By: David Gain

Happy Independence Day from the Paul Revere House! While we at the museum had a wonderful time marching in this year’s 4th of July parade and watching the evening’s fireworks, as historians the fun has just begun. In particular, we want to shed light on an often overlooked 250th anniversary in Boston’s history: the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 18, 1776.

Picture for a moment that it is 1776. The heat of summer has arrived as residents cope with the need to rebuild their homes, businesses, and lives. Back in March, over 11,000 British soldiers and Loyalists fled the town. As Patriot families slowly returned, they found Boston a shadow of itself. The town’s population dwindled from over 15,000 to 5,000 as many locals fled with the British, joined the Continental Army, or perished to war and disease.[1] After a year of violence, fear, and anxiety concerning the burgeoning war, a crowd gathered in front of the Town House. From the second-floor balcony, Colonel Thomas Crafts of the Massachusetts Train of Artillery appeared, delivering the opening lines of the newly adopted Declaration of Independence. Boston may have been in shambles, but it was free.

For colonists living in Boston, this moment marked both a community celebration and an acknowledgement from the Continental Congress that their voices were being heard. Aside from a formal statement of separation from Great Britian, the Declaration of Independence also included a list of grievances. These 27 grievances enumerated the reasons for the United States’ independence, many of which would have resonated with Bostonians. In the previous decade, Boston felt the tyrannical powers of Great Britain through the Stamp Act of 1765 to the Coercive Acts of 1774, enacted by King George to punish the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the Boston Tea Party.

In particular, Bostonians would have readily identified with the following grievances due to their connection to previous oppresive acts: “For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent” (Stamp Act 1764 & Tea Act 1773), “cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world” (Boston Port Act), “taking away our Charters… [and] suspending our own Legislatures” (Massachusetts Government Act), “depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury” (Act for the Impartial Administration of Justice), and “Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us” (Quartering Act[2]).

For the politically active Boston colonists—who had felt the effects of King George’s power directly—the Declaration was a sign that this new nation was truly built on the voices of the people. The feeling of comradery Bostonians felt from their fellow colonists was not incidental, but rather an intended goal of Massachusetts delegates in the Second Continental Congress. Not only had the Congress elected Boston merchant John Hancock as its president, but John Adams served as an editor for the Declaration of Independence. As Massachusetts delegates voted for independence, they were thinking of their neighbors in Boston who had unjustly suffered under the rule of King George.

While often referred to as the “Signing of the Declaration,” this paining actually depicts the June 28, 1776 moment when the writers and editors of the Declaration of Independence present their draft before Continental Congress. Image: Declaration of Independence (1817), John Trumbull, Yale University Art Gallery.

Hearing the Declaration read in Boston, Abigail Adams felt the event was a much-needed moment of communal celebration against British tyranny. Adams, who had remained in the outskirts of Boston during the Siege while her husband John served as a delegate in Philadelphia, had only just returned to the town on July 13. While updating her husband in a letter on July 21, Adams recounted how she joined with the “Multitude into Kings Street to hear the proclamation for independence read and proclaimed,” where colonists paid “great attention… to every word.” After the reading, “the Bells rang, the privateers [ships] fired, the forts and Batteries [fired], … and every face appeard joyfull.” By night, the festivities continued with colonists removing the king’s coat of arms from the Town House and publicly burning it: “Thus ends royall Authority in this State, and all the people shall say Amen.”[3]

Henry Alline Jr., a notary and clerk who worked on King Street, shared Adam’s sentiment, although his account provides more information on the festivities itself. In a letter to his family, Alline shared that the Massachusetts Train of Artillery brought two cannon into town, as well as a detachment of soldiers. He elaborated that after the reading “the field pieces were discharged a Number of times, & the Musquettry, & the Several batteries in Town & upon the Islands and at Nantaskett fired, the Bells rang.” Alline also reported that not only were the king’s coat of arms destroyed, but the lion and unicorn sculptures atop the building were “Committed to the flames to the Satisfaction of every body but Tories.”[4]

A postcard from the Paul Revere House’s collection with a scene from Charles Hoffbauer’s Massachusetts history murals.

While many of the Tories (also known as Loyalists) had abandoned Boston when British soldiers evacuated in March of 1776, there were still colonists in Boston who were hesitant to aid an all-out war effort against their King. Some individuals living in Boston feared a war would disrupt their livelihoods, especially merchants who relied on the trade of goods to British soldiers and Loyalist customers.

The same day the Declaration was read in town, the Boston Committee of Correspondence, Safety & Inspection met to consider action against people “who are justly suspected of the most Criminial disposition to aid and assist the Enemies of the United Colonies of America.” Two days later on July 20, the Committee gave the Massachusetts General Court thirteen names of individuals they believed were “aiding, abetting, and comforting” British forces and therefore were “enimical to the Rights & Priviliges of the United States of America.” [5] Of these thirteen, ten were Boston merchants.

While merchant John Rowe never outright declared alliance to either side, many of his colleagues were on the July 20th list of traitorous merchants. In early August, Rowe mentioned that the fate of seven of the accused was “rustication”: exile into the countryside ranging from two to four months.[6]

It is of no great surprise that John Rowe’s diary entry is short and to the point that July 18th evening: “This day Independency was Declard in Boston from the Balcony of the Council Chamber. I dind at home with Mrs Rowe & Spent the Evening at home with Jos Haskins Richd Greene, Major Chase & Mrs Rowe. a Great Confusion in Town.”[7] Richard Green, a fellow merchant, was one of the thirteen people found guilty of supporting the British on July 20. One can only imagine the conversation Rowe and Green had the night of July 18, as colonists burned the symbols of the Crown and publicly severed all ties with Great Britain.

Of course, we at the Revere House regularly find ourselves asking one question in the light of major historical events in Boston: where was Paul Revere? In the absence of a personal diary or large numbers of family letters, we are left to connect the dots. There are two likely roles for Revere during this event: eyewitness or participant.

As an eyewitness, Revere would have been in the crowd, listening to Crafts read the Declaration. It is unlikely that Revere would miss the festivities, given his heavy involvement with the early Revolutionary movement and the simple fact that enjoyed being part of a crowd. He was among the spectators when British soldiers tried to unlawfully search a North End residence’s house in 1766 and was a “principall actor” in a mob outside a Custom Commissioner’s dinner in 1773.[8] Following the Revolution, Revere played a key role in organizing two parades, one celebrating the ratification of the federal constitution in 1788 and another more mournful in 1800 following the death of George Washington.

Or, if Revere was not watching from the crowd on July 18, 1776, he may have been more directly involved as a member of the Massachusetts Train of Artillery. While Revere was originally commissioned as a Major in the Massachusetts Militia in April, he was quickly transferred to the Train of Artillery the following month. Stationed at Castle Island in Boston Harbor, Revere’s commanding officer during this time was Crafts. Both Adams and Alline referenced the firing of cannon at Castle Island and the neighboring batteries in honor of event, with Alline pointing specifically to the role the Train of Artillery played. With Crafts reading the Declaration from the Town House balcony, could Revere have overseen the firing of cannon in the harbor?

During the Revolutionary War, Revere served as the commander of Castle Island multiple times in Crafts’ absence. Among his responsibilities of overseeing the soldiers and maintaining artillery, he was tasked in July 1779 to ready the fort’s cannon to fire during the town’s July 4th anniversary celebrations. Even if Revere was not yet seasoned enough in 1776 to lead the Castle Island firing, having only served for two months, he may have been stationed at the North Battery near his North End home.

While we can only make educated guesses of Revere’s exact whereabouts on July 18, 1776, we know that he deeply believed in the patriotic cause. Writing to his cousin John in July 1782, Revere spoke from the heart: “[Americans] have enjoyed six years of independence, and no offer England can make will induce them to part with it. … You may depend that the Americans will never submit to be under the Brittons again.”[9] Regardless of where Revere was stationed on July 18, 1776, the sound of bells and cannon following the reading of the Declaration of Independence must have seemed a song of liberty. Even though the Revolutionary War was still in its opening stages, with many difficult times to come, the people of Boston would have felt, for at least one day, hope for true independence as they heard these historic words for the first time: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”

David Gain is the Curator at the Paul Revere House.

Notes:

[1] The exact numbers for Boston’s population leading up to and after the Siege of Boston are difficult to place. The last surviving census prior to the Revolutionary War in Boston was in 1765, which gave the population as 15,520 people. British reports from inside the town decreased from 6753 people in July 1775, to about 3500 in January 1776. The next available data shows Boston’s population had only grown to 10,000 by 1780. The numbers in this article are based off the 1765 census (15,500) and January 1776 non-soldier population (3,500). Even though around 1,100 Loyalists left with British soldiers in March 1776, Patriot families slowly began to return in the coming months. As such, 5,000 is a generous estimate of the total number of people living in Boston by July 1776. For more, see J.L. Bell’s analysis of Boston populations for 1765, 1775, and 1776.

[2] While the Quartering Act of 1774 was applied across the colonies, it was the final punitive measure of the Coercive Acts. Colonists in New York would also have felt targeted, as the colony suffered the threat of a charter repeal due to their neglect of the Quartering Act of 1765. For Bostonians, this grievance would have felt like a uniting force between the thirteen colonies.

[3] Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 21 – 22 July 1776 [electronic edition], Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17760721aa.

[4] Letter from Henry Alline to his brother and sister, 19 July 1776, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=1748.

[5] Not only was Revere elected a member of the Committee of Correspondence, Safety & Inspection at the Town Meeting on May 1, he was additionally appointed a member of the subcommittee whose purpose was to “Collect the Names of all Persons who have in any manner acted against or opposed the Rights and liberties of this Country…” on May 7. Boston Committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety minutes [transcript], City of Boston Archives, Box: SB – 011, Folder: 9 Identifier: 0300.015, https://archives.boston.gov/repositories/2/resources/101.

[6] John Rowe diaries 13, 5 August 1776, page 2209, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/digitized/fa0535/v13#127.

[7] John Rower diaries 13, 18 July 1776, page 2197, https://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/digitized/fa0535/v13#115.

[8] For more on Revere’s role in the observation and protection of his neighbor’s home, see George Gregerson Wolkins’s “Daniel Malcom and Writs of Assistance,” Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings 58 (1925), pp. 5–84, esp. 52; Revere’s title of “Principall Actor” comes from John Rowe diaries 10, 27 May 1773, page 1615, https://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/digitized/fa0535/v10#93.

[9] Paul Revere to John Revoire, 1 July 1782, as transcribed in E. H. Goss’s The Life of Colonel Paul Revere Vol. II, pp. 515–16.