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My life is downright thematic at times - or maybe I just like making false connections. In any case, lately I have been: preparing for my Bahamas trip, watching the HBO John Adams miniseries, and reading The Many Headed Hydra by Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker, which me trying to keep on top of various colonial and maritime historical literature relevant to my field and general academic interests. So what has it got for me today but this:
Thoma Hutchinson and John Adams believed that the events [various riots leading up the the American Revolution, including the Boston Massacre of 1770] in New York and Boston were related, perhaps through common participants. Adams, who defended the British soldiers at trial, called the mob assembled on King Street on "the Fatal Fifth of march" nothing but a "Motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes and molattoes, irish teagues, and out landish Jack Tarrs." Their leader was Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave of African American and native American descent whose home was the small free black community of Providence in the Bahama Islands.
Hee! Lets not forget all the references to the Levellers that this book has, which also brings me much amusement as Julie used the name (and some similar principles) for a politically activist group in her Diablotin campaign setting.
However, I'll just also note that though the John Adams mini series pretty much opens with Adam's defense of the British soldiers for their actions in the massacre, they make him out to be a lot less racist than he was. The leader of the mob is not Crispus Attucks, but sme white guy whose name I forget. He is a rope maker rather than a sailor. And Adams gets the testimony he needs against the mob by having a black man testify against the general mob... Rather than by exulting that of course the Brits fire, because the half black/half native guy egging them on looked like some scary barbarian, and 'would be enough to terrify any person." And this is why I love/hate the HBO productions. Hee! There is other stuff in the JA series that makes me shake my head and/or roll my eyes ("Do you think this war is a punishment for the sin of slavery?" *big sad eyes*), but I do want to reach in to the screen and smack Thomas Jefferson for being a smug elitist prick, so they can't be getting it all wrong :V
Thoma Hutchinson and John Adams believed that the events [various riots leading up the the American Revolution, including the Boston Massacre of 1770] in New York and Boston were related, perhaps through common participants. Adams, who defended the British soldiers at trial, called the mob assembled on King Street on "the Fatal Fifth of march" nothing but a "Motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes and molattoes, irish teagues, and out landish Jack Tarrs." Their leader was Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave of African American and native American descent whose home was the small free black community of Providence in the Bahama Islands.
Hee! Lets not forget all the references to the Levellers that this book has, which also brings me much amusement as Julie used the name (and some similar principles) for a politically activist group in her Diablotin campaign setting.
However, I'll just also note that though the John Adams mini series pretty much opens with Adam's defense of the British soldiers for their actions in the massacre, they make him out to be a lot less racist than he was. The leader of the mob is not Crispus Attucks, but sme white guy whose name I forget. He is a rope maker rather than a sailor. And Adams gets the testimony he needs against the mob by having a black man testify against the general mob... Rather than by exulting that of course the Brits fire, because the half black/half native guy egging them on looked like some scary barbarian, and 'would be enough to terrify any person." And this is why I love/hate the HBO productions. Hee! There is other stuff in the JA series that makes me shake my head and/or roll my eyes ("Do you think this war is a punishment for the sin of slavery?" *big sad eyes*), but I do want to reach in to the screen and smack Thomas Jefferson for being a smug elitist prick, so they can't be getting it all wrong :V
amused
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