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Edited on Tue Jul-13-04 06:18 PM by The Sushi Bandit
In the 1760s, tarring and feathering, a punishment that dates back to the days of the Crusades, began to appear in New England seaports. It was most often applied by patriot mobs against British tax collectors and loyalists (loyal to Britain, that is). The mere threat of it insured that by November 1, 1765, the day the Stamp Act was to go into effect, there was not a single stamp commissioner left in the colonies to collect the new tax.
In the Spring of 1766 John Gilchrist, a Norfolk merchant and ship-owner, came to believe that Captain William Smith had reported his smuggling activities to British authorities. Gilchrist and several accomplices, including the mayor of Norfolk, captured Smith to apply punishment. They "dawbed my body and face all over with tar and afterwards threw feathers on me," Smith reported. Then they carted him "through every street in town" and tossed him into the sea.
By March, 1770, at least thirteen people had been tarred and feathered in the American colonies. In every case, the tar brush was applied to customs inspectors and informers, persons responsible for enforcing the Townsend duties. The campaign was very successful. Townsend duties revenues soon fell below the costs of enforcement, and the British government repealed the taxes on all imports but tea.
At that point tarring and feathering of these loathed individuals came to a virtual halt. But feathering had proved such an effective deterrent that patriot leaders quickly devised a new use for it. When Whig merchants created a series of nonimportation agreements, they used the threat of tar and feathers to enforce it. Boston mobs even took to feathering one's property, one crowd even taking the tar brush to an uncooperative merchant's horse.
After 1773, the punishment that had once been reserved for tax collectors was increasingly being applied to any suspected "enemy to the rights of America."
In August 1774 Virginians were urged to sign pledges of loyalty to the Continental Congress and to stop the export of tobacco until all taxes on imported goods were repealed. As an alternative to the pledges they were offered tar and feathers.
Even women took part in the patriotic ritual. In one instance, the members of a quilting bee seized a youth who dared to speak out against the Continental Congress. But the boy might have considered himself fortunate, for instead of tar and feathers he got molasses and "the downy tops of the flags that grew in the meadow."
Patriot organizers soon recognized the injustice of persecuting people who had not committed any crimes against the colonies and began to urge the American people to put aside the practice. Despite their misgivings, however, it continued throughout the Revolution and even afterwards.
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