Title

The shoemaker and the tea party : memory and the American Revolution

Description

Award-winning historian Alfred F. Young unearths a rich story of the American Revolution with this account of George Robert Twelves Hewes, a Boston shoemaker who took part in such key events as the Boston Massacre and the Tea Party, and then served in the militia and as a seaman.Young pieces together this extraordinary tale and adds to it poignant reflections on the historical value of oral testimony and memory, and explores key questions about a time crucial in the shaping of national identity: What did it mean for the Tea Party to be claimed as an American symbol by both Boston Brahmins and the first trade unions? How do the memories of ordinary people pass into history? How should their stories be recognized by keepers of the past? Young's search leads us on an exciting journey and offers a provocative reading of American history.

Identifier

805445

807071404

Creator

Young, Alfred Fabian

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

1999

Program air date: November 21, 1999

Publisher

Beacon Press

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes on front endpapers contain biographical information on George Robert Twelves Hewes, his family background, his attempt to join the military, his marriage and children, his time as a fisherman in Newfoundland, his involvement with the Boston Massacre, his service from 1776 to 1781 in the militia and army, and his encounter with George Washington in Cambridge. Also listed are four historical events - the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, the Boston Massacre in 1779, the Boston Tea Party on Dec. 16, 1773, and the feathering of John Malcolm in 1774. It is noted that Hewes converted from Roman Catholicism to the Methodist faith, was known for his temperance and that a painting of him is displayed in the Old State House. It is pointed out that from 1770 to 1820 the Tea Party was not celebrated. Notes on back endpapers state that The Destruction of the Tea, as the Tea Party was originally called, took place in secrecy and that the names of the people involved was not made public until 1820, that history was controlled by a conservative elite, that Lafayette attended the 50th Anniversary celebrations. Four historical events - the opposition to the Stamp Act, the resistance to the Red Coats in 1770, the Old Pope's Day, the Tea Party - were combined and became July 4. Other notes mention numerous riots between 1828 and 1837 and list the increase of the population of Boston from 15,000 in the 1770s to 61,000 in 1830. -- Annotations by Brian Lamb in the margins and underlining of pertinent phrases throughout the book. -- p. 25: "Hewes reluctant to inflict pain on others." -- p. 51: "Hewes: a poor man, an honest citizen, a decent man." -- p. 90: "...how might it have affected the way the celebrants on the Fourth of July, his portrait painter, and his biographer represented him? Who were these people and what was their politics?"... "Whig Sons of Liberty attempted to control the memory of events." -- p. 107: "Tea lead to revolution." -- p. 154: "Radical heritage of the Revolution [was] submerged by the conservative dominant culture."

Subject

"Hewes, George R. T. (George Robert Twelves), 1742-1840."

"Boston Tea Party, 1773."

"Shoemakers--Massachusetts--Boston--Biography."

"Memory--Social aspects--United States."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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