspapers,
threatening to hang them if they do not cease their seditious propagandizing.
The desire of the colonists to voice protests gave rise to the constitutionally
protected rights to free speech and freedom of the press. The anger
over taxation without political representation led to a government
based on democratically elected lawmakers. The constitutionally
protected right to bear arms originated in the colonists’ mad scramble
to create a fighting force to oppose the well-equipped, better-prepared
British troops. In creating their ideal society from scratch, the
creators of the new government drew heavily on the recent grievances
they suffered under British rule, seeking to outlaw such grievances
for the future.
The character of Lydia, the black washerwoman, highlights
an often ignored and marginalized portion of the American Revolutionary
movement—black Americans. While it is ironic that many of the architects
of the American Revolution were also slave owners, it is equally
remarkable that free American blacks and slaves also participated
in the rebel cause despite their lower status in the colonies. The
British often ignored or discounted slaves as a threat, so people
such as Lydia were able to serve effectively as spies. The slaves’
position as servants within the inns and homes that the British
officers occupied made them ideal for this crucial work. Freed blacks
and slaves also served as Minute Men, and gave their lives for American
independence. Sadly, despite their aid in the war for American independence,
they would not win their own independence for nearly another century.
