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MODULE 2.7 Colonial Society and Culture 127

protest. These episodes of dissent and protest were widely scattered across time and
place. But as the ideas circulated by New Light clergy and Enlightenment thinkers con-
These sample pages are distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
verged with changing political relations, resistance to established authority became
more frequent and more collective.
Protests against colonial elites multiplied after the 1730s. A lack of access to rea-
sonably priced food, especially bread, inspired regular protests in the eighteenth cen-
Copyright (c) 2024 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
tury. During the 1730s, the price of bread — a staple in colonial diets — rose despite
falling wheat prices and a recession in seaport cities. Bread rioters attacked grain ware-
houses, bakeries, and shops, demanding more bread at lower prices. In New England,
Strictly for use with its products. NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION.
such uprisings were often led by women, who were responsible for putting bread on the
table. When grievances involved domestic or consumer issues, women felt they had the
right to make their voices heard, a right reinforced by New Light clergy’s insistence on
their moral obligations to society.
Public markets were another site where struggles over food led to collective protests.
In 1737, for instance, Boston officials decided to construct a public market and charge
fees to farmers who sold their goods there. Many Bostonians opposed the move because it
would lessen competition and raise prices for consumers, many farmers could not afford
the fee, and those that could would raise prices to offset the extra expense. After their
petitions were ignored by city officials, protesters demolished the market building and
stalls in the middle of the night. Local authorities could find no witnesses to the crime.
Access to land was also a critical issue in the colonies. Beginning in the 1740s, pro-
tests erupted on estates in New Jersey and along the Hudson River in New York over the
leasing policies of landlords as well as the amount of land controlled by speculators.
Here, again, when tenants and squatters petitioned colonial officials and received no
response, they took collective action. They formed associations, targeted specific land-
lords, and then burned barns, attacked livestock, and emptied houses and farm build-
ings of furniture and tools. Embracing Enlightenment ideas of “natural law,” they also
established regional committees to hear grievances and formed “popular” militia com-
panies and courts to dispense justice to uncooperative land owners.
In seaport cities, a frequent source of conflict was the impressment of colonial impressment
men who were seized and forcibly drafted into service in the Royal Navy. Impressment The forced enlistment of
grew increasingly common as King William’s War was followed by Queen Anne’s War, civilians into the army or
only to be followed by King George’s War. Impressment was viewed as a sign of the cor- navy. The impressment of
rupt practices of imperial authorities, and resistance to it energized diverse groups of residents of colonial seaports
into the British navy was a
colonists. Sailors, dockworkers, and men drinking at taverns along the shore feared major source of complaint in
being pressed into military service, while colonial officials worried about labor short- the eighteenth century.
ages. Those officials petitioned the British government to stop impressment, but work-
ingmen who faced the navy’s high mortality rates, bad food, rampant disease, and
harsh discipline also took action on their own behalf. Asserting their growing sense of
political liberty, they fought back against both colonial and British authorities.
In 1747 in Boston, a general impressment during King George’s War led to three
days of rioting. An observer noted that “Negros, servants, and hundreds of seamen
seized a naval lieutenant, assaulted a sheriff, and put his deputy in stocks, surrounded
the governor’s house, and stormed the Town House (city hall).” Such riots did not end
the system of impressment, but they showed that many colonists now refused to be
deprived of what they considered their natural rights.
The religious upheavals and economic uncertainties of the 1730s and 1740s led
colonists to challenge colonial and British officials more often than in earlier decades
and to justify their actions in evangelical or Enlightenment terms. Still, most protests
also accentuated class lines as small farmers, craftsmen, and the poor fought against
merchants, landowners, and local officials. However, the resistance to impressment
proved that colonists could mobilize across economic differences when British policies
affected diverse groups of colonial subjects.

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