During the Boston massacre, six civilians were killed and six more were injured when British troops, garrisoned in Boston, opened fire on an unruly mob. Seven of the soldiers accused of murder were acquitted. Two were found guilty of manslaughter and branded as punishment.
What What What!?!?
When I learned about this as a kid in school I had to imagine the scenario as something akin to the OJ trial. Really, how the fuck do these guys get off!?! When I learned that John Adams, future president of the United States and all around proponent of and friend to the colonies was the defense attorney, I kind of pulled a Kyle’s mom.
Now if you’ve seen the mini-series or read the book John Adams, you’re probably saying “hold on a sec’ mister ari g. Ol’ Johnny had a plan! He wanted us to look civilized like the British so they would see that we were not savages!” And I might say, sure, whatever. That may have been his plan, but it’s not what led to the revolution and it certainly did not garner any respect from the British. It was a concerted public performance that led to the revolution that arose out of the fact that the harshest punishment meted out for the murder of civilians was branding that led to the revolution, but we’ll get to that in a sec. It’s true that had John Adams been a shitty lawyer we might not have had a revolution. We would have just had a bunch of mob violence and a strong British fist crushing us.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s a question of power*, and the colonies achieved power through performance. Here we go:
The mob was about brute strength. Power involves the ability of concerted action, i.e. getting people together to do your bidding. The mob formed spontaneously and was quelled by a body with more strength, i.e. soldiers with guns. John Adams simply revealed that when one social body starts some shit with another, the other can use its strength for self defense.
"did you see this verdict, guys!? we should totally revolt." - Sam Adams
Enter Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty. Sam Adams had been fomenting anti British consent and his Sons of Liberty, the ones who were busily tarring and feathering customs officers and creating an air of discord throughout Boston and the rest of the colonies, were growing more rebelious by the day. When the soldiers were branded as punishment and it was clear that in the British/Colonial courts that the mob would lose, Sam Adams realized that spontaneous moments of violence were not enough. There had to be a consensus. People had to show themselves as citizens of the colonies and not of the British Empire and in order to do so, they had to act in unison. Any action taken had to be done by a coordinated group and not by a bunch of individuals who find themselves a part of a mob.
So, one night after a town-hall meeting, upwards of 7,000 colonists dressed up in Indian garb and dumped about 45 tons of tea that were sitting on boats docked in Boston Harbor. Some people say that the dress up was simply to disguise themselves, but what was going on was really closer to what we might call a flash mob, an organized group that meets up to do one particular action and then disperses as if they were never there. Dressing up as Indians was a statement by the colonists saying that they were sick of paying taxes to pay for the losses the British accrued fighting the French and Indian War. The unison action and the inability of the British Government to prosecute any of those involved (once the crowd dispersed no one would admit to being in the crowd or knowing anyone else who was in it) revealed the total lack of power the British had over the colonists. They could use brute strength to try to crush the colonists, and they could levy more taxes to economically weaken the colonists, but the tea party proved that the colonists had all the power on the British portion of the American continent.
I love watching flash mobs on youtube, and there are a lot of them, but the effectivity of the flash mob in contemporary society has yet to be made explicit. Performative acts of protest have had some effects (the turtles** at the WTO riots are a great example, though there are many more out there), but the flash mob has not yet reached the point of political action. At least not since 1773.
*When I talk about power and strength in this post I’m kind of ripping off Hannah Arendt.
** The environmentalists dressed as turtles (http://kbcsweb.bellevuecollege.edu/downloads/Special_Reports/WTO_Teamsters_and_Turtles_FINAL.mp3) and walked very slowly across streets, blocking traffic and delaying the start of the WTO. Though other groups worked to the same ends, the turtles managed to avoid any serious police interference. They were allowed to block traffic because they presented themselves as a powerful, unified group.
Photo Credits: PBS; South Park Wiki; gaspee.org
As Arendt said herself, “Under conditions of tyranny, it is far easier to act than to think.”
Nice one, Mr. G. A little bit of Zinn spirit always makes the avant garde just that much more fun. And when I talk about fun in this comment I’m more than kind of ripping off Virgil’s Aeneid. “If I cannot move heaven, I will raise hell,” indeed!
I want to be a tarred and feathered customs agent for Halloween this year. If anyone has any idea of how best to pull this off, please let me know.
Rachel, all I have to say is Hell Yes! and flava, I don’t think it’s ever too early to think of halloween costumes. i would say you should strive for authenticity, but i think you’re probably right in wanting to come up with other options. all else fails, i think i have a friend who is a roofer.
turtles are Nature’s suction cup I hear
STUPID! You’re so STU-PIIIIIIIIIIID!
[...] familiar strange. Once strange, we can then see new possibilities that arise from the present. Flash mobs do this by challenging the way we encounter public space. David Byrne does this in the film True [...]