Community partnerships for the massachusetts historical society. Tonight on the eve of the 250th anniversary of the boston massacre we will hear from professor serena zabin on her great new book, the boston massacre a Family History. As a recast snow, we very frequently pull together a small exhibition from the collection of highlights material that we have within our holding and eliminate the evenings discussions. Today we have an entire exhibition. Not only do they have a whole exhibition but it features our speaker this evening so if you didnt see it, shes on one of the video monitors upstairs and also very generous with her time. Has been planning the exhibition in setting for an interview. We certainly couldnt have gone on without her help so we overrated of gratitude. Serena zabin professor of Early American History and director of the program of american studies at college. She received her undergraduate from putin college and phd from rutgers university. Her new book letting people get settled in here. I guess they got started a little early. Deeply into boston 1770. Looking at how the soldiers had been stationed here since the fall of 1768 were not just seen as an Occupying Force but neighbors and customers and competitors or in other words as people and the narrative of increasing tensions caused by the soldiers that reached a boiling point on march 5 and simplify the history. Some traveled with boston residents and others went from the community which suggested model interactions were negative. Professor serena zabin did Extensive Research for her book. Is this a bubble but their is this better . We made close to 14 million pages. There is feedback here. Theres exhibitions on the programs both public and academic audiences and if you enjoy access to all these resources bu that are not yet a member i hope that you can search and support our work thank you and please join me in welcoming professor serena zabin. [applause] hello. Can people cheer me . The feedback is bad. Does that help . People can hear me. Okay. Thank you all for coming. Im used to sitting in this room where i spent many hours in theaters with about four other people and about eight tables, so this is a little shocking to me but it is such a pleasure people came out to hear something about my new book and about the boston massacre itself, so tonight i am going to talk a little bit and read a little bit so that in the end we can see why i call the boston massacre a Family History and i just want to say first in case any of you are worried, this isnt actually my Family History. [laughter] many of you are here i know because you are fans of history and many of us have come to love history because it is so full of stories like this. One of the most important things for storytelling is setting the scene. We are on the eve of the 250th anniversary of the boston massacre which happened not that far from here but if you look upstairs where we are right now. It was just about a square mile pretty much the peninsula. It was in the town of 16,000 people so not a big place and i want to start with a story that we have to unlearn in order to move forward. Its a very basic story the little bit that they actually feel sure that we know absolutely about what happened on the night of march 5, 1770 is this. In what passes for the center of boston in front of the old state house was a building that was being used as the office for the officials so there is a century standing there keeping guard and its in the years before Global Warming so there is snow on the ground. It has melted somewhat an had me frozen in the way that march used to be for those of you that remember. It isnt a pleasant evening and a great start as frequently happened when there are guys standing on the box and people walking by and he gets anxious and calls for backup which comes in the form of a handful of soldiers led by a single captain. They come and surround and more bostonians come. We dont really know how many and the captain asks them all to go home and they dont end when they all disperse at some point someone yells fire. Boston doesnt have streetlights at this point so there may be some candlelight coming out of windows or doorways but its quite dark and no one knows who yells. When the smoke clears what they find is one dying of his wounded several others injured and that is the moment the event event we to know as the boston massacre. Most people think of it for this picture support here is extraordinary tennis in this with me here on the one side they are being urged on by their captains and you can see lots of gore and there is one woman right in the center and her presence is a hint that shes surrounded by a group of respectable bostonians, not a mob of hooligans and of course we should ignore the dog a symbol of loyalty who is looking very lost here in the. The picture is clearly meant to be propaganda as the remaining proclaim and you can see from this era of it is obvious that it is meant to blame the army and administration for what happened and somehow if youve missed this in the picture, what they attempt to read this to you in the palm i will try to give it some justice. The poor i have walked smeared with gore while the faithless preston and the savage rancorous stretched their bloody hands like the fierce barbarians grinning over their prey it proven carnage and enjoy the day. But to mark the split from soldiers on the other end this picture of the two opposing sides americans and british always seems so obvious but every thought to question this part of the story but the truth of the matter is that civilians and soldiers were not on opposite sides of the street at all literally or figuratively and once they start telling us what we can see not just a little bit but a whole different story laying there in plain sight so to get to this whole different story into a different beginning i want to read a couple paragraphs from chapter one. June 7, 1765. A young irish woman made her way through the crowded streets to the harbor jean chambers approached a man in uniform he gave him her name. To her relief he let her pass the name of her husband also checked out the list but they didnt know the name of the couples child. After week off waiting they boarded the joined the 29 regiment three years later they set sail for america. It may seem strange to begin the account of the boston massacre with a woman in ireland but yet they are the threads the complexity of the forces that led to that dramatic moment the complete story of the bostonians at the hands of british troops is more than the political upheaval that followed the shooting also the personal connections between men and women in civilians and soldiers over time the women and children associate with 18th Century British Army have been forgotten so then to be reduced to anonymous troops to be considered as individuals. She was not and is not famous we dont know when she was born nor and what year she married could she read or write was Matthew Chambers her first love did she ever dream of a life beyond ireland but other parts of her life with the family she created had left traces the every day life of the ordinary woman would become part of the extraordinary moment. So when they are boarding the ship it is a peacetime deployment so if you are a little rusty on your 18th century history. I will give you that summary i have at least one former student and his one in the crowd. But two years earlier 1763 in north america it was fought primarily the french and the native allies they withdrew all their claims that whole area we know as canada and surprisingly did not seize their land is another British Crown had to figure how to manage the new empire and how to pay for the war. Among the policies the British Parliament pursued for several schemes to centralize the administration of the huge empire and to raise money on imported goods. And to put it mildly these were unpopular at least in north america. Actually everywhere. Against these duties on imports and also those who are supposed to collect them. So after the enormous protest the Massachusetts Governor decided that he needed some troops and they will keep order in boston so there is no police force yet that people are using troops so with the 18h Century British Army that you need to know so i want to start that the whole idea that there should even be an army in peacetime known as a Standing Army seemed wrong to most britons that the government shouldnt have an army but in fact it did have the peacetime force everybody was very clear with the civilian authority. That brings me to my second point and then to use the war office and this is as true in england through the colonies they try to evade import taxes so there is a lot of smuggling and now to try to catch them at it. That the Massachusetts Governor asked for troops in 1760 those in charge of distributing regiments around the empire from the quartermaster general complain that so many magistrates it asked for troops to support but was not running but was running out of regiments around england so to single out boston for this rebellious behavior there are things that might happen there but then the most important thing is that we often thing 18th century army is not that different from a contemporary army those that are going to war zones but in fact they are significantly different 18th century armies were institutions that traveled with women and children. And with Matthew Chambers hundreds of military families flooded into boston and then to have an impact on future events when he needed troops that the war office says thats fine. He creates other problems. So in the first two regiments fail in boston harbor, in the fall 1768, what we see our troops marching into the heart of boston. This is only what kind of what happened because when we come to boston harbor, the governor and the council so where these troops are going to live. So just to remind you what the h century map of boston harbor. They thought they should go to Castle Island that you can see what has a beautifully refurbished that massachusetts just raise a lot of money during the sevenyear war on thought they should be used but more than that 18th century if there are barracks troops have to go there for one go there first. And then should be put in public houses so only then those places are not available could they be put in private houses so they say they are barracks but this is not what the governor had in mind so as you may know that 3 miles that Little Channel to get into boston and that was not attractive. So this is boston 1769. And here is a contemporary map so what they wanted was to have troops in the middle of boston. So he isnt willing to put them out in the harbor that if you insist on putting them in homes in the harbor then we will show you all the officers. So they will rent space, not requisitioned space from bostonians so they rent as many empty warehouses they can find but thats not nearly enough. So then they ran to the extra houses they rent but also their rooms and basements and sheds and putting people everywhere so to take a look at the map those squares are warehouses you can see they are scattered and these are places where i feel completely positive and also you can see they are scattered throughout the entire town so bostonians become the landlords and land ladies for thousands of soldiers and families. You can imagine 2000 troops alone a minimum of 500 women and children move into a city of 16000 people that find it annoying. Those that are part of the sons of liberty see that as a military occupation. And then to become a garrison town and those i get really annoyed to be stop by soldiers and patrols and with those drunken officers. So those men are all fairly unhappy. But their complaints are not the only way we should think about the presence of troops in boston. For us to think about a very different place we should all take a minute for jane austens pride and prejudice. Think of the excitement having a regiment quartered for that family fathers might be anxious that they were delighted so imagine bennett imagining herself at the regimental encampment. To see all the glories of the camp with the young to complete the view with at least six officers at once. [laughter] of the napoleonic wars and then to caught the eye of boston young women with the arrival of troops was pretty exciting for local women the arrival of 2000 men with a steady and small income could not help but to attract the attention of young men when they outnumber for this moment but so many throwing the streets and the unmarried woman might be able to find a husband maybe even living in the family spare room who new doing laundry could be so much fun. [laughter] so some men found it impossible to control their female dependence so let me read to you one of my favorite stories because it shows you what is like to live in boston over the years so this is from the beginning of chapter five entitled love your neighbor. With a comrades were camping on the Boston Common he was spending his time with literature a few months after his arrival he announced the miser was available for purchase by subscription to announce that with the omnibus and to have enough subscriptions to publish the play the following february that was advertised in all the boston papers for the paper cover but sadly no copies were made for us to read today they may not have printed many but then like many cheaply printed pamphlets they used for the paper. They may have been particularly appealing to bostonians in the winter 1769 not many residents were eager to read private William Clark seem to have a flair for drama and had a shouting match then threatened to burn down the town of boston and then to have the revenge it took clark only a month in the melodramatic scene with boston locals and one june day 1769 and then to find clark in bed with a 20 yearold granddaughter. The son of liberty but then they declined to leave they had every right to sleep with mary after all she was his wife. And going nowhere without her. And maybe stretching the truth a bit. And maybe one that was dressed as a priest. [laughter] except they were not married until four months later. With the news of the affair injured their health. Two weeks after the marriage to have the showdown to shove a loaded pistol into his chest and the press charges and then april 1777 he found himself until he could pay the 40 schilling fine. It became political fodder for the sons of liberty and then to be reported in the newspaper sympathetic to the liberty party. Not only the sense of propriety but the press usually replaced many personal names but bostonians obviously knew something of the clerk story before it was printed and then in the evening post to annotate the article with a young woman in question an aground father that was so exciting to find with those accounts for those salacious details alone in the journal at the times use the story to point out the political implication urging the readers to reflect on the inevitable impact that the most tender connections must be broken and violated and also to blame for this and the authors of the public and private distress. The quartering of a Standing Army in times of peace. The author argued in the occupied boston public and private affairs are one and the same. Its unlikely that in terms of politics to spend his time in prison imagining his next literary work august 1770 took on another advertisement a true and faithful narrative of the author William Clark to say this is only the beginning of a very extensive title. [laughter] his love intrigues expose 18th century opera with cameo appearances by sons of liberty in British Army Officers and clearly met the 60 page narrative are supposed to be a tell all with the revenge to target his inlaws because unlike the journal and other newspapers the long title of this memoir to give a faithful account of courtship with the daughter at the north and boston in case they wondered who they were talking about. The memoir did not survive. You can only imagine but we can assume from the title to depart from the narrative in the sons of Liberty Journal but his fatherinlaw called out by name but where is not troubled by the politics of the empire instead the ageold story of disapproving parents. So clark is a blast but only one example of the many many families that were created when troops came to boston. So not only do we have creating children outside the bonds of marriage but recorded in the churches between civilians and soldiers many examples asking the local neighbors or others but godparents when they baptize their children but they are also creating families that only in boston but outside boston as well. And the most interesting or surprising piece of research has to do with desertion. Not to find evidence of these families that are created. But i find it shocking the rate at which men or entirely single men it was something three times the rate they desert from the british army for the seven years war the british army in north america lost about 3 percent of the forces every year to desertion so that 29th regiment they lost 10 percent of their men. So they were not just fleeing army life nor were they just drawn to the beauty of massachusetts charming as it is when the army try to come to take back deserters the new communities often turned out to protect them the Community Officers were obviously deeply frustrated by the rate of desertion so at one point the colonel in charge decided they would hire us by two right around and look for deserters. It was quite successful but not very good at getting them to come back because they put down roots so just one story. Just over the border in New Hampshire they found a deserter of a man who lived there all winter now married to the landlords daughter and starting a family. He was easily recognizable because he frequently wore his regimental jacket. [laughter] and continues to wear his jacket but never returned to the army he stayed in New Hampshire and made a home there. So to the desertion rates and clark it shows that soldiers and civilians are much more closely entwined than we realize before. So that takes us back to march so were there