What's she gonna do? Brother? When Jeff Townsend media runs wild on you America stories? Alright, alright, alright, welcome back to another story. It's going to be an America story. I'm Jeff Townsend leading this circus, joining me and the guys that do all the work because I just show up the professor Luke and the teachers assistant recording crazy ass Jackie Blue. Yeah. So Jack's got a new mic. He's feeling good about it. Yeah, he's got the fancy mic. Now you can't see it that it looks like an alien spaceship lighting up in the background. He's feeling really good about it RGB lighting. So yeah, so you guys have been cooking up some good stuff on the agenda for this episode. Yeah, excited. We just released the first episode, which was The History on the fourth of July, has some pretty good feedback, so I'm excited to dig into some more America stories. Here where we start. Now, let's set the stage here, all right, Well, we're going to talk about what led to the Revolutionary War, Like, you know, what made everyone decide we've had enough, we want our own country. And it's not a simple yeo answer. It's multiple things over many years building up, and the one of the first major things is the stamp backed of seventeen sixty five. Oh, you know, I'm excited about this. I just watched mel Gibson's The Patriot on the fourth of July, so I'm all revolutionary ward up. I don't really know the genesis behind that story, So will this will be some interests and stories? Maybe not is cold budded as the corporate killing his son mel Gibson's son, But it's going to be some juicy stuff. Yeah. Although mel Gibson's character and that he is based off a real revolutionary war hero we probably should talk about at some point named Francis Maria. It's not the name of the character in the show, but he is based around Marian. Isn't it like a mixture of like three or four characters. I think they threw a bunch of it into it. Yeah, but yeah, there's definitely a large four show as Francis Marion, who was known as the swamp Fox because he would hide out in the swamp and attack a gorilla style. So I think my challenge for you this episode is to get us so inspired that we will go get a tattoo on our chest that says freedom. Well, well, we can do the best. I was read first seeing somebody that we know with a freedom tattoo across their chest. Your listeners, you know who you are, your lips I know out there. Anyway, Luke, you'd kick us off. Yeah, yeah, we're gonna start off with the Stamp Act. As we were talking u in March of seventeen sixty five, the British government was deeply in debt because of the French and Indian War that they was fought, and they wanted to recoup the costs that they incurred protecting the colonists, and so they started taxing goods that were being imported from Britain. They also, at this point, we're kind of requiring that the colonists only bought from Britain. Everything was going to be taxed higher, and you were be forced to buy for one guy. Was this the point in time when we were kind of like starting to try to buy and sell her own stuff. Yeah, And so this did not go over well. Everybody was like, you know, how can you do this to us? But the British were like, hey, we are we paid blood to protect you. So it's ours. And so from that moment on, there were riots all day long for this and they actually did not collect a single scent. The British tax collectors could never get any of it, and so they were like any customs agents, y how when you get them in there. And Brinzera Franklin at the time was a statesman this still and he was trying to convince British to just back off on the stamp act, said, you know, it's not working with a different tactic. He wasn't trying to like totally stop it, but he was trying to counsel moderation. So Ben Ben Franklin was like that, like you just said, he was like that guy that would moderate between both sides. The British roy looked highly on him to try to be the guy to bridge that gap with the American settlers. We'll just sew up that there will come to be the American settlers. Yeah, he was definitely like a very good middleman. He was, you know, talking to both people. He was very good at talking to people and getting him to agree. But after a good solid run or trying to collect anything off the stampbacked at all, they finally were just like, all right, we're going to resend at We're not going to do the stamp back anymore. And this a precedent. The American public realized that through revolt and protest they could deny the British and get their way, and so the base seeds of what would later be kind of revolution start to get sewn there. And this is also when the Suns of Liberty form. They form a protest of the Stamp Act, and then they they keep around. The Suns of Liberty becomes a major driving force to push further and further towards revolution starting with this debacle. And that's another interesting thing about the revolutionary wars that it wasn't like one event that was like, okay, that's a you know, we're gonna revolt now. It was it was a bunch of things that was of course several years. Uh So like that the Stamp Act that was in sixty five, seventeen sixty five, and then two years after that before they essentially did another tax i. It was like a series of taxes. There's like one singular tax and a lot of it was to do with imports, uh you know, from Britain. So the next yeah, I mean it kind of like the next major event was another another taxing event. Um. They I think they called it Townshend. How do you how do you pronounce that Townshend's act not townsend? That would be amazing though, Yeah, you beat me to that. And again it was another it was another tax It was another tax on on on goods, be imported goods, um. And you know, this time around, it seemed like the way people were going to deal with that was just boycott British goods. You know, it seems like a pretty rational thing. You know, it's like, well, we don't want to pay these taxes, we don't or deal with this, so we're just not going to buy their stuff. And the British responded, but hey, bringing an army to Boston and yeah, they kind of, uh, We're like, yeah, we gotta deal with this this protest. And so they kind of like occupied Boston with the military and obviously that may people even more angry. So they were expecting for this not to go smoothly. It sounds like, yes, actually a lot of the events leading up to this um are kind of like major things that maybe you could deal with over the course of a lifetime. But these are kind of like tightly packed within several years that were just like one thing after another, And I think that that might be like, in my opinion, like a big deal as far as like the decision to eventually revolt. Was that all these sayings kept adding up in a very short, relatively short amount of time. Oh, of course, several years, but it wasn't like decades you think it would take forever for like, first of all, it's going to take them forever to come over here with the military. Second of all, it's going to take forever for the Okay, I say forever, but it's going to take a long time for all this news to spread of what's happening as well, Like today, a lot of these actions could lead up to like a shorter timeline of hysteria exactly. Yeah, And that was that was one thing that I think was because it was a smaller group of people, Like you know, the Coliades were considerably smaller than the US is now, and so even though it took takes longer to get information, you don't have to spread it to as many people. And that was why it was still spread relatively quickly. Because the Sun's liberty had two years at this point to ingrain themselves into society. They actually developed really uh intricate systems of distributing information and leaflets fast. They're their writers, which become a big deal later on to dispatch information of what the British are doing to everyone, and uh so, yeah, it was. It was interesting how quickly they could spread information in such a low tech environment overseas. Obviously they had to mail stuff over our ship and stuff like that, but they actually had agents in Britain writing leaflets defending the American cause and their their thought processes. Maybe they convinced the public to rally against the crown in Parliament to get them to rescind the law. Did the majority of the British people think like about all this like? Because it was happening they were. It always came down to whether or not it costs them money to care. If they were going to lose money bas off of a lack of sales, specifically from the British India Trading Company which sold tea, they would get really furious because your livelihood is you know, if you're an island nation like the Britain, is your livelihood's based entirely on trade with all your colonies, especially then, and so if the colony is no longer trading with you and it's hurting your business in some way, then you would be pretty furious. And so a lot of people were kind of mad. But they're also like, you know, well maybe we're a little bit too heavy handed. So there was a pretty good split amongst the British populace about what to do. They knew something had to be done, but they were kind of split on what to do. Like you said, a lot of frustrations about the cost of the war that has finished off as well, Yeah, because they're all still paying for this, you know, Grand War with France and you know, the Indians. But the army didn't leave and they were there for three more years, and that brings us to seventeen seventy and at this point nobody in the colonies, especially Boston, is having any of this. They hate the British Army, they hate the British customs agents. They don't want anyone to be there anymore. And then we have this thing going on that they can't do anything about. So they take it out on the rank and file British soldier. If you're a British soldier and you're walking around it, you know, by yourself, you're going to get accosted. And one day a British private was trying to He got into an argument with a wig maker. He wasn't satisfied with what he was doing his job, and that drew a crowd. The crowd then started ganging up on this This British price out numbered greatly. Yes, before all there were three hundred men there all yelling at him. And then the rest of his little squad it was a total of eight British soldiers showed up and they're like, you know, trying to get the crowd back, but you have three hundred people screaming at you, you know, calling you names. They start throwing vegetables at you. Anyone any point, someone's going to cry. They have like instructions not to like like, how was the British government telling them to handle it as far as forcefully like? Or are their instructions there? The British military is one of the most professional militaries in the world at this point. They do not actively, you know, attack civilians there. They exist mostly as a show of force. Right now in the colonies, they're not expecting to actually kill anyone. They're there to just be like, hey, we know we're here, we own this place. At this point, you know, they're not really told what they're supposed to do. They but they do know that they're supposed to defend their honor. But they also know that they can't just go killing people. So the sergeant he was, you know, he was keeping his men in line. All contemporary stories of how this went down, you know, it's obviously a little hard to say goes over two hours years ago, but you know from other eyewitness accounts that came forward at the time, he was doing his best to keep because they want them to comply. They want them to comply because oh yeah, if not, it's not going to benefit anybody. So they really do have to try to keep things in control here. And also if you do kill someone, then you're you're left with, well, now what we do, and now they're going to hate us even more. You know, they already don't like us. And unfortunately that something happened. No one knows for sure how it happened, but one of the British soldiers opened fire and then that caused everyone else to fire as well. Now, granted, like I said, these people were under durest already, and then all this happening, this huge mob that could easily kill them, all is you know, staring them down. Someone's gonna stamp, and that happened at the time. Three people died immediately, two more died later on. Now, one of the two that died later on died actually like seven years later, but he was paralyzed at this point, and so they still listed as a death caused by the what became to be known as the Boston massacre. But it's also kind of hard to say that he died because of it. But anyway, total of five people died, and the crowd is dispersed by the governor showing up with more soldiers and he helps disperse the crowd before these British are killed and they're arrested or put under locket and key. Anyway, they weren't technically arrested yet. It was kind of a major problem because they had to try these people. But all the witnesses start clamming up, Yeah, people who are making outlandish stories. The soldiers just started shooting at them willy nilly. This was kind of exacerbated by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams. These two at this time we're now major players in the Suns of Liberty. They had a lot of polly. Everyone knew they were them and John Hancock, those three together control of most of Boston in terms of patriots. Was like Paul Revere well known, I don't want to butcher like a black like what was Paul Revere? What were these guys in the community still Smith okay? Imna said Blacksmith okay? And John Hannecock was technically a smuggler, claimed he wasn't he was Uh. Samuel Adams uh kind of made made his way as a just known as a firebrand he was now and as a person we all this Riley and the people he was. He had he had means, he had money, but he wasn't like a professional like Paul Revere was, and he wasn't as rich as John hand some good beer too, especially artober schress Um. Actually kind of like kind of coming back to that the question earlier about you know, like what did the British people think? Um? I think it also may have also had some slight influence over the years of like tension as well, because there was also a little bit of you know almost like maybe the American colonies were ungrateful for what, you know, what was going on, what they had fought for, you know, as far as the brust were concerned, and that kind of like uh disconnect between the people was probably also like maybe like you know, the Americans probably felt that they were being like talked down to, or that they were um, not as respected as people who actually lived in Britain. Um. Yeah. A lot of movies tend to exaggerate a little bit to the point of like being overly foppish, but you know, there was probably some truth to that. And uh, you know some people like Samuel Adams, who you know, you could almost look at as like the test of what the average person was thinking because he was like very much a consider a man of the Irish people at the time. Um so yeah, he's kind of like, um yeah, we could say almost a hatred almost to some degree. Was you know kind of like that that relationship between America and Britain was like it's like a step parent. It was. It was very difficult. You know, people people were just not happy with the way. What did they think, like we're just gonna start a new Britain in these colonies, so that it's not like the thought like we're moved over there, we're expanding our empire. Yeah, so at the time it was was very much an empire with British They kind of were like if we it's it's all part of Britain, So like the colonies, that's British territory. That's it's not like, uh, they're just saying our country is this much bigger now. In fact, at this point they were called the the Empire with a sudden never sets because no matter where you were in the world, you you were in the British Empire basically. Yeah yeah, yeah, times on lies somewhere, and so they you know, they saw it all as part of their land and that guess they just really want more land. That's what it was all about then, right, I mean, yeah, it was their property according to them, and the American people just didn't want to have to be British citizens anywhere. After a while, yeah, because i mean you start to like go through this thing where generations, you have new generations coming in and you're slowly but surely continuing to lose those British values that the British are still upholding and they still believe in as time goes by. Obviously today it's it's there's not a whole lot of it at all. But then even I'm sure there was a turning point where things were starting to change, traditions were kind of getting forgot about, etc. Yeah, And because how long the the American colonies were you know it like, like we mentioned earlier, it takes a little long good across the sea too to America. Um, you had like a like a complete cultural divide, and you know, Americans were, well, the American colonies were dealing with things that the British weren't or were no longer dealing with, such as just taming the land itself and kind of, um, you know, the exploration phase of Britain was over as far as the country itself was concerned, and uh, the American colonies were still doing that, and so there is a much more room there, right well yeah, yeah, exactly. And so you had people who were born and raised in you know, in America, and they had no idea or i had no care for what was expected of a British civilian. They were living in the woods and they were living off trapping and things like that. Um, they didn't need they didn't need Britain for any of that. And so as far as like the value that the British provided, it wasn't really clear or even you know, existent at that point. And so we were, as far as the side of the world was concerned, we were already kind of like somewhat independent, and having these additional like force come in or attacks come in, it was just completely there was just no no value brought in for it. And uh so, yeah, it's pretty it's pretty easy to see why someone would be like why why why would I ever pay these taxes or import these goods. I don't need any of this. Yeah, that was all a big part of why it was so easy to convince people later on that we don't need them. And that's why after all these things started happening and the temperature was rising on the situation, this yeah was uh, you know, one of the major catalysts. Anyway, Paul Revere and Sam Adams both engaged in what could be charitably called propaganda at this point. They were telling everybody that the British were massinist citizens in mass At this point, Yeah, this was you know, not going to be a one off incident, and it was worse than what you guys had an agenda they did. They had an agenda, yeah, and they didn't really make any bones about it. They told everybody you know, that they wanted the British gone. Then it came down to the trial and nobody wanted to touch this, but they needed the defense. So there was only one person who agreed to it, and that was John Adams, Sammuel adams cousin and future president. He was very much a firm believer in the law above anything else. He was not one to like to shy away from something just because it was taboo in the eyes of firebrands like Sam Adams. And also he didn't he didn't fear his brother, his cousin, you know. He like he could deal with him getting angry. Some people couldn't deal with Sam Adam getting angry. He defended them, and he defended them well. He was able to track down a few people who were able to give a great witness testimony, including the surgeon of one of the people who died later not that night, but died the next day. And the surgeon talked to the guy who was dying and he said he grew up in Ireland. The guy who died, he grew up in Ireland, and things like this had happened there where British soldiers were attacked by mobs of people and people were shot. He said, these soldiers lasted so much longer than anyone he had ever seen last before they finally fired. He also said he saw the man who shot him when he did, and he said he could see his eyes and he knew there was no malice in it. He was just afraid, and that there was and there was no intent to murder him. And there he said that he forgave him as he was dying. And then the surgeon testified all this under oath, and then a few other people came forward. Said a lot of people were intimidated to not come forward though. They were basically told that if you, you know, testifying on behalf of the British soldiers, there's a good chance you got to be killed. Talk about it, start to interrupt, you talk about a crazy trial. I mean we always hear about how like the trial, the Jerry Pool's influence, we need to move the trial, like there's nowhere to go at this point for the British resides back in Britain to uh, yeah, this had to be an interesting scenario and it's it's crazy mister Adams is willing to step up and say I'm going to be the guy. What do people think about him for stepping up and doing this? What do they think of John? Yeah? They hated him. Yeah he was. He was like a social pariah for a good long while. Talk about a turnaround. Yeah, but you know they he also was an incredibly influential speaker, Like what people well, he talked, people listened, Noah, even more so than Sam Adams and stuff like that, because he was he was like a less let triss Ben Franklin, because if we were talking about a bit Franklin specifically, he's a bit of a Berbert syphilist syphilist at all. Yeah, yeah, people like John Adams. Originally they hated him after this for a little bit, but then they came around because he was just a likable guy and have a smart person. He talked about the trial anyway, I guess I shouldn't skip over the verdict of they were all found not guilty of murder, Julia were found guilty of manslaughter, and the punishment from manslaughter was they had a brandy Aaron with but I guess the letter M branded onto their hands so the people would know forever that these men had committed manslaughter. It's intense, it was. It was an intense let's not skip over a let's let's get over how crazy that is a second man. But anyway, what a crazy verdict to take place in America. Though he was a Lamblard trial. John Allams was saying that had these men been put to death because that's what they were wanted or they wanted to put to death, it would have been as bad as the Salem witch trials or the the executions of the Quakers that happened about fifty years before. There was a Quaker group that was all executed for their religion. And he said that, you know, we could not have this now if we want a real rule of law, these people were not guilty of murder. They should not have executed. It's kind of like a civil approach, like what are you really going to gain over the British by doing that? Yeah, like it would have helped nothing. It kind of makes you wonder what would have happened if it would have like tensions tension wise, if it would have went down another way, I could also probably spoke to the more you know, maybe the less violent people who also were on the fence about the you know, the whole thing, and they realized that you know, um, yeah, we don't want to charge these people from murder. We just don't want to be a part of that country anymore. You know that the talks didn't actually come up right around that time murder, least not immediately. But I think that that trial was a very important thing because if he was just like, you know, murder Mayhem, Yeah, I think it may have actually even maybe like some people would be like, you know, I don't know, I want to be a part of this movement. It was almost like a civil saying that kind of like bridge the gap between just yeah, just told Mayhem and being like you now, this is like a serious thing we need to put into it. Afterwards, John Adams also said that of all the things he ever did, this was he said this well after his presidency, said all the things he ever did in service of the country, defending those men was his greatest ass Yeah, it's like a great achievement. It's like the oj trial here. I mean like to talk about overcoming the odds and yeah, yeah, do not fit. Oh yeah, I mean he would really, yeah he would really Johnny cocktro and that yeah, mad Man, that trial up. He also said though this was a warning to having a standing army in cities. He said, every time you have a standing occupation force for a long period of time, stuff like this will happen. And he's not wrong, but you know that's the thing. You're here, are there? But yeah, that was the the Boston massacre. Uh. That that's when thing started to get to be untenable. That's when everyone was just everyone. It was. It was so significant that when we hear the term massacre, you think that's like gonna be such like a high death count almost, but it was beyond that. It was like a deeper meaning really exactly. It was the end of a relationship of these countries. Yeah, it was like the uh, the beginning of the boiling point. I guess you can call it that. It was the just the beginning of it, but it was. It was a big event. It's really interesting, Like we were trying saying, that's over like a decade now, betweens. Yeah, the beginning until seventeen seventy six. All these events one after another, a domino effect of tragedy and easily avoidable mistakes that changed the course of history permanently. Is this a spot where we sought for the week or what I mean? You guys tell me. I don't know. I think so, because it gets it gets significantly more intricate from here, there's yeah, there's quart a bit left and but yeah, I think this would be a good place to kind of I would see it's almost like the middle, the middle point, and I think that's a good place to kind of take a break, all right, Well, end on the note of someone's hands being brand Yeah, I can only think of two other spots to be worse than that. One's my forehead and the other ones. Yeah. So yeah, so let's change the subject. I wonder why we'll give someone's up too during this time. I guess that's all we got this week, though we can just leave that as a thought exactly. Yeah. The podcast, what's the email if you want to contact? This is an America stories Pot at gmail dot com. So I want to set it up as eleanor I have so many podcasts, hard to remember moment Jack's job needs to be to plug all this stuff here at the end, Yes, because I can't keep track. Yeah. Yeah, we also have a Twitter page. What is it? I don't even know what that is. Jack the social media guy are social media manager? Yeah? Manager? Yes, let's see here America's Stories Pod. He's a terrible social media manager. He hasn't even logged onto the social media yet at gmail dot com. That's the sum. Take a little chanst of that is America Stories Pod at gmail dot com. Of course, it's available wherever you listen to your podcast. We're just having a fun time doing They're sharing some stories with you. We hope you're enjoying it, because we certainly are. I will sign us off. I'm Jeff. They are Luke and Jack. We are sharing with you some amazing America stories and we will see you next week. We'll hear you next week. Whatever you want to say, we'll be there next week. Jack, All right, Yeah, keep being you, keep being great, and don't litter kind of face everybody like you do wrong. People gotta thankle the dangers inside the best of us. Take it once they wrong. Eisode to Someone must do the best weekend. Someone must do Jeff Townsend. Media sees you good night, and the question is do I stay here? Will you be back? Are you gonna come back? Will you be back? Are you coming back?
Thank you for listening to the Murder Sheet!
