Enemies to their country : the Marblehead Addressers and consensus in the American Revolution / Nicholas W. Gentile.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gentile, Nicholas W., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hutchinson, Thomas, 1711-1780--Correspondence.

Hutchinson, Thomas.

Consensus (Social sciences)--Massachusetts--History--18th century.

Consensus (Social sciences).

Massachusetts--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.

Massachusetts.

United States--Politics and government--To 1775.

United States.

United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Causes.

Marblehead (Mass.)--History--18th century.

Marblehead (Mass.).

Hutchinson, Thomas, 1711-1780.

Politics and government.

War--Causes.

Massachusetts--Marblehead.

Genre:

History

Personal correspondence

Personal narratives

Personal narratives.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 175 pages ; 23 cm

Other Title:

Marblehead Addressers and consensus in the American Revolution

Place of Publication:

Amherst ; Boston : University of Massachusetts Press, [2025]

Summary:

"In 1774, a group of elite men in the town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, just outside Salem, wrote an address to the royal governor thanking him for his service to the colony, even as town residents began demanding independence from Great Britain. Town meeting records reveal how the town's patriot majority pressured the signers to withdraw their support for the governor and demanded public recantations and issued damning reports, even forcing some of the signers into exile. Enemies to Their Country tells the story of the year following the Address, chronicling the town's struggle to achieve consensus even as the war for American independence started. This microhistory of one vitally important town, the second largest in Massachusetts at the time, with a thriving local economy based on fishing and a robust community of religious and civically engaged citizens, complicates simplistic ideas of the American Revolution. Through compelling stories of neighboring individuals and families, many of which have not been told, it also provides an example of a politically polarized constituency struggling to find consensus at a time of great conflict."--Back cover

Contents:

The Address of Thirty-Three Marbleheaders to Governor Thomas Hutchinson

Resolutions from a Town Meeting about "Enemies to Their Country"

Preface and Acknowledgments

Prologue: Patriots, Loyalists, Neutrals, and the Wavering

Introduction: Codfish, Congregationalism, and Consensus

1. Revolutionary Marblehead

2. Consensus through Cooperation

3. The Address to Thomas Hutchinson

4. Consensus through Social Pressure and Moral Suasion

5. Shadow Governments and Political Reconstitution

6. Patriots Ascendant

7. The Salem Alarm

8. The Powder Keg Explodes

9. Consensus through Separation

10. The Exile of Benjamin Marston

11. Realignment with the Consensus

12. An Outsider's Inside View of the Addressers' Affair

Conclusion: Violent Labor.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781625348951

1625348959

9781625348968

1625348967

OCLC:

1541855134