As we enjoy our hamburgers and hotdogs this Fourth of July, remember to raise a cool glass of lemonade to the hard work of those distant relatives responsible for the birth of a nation, and our much cherished holiday. Ironically, it was the revolt of workers long ago that eventually led to our time off from work.
We’ve all heard of the Boston Massacre and subsequent Tea Party, but few know that the Colonial revolt started in part with American rope makers in Boston. In the late 1760’s, many of the 4,000 British soldiers serving the Crown in Boston (a town of 20,000 at the time) supplemented their wages by making rope and selling it. This unwelcome competition angered the colonial rope makers to the extent they were soon spoiling for a fight. Rope makers and soldiers began verbally confronting each other and soon these confrontations spread to include large gatherings of laborers from a variety of trades, angrily jeering and taunting the soldiers.
It could be said that a loyal employee prompted the subsequent Boston Massacre. Edward Gerrish, a young wigmaker’s apprentice, called out to a British officer on duty that he had not paid his master’s bill for a wig already delivered to the captain. A crowd of colonists gathered and began throwing rocks, daring them to go ahead and “Fire!” It was later determined in a trial by jury that the English Captain Thomas Preston yelled to his troops, “Don’t fire!” Unfortunately, they didn’t listen and instead fired into the crowd, resulting in the deaths of five people and putting into motion the birth of a new nation.
This event was captured forever in American memory through the hard work of Paul Revere, a silversmith and engraver who engraved and distributed an image of the event soon after it occurred. The work and actions of a few reverberates through history, impacting the lives of so many.
