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An End To Deference (Conspiracy Nation, 12/28/01) -- The era of the 1700s is historically characterised by "an end to deference." So notes author Ray Raphael in his book, "A People's History of the American Revolution." The end to deference was propelled by an increasing disparity in wealth. "Since the late 1600s, the richest 5 percent of the population had increased their share of the taxable assets from 30 percent to 49 percent, while the wealth owned by the poorest half of the population had decreased from 9 percent to a mere 5 percent." People were out of work. The *mobile vulgus* (etymological root for "the mob") wandered -- were mobile -- from town to town seeking employment. But these unemployed were shunned by the towns and were forced to keep moving. Popular anger was not so much against the British, *per se*, but against ostentatious wealth at a time when so many were struggling to survive. The American Revolution had already begun at least a year before the April 19, 1775 "shot heard 'round the world", in the form of various spontaneous insurrections. Savvy Whig politicians, seeing which way the wind was blowing, climbed onboard a revolution that had already begun. Circa 1770, in New York, wealthy theater-goers paid as much as 50 Pounds per annum to attend the performances. These theater patrons dressed in high fashion, arrived and departed in fancy carriages, and generally carried conspicuous consumption to an extreme. One contemporary writer declared it to be "highly improper that such Entertainments should be exhibited at this time of public distress, when great Numbers of poor people can scarcely find means of subsistence." A furious crowd broke down the theater doors during a performance, disrupting the show. The fashionable patrons fled in terror, leaving behind fancy caps, cloaks, and wigs in the confusion. The angry rioters then tore down the building. An end to deference. George Hewes, an impoverished shoemaker, out walking, came upon Tory customs informer John Malcolm. Malcolm had a large cane raised over the head of a small child and was threatening and cursing the boy. Fearing for the child, Hewes addressed Malcolm _as an equal_: "Mr. Malcolm, I hope you are not going to strike this boy with that stick." Such impertinence! Malcolm damned Hewes, called him a vagabond, "and said he would let him know he should not speak to a gentleman in the street." Mr. Malcolm then struck Hewes on the head with his cane, rendering him unconscious. In 1769, Ethan Allen was hired by Vermont settlers to assist them in a land dispute. New Hampshire governor Benning Wentworth had sold the land to the settlers, but New York speculators also held title, via the British Crown, they claimed, to those lands. Allen hired a lawyer, but a conflict of interest in the court worked against him: two of the judges, the attorney general, and the lawyer for the New York speculators all held New York deeds to the disputed area. Of course, Allen and his clients lost the case, but Allen warned the court afterward that "the gods of the hills are not the gods of the valley." He returned to the hills of Vermont and organized the Green Mountain Boys, "an unauthorized militia," which defied the New York courts. In Worcester County, Massachusetts, in September, 1774, the citizenry declared "that the Courts should not sit on any terms." When the Crown-appointed judges arrived at the Worcester County courthouse, they encountered a *posse comitatus* (power of the county) of more than 5,000, including 1,000 armed militiamen. They "made a lane, & compelled ye. Judges, Sheriff, & Gentlemen of the Bar, to pass & repass them, Cap in Hand, in the most ignominious Manner; & read their Disavowall of holding Courts..." Thus was permanently closed down the Court of Common Pleas and the authority of the British government in Worcester County, almost a year before the supposed start of the American Revolution. One researcher cited by Raphael has counted 150 "end of deference" riots between 1765 and 1769. Included in the causes of these popular insurrections is, among other things, rebellion against forced smallpox inoculations. "Why," asks Raphael, "is such a monumental event, this massive rising of the people, not included in the oft-told tale of our nation's beginnings? Such a serious lapse in reporting gives cause to wonder."*A People's History of the American Revolution* by Ray Raphael (ISBN: 1-56584-653-2) echoes the pioneering work of Howard Zinn's *A People's History of the United States*. Raphael's book is published by New Press, which intends to publish a series of People's Historys dealing with subjects such as World War II, the Civil War, and the Industrial Revolution.<!--EndFragment--> |
