measures that turned most Massachusetts citizens into revolutionaries. The Massachusetts Gov-
ernment Act, passed a month after the Port Bill, dictated that people could no longer come to-
gether in their town meetings without permission from the Crown-appointed Governor, and
they could not discuss any items the Governor had not approved. The act further stipulated that
the people’s elected representatives would no longer determine the Council, which comprised
the upper house of the legislature, the Governor’s cabinet, and the administrative arm of provin-
cial government. Also, elected representatives no longer had the power to approve or remove
judges, juries, or justices of the peace — the local officials who could put people in jail or take
away their property.
After a century-and-a-half of local self-government, citizens of Massachusetts were suddenly
deprived of the power of their votes. The Massachusetts Government Act affected not only the
five percent of the populace who resided in Boston, but also the ninety-five percent who lived
in towns and villages clear across the colony. Common farmers feared that judges, no longer
responsible to the people, might be corrupted and foreclose on land for the slightest debts. The
new act eliminated the sovereignty of the people of Massachusetts and threatened their eco-
nomic solvency.
But the people would not allow it. They refused to be disenfranchised.
The Massachusetts Government Act was due to take effect on August 1, 1774. The first court
under the new provisions was scheduled to sit in remote Berkshire County, on the western edge
of the Province, but the court never met. When the Crown-appointed officials showed up for
work on August 16, they found themselves shut out of the Great Barrington courthouse by
1,500 committed patriots.
ii
Two weeks later, in Springfield, 3,000-4,000 patriots marched “with staves and musick” and
again shut down the court. “Amidst the Crowd in a sandy, sultry place, exposed to the sun,”
said one observer, the judges were forced to renounce “in the most express terms any commis-
sion which should be given out to them under the new arrangement.”
In Cambridge three days later, 4,000 patriots forced the Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts
to resign his seat on the Council. Responding to rumors that the British army had fired and
killed six patriots, an estimated 20,000-60,000 men from throughout the countryside headed
toward Boston to confront the Redcoats. In some towns, nearly every male of fighting age par-
ticipated in the “Powder Alarm,” as it was called.
Governor Thomas Gage, who was also Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in North
America, had vowed to make a stand in Worcester, where the court was scheduled to meet the
following week. After the Powder Alarm, however, Gage changed his mind and let the judges
fend for themselves. On September 6, 1774, 4,622 militiamen from 37 surrounding communi-
ties gathered in Worcester (a town with fewer than 300 citizens) to depose the Crown-appointed
officials. The insurgents lined both sides of Main Street as the officials, in a ritualistic display
of humiliation and submission, were forced to walk the gauntlet, hats in hand, reciting their re-
cantations thirty times each so all the people could hear.