Episode 045: Governing from Salem

American Revolution Podcast

Michael Troy

History, Education

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2018

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Governor Gage moves the colonial government to Salem and begins enforcing his policy of firmness, ignoring colonial protests and implementing the Coercive Acts. When the colonists refuse to obey, he attempts to use regulars to shut down a town meeting Salem. He arrests several leaders who held an illegal town meeting anyway. When the militia takes up arms to release those arrested, Gage realizes his soldiers could be overwhelmed by the shear numbers of armed militia. He is shocked by the colonists' refusal to back down in the face of armed regulars. Gage decides he cannot enforce the law unless London sends him a larger army. He retreats to Boston and begins writing letters calling for reinforcements. Meanwhile, patriots shut down the courts and force government officials to resign. Royal authority in Massachusetts is limited to the isolated town of Boston. Visit my site at https://blog.AmRevPodcast.com for more text, pictures, maps, and sources on this topic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an airwave media podcast. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution.
0:17.0	Today episode 45 governing from Salem. So two weeks ago we saw General Gage become Governor Gage with the task of compelling Massachusetts to comply with parliamentary authority.
0:31.0	After a brief detour to Virginia for an Indian war last week,
0:36.2	I'm returning to Massachusetts today to take a look at how Gage
0:40.1	attempts to enforce the new laws from London.
0:43.0	Following his instructions from Dartmouth,
0:46.0	Gage used the Navy to close Boston Harbor,
0:49.0	then move the government to Salem.
0:51.0	One of the main purposes of the Boston Port Act was to close Boston and make the people
0:57.1	there suffer.
0:58.9	Not only would there be no trade, removal of government to another part of the colony would complement that.
1:06.0	Boston was going to become a derelict shell of a town.
1:10.1	No one would want to remain there. London officials believe that the hotheads were in Boston.
1:16.0	The rest of the colony was still loyal to the king.
1:19.0	So destroying Boston economically would take care of their resistance and set an example for others.
1:26.6	The governor had been forcing the Assembly to meet in Cambridge, just across the river from
1:31.0	Boston.
1:32.0	This had been a sore point for years. Days after his arrival in the colony,
1:37.1	Gage had ordered the Assembly in Cambridge to adjourn and to begin a new session on June 7th in Salem.
1:45.0	Instead of just crossing over the river,
1:47.0	Bostonians would have to make a 20-mile journey to get to legislative sessions,
1:52.0	half a day's ride for most.
	...

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