The Shoemaker And The Revolution Summary

In the article The Shoemaker and the Revolution written by Alfred F. Young, the transition from ordinary citizen to an assertive patriot is clearly articulated. This article focuses on one man specifically, George Robert Twelve Hewes, an apprenticing shoemaker who was personally affected by events in the revolution. The changes in Hewe’s occurred because of the Boston Massacre of 1770, The Boston Tea Party of 1773, and the tarring and feathering of John Malcolm in 1774. The events before and during the Boston Massacre of 1770 affected Hewes personally. The first of which was when he was cheated in payment from Sergeant Mark Burk. He claimed to be picking up shoes for Captain Thomas Preston and in the process didn’t pay Hewes for the shoes.

After the hearing for the crime, Sergeant Burk was sentenced to three hundred and fifty lashes, much to Hewe’s horror. Then there was the murder of Christopher Seider on the 23 of February. Seider was in a group of schoolboys that was picketing a shop for selling british imports during the anti-import resolutions. Seider was shot by Ebenezer Richardson, who fired into the crowd without a true target. This happened 10 days before the Boston Massacre. The final event before the massacre was the fight between soldiers and colonists on Gray’s ropewalk on the night of Friday, March 3. The soldiers were beaten because they came to Gray’s ropewalk for work. The ropewalk workers didn’t want the soldiers to take their work from them because they thought that the british were already being payed too much and were being greedy by looking for more work. On the night of the massacre Hewes was attracted to the sounds of the townspeople. During the confrontation, Private Kilroy hit Hewe’s on the shoulder with the butt of his gun. When Captain Preston told the townspeople to disperse, Hewe’s told him that they had just as much right as the soldiers to be on the King’s highway. During the massacre five men were killed, four