Alfred Young Hewes Sparknotes

The very first thing that I have to say about this book is that it was very dry and has many grammatical errors. Even with these errors it is a good book for people to read in pre-revolutionary class. It brings a new look at how the little people in the revolution played big parts, but where never given their dues. Alfred Young is a historian who takes a harder look at the life of an ordinary Boston man, George Robert twelves Hewes, before and after the revolution changes in America. The book looks at the developments that led up to the American Revolution through the life Hewes, who goes from a shoemaker to a rebel. Not only was Hewes a participant in the Boston Massacre, he was also involved in the event that later would be referred to as the Tea party. His involvements in these events paint a clearer picture of what can motivate someone to take up arms and fight for their freedom.

The beginning influential essay examines the Revolution through the experiences and recollections of Hewes who, in the 1830s, had two biographies written about him as Americans were trying to re-appropriate and reinterpret the era to reflect their own perspectives. Hewes never becomes rich but he was still known as a humble man. One of Hewes earliest memories, that Young mentions, is a meeting with John Hancock, one of the wealthiest men in Boston. Hewes became a shoemaker which was, in Young’s assessment, among the lowliest and least respected occupation. For Hewes, the American Revolution became about social equality, where a poor cobbler was as important as a wealthy merchant to the body politic. This is represented when Hewes recounts that even the wealth John Hancock was throwing crates into the water next to him. Young gives Hewes a partial justification in believing this by stating “American Revolution was not a plebian revolution” there was nevertheless “a powerful plebian current within it”