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Today episode 32, The Battle of Golden Hill.

Boston seemed to be a hotbed for The Battle of Golden Hill.

Boston seemed to be a hotbed for colonial resistance in the years leading up to war. In and around Boston is where most of the major conflicts occurred

and where the shooting war eventually began.

But radical sentiment spread well beyond New England.

Now I'll continue to call those opposing British tax laws radicals because at the time they were probably

a small radical faction within the colonial population.

The term

the term people used at the time to describe themselves was usually wig.

Later the term Patriot comes into fashion to describe these people,

but that term does not seem to be used to describe them

until around 1773. I may occasionally slip

back and use Patriot, but I am trying to reserve that for the later years. So some colonies had more radicals than others, but there were

sons of Liberty chapters in all colonies. New York colony actually had a pretty

conservative government, but also had a large radical faction

primarily in New York City. New York also had to deal with a British troop presence.

Although troops had been in New York much longer, clashes between the local Sons of Liberty and the soldiers grew increasingly violent.

North American military commander Thomas Gage had moved several regiments of regulars to New York from Canada a few years earlier,

greatly increasing the number of soldiers in the colony.

Most New Yorkers did not want them around and certainly did not want to pay for their upkeep.

You may recall back in episode 25, I discussed New York's refusal in 1766 to authorize tax funds for the soldiers, leading

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