You're listening to an airwave media podcast. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution.

Today episode 28, Letters from a Pennsylvania farmer.

So last week we looked at colonial concerns over the Townsend Acts

as the British government appointed government

government ministers increasingly hostile to colonial views.

The colonist still did not really have a principled rationale

on which to make a stand against the taxes.

They did not want to pay the taxes

and were concerned about them becoming more onerous.

Arguing though that they just didn't want to pay money did not seem particularly effective.

The Townsend X took effect in November 1767.

Colonial response initially seemed to be grudging acceptance,

or at least an inability to agree on how to protest the new acts. This week one man would find a way to rally

public opinion against the new laws. In December 1767 an anonymous letter appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette simply signed a farmer.

For the next 12 weeks, the farmer would write a new letter each week.

All 12 letters criticize various aspects of the Townsend Acts

and called upon the colonists to act.

Almost all the newspapers in North America

carried some or all of the letters during the winter and

spring of 1768. After publication completed, printers published the series as a pamphlet

distributed in both America and England.

Although published anonymously, everyone soon discovered that the author was John Dickinson.

...