That was the day that a crowd of Boston workers took British officers as hostage and held them for three days.
The workers were outraged that fellow Bostonians had been pressed into service on British Navy ship against their will.
Impressing ship crews was one of the ways the British manned their ships when there were not enough willing crew members.
The seaport at Boston had become so notorious for this kind of worker kidnapping that other merchant vessels had begun to avoid the area for fear their crews might be taken by the British Navy.
Bostonians became increasingly vocal against the practice, and worried about its impact on the local economy.
In 1745 the local Selectmen petitioned for “immediate relief” from impressment.
They wrote that it was a matter that “nearest effects the Libertys of the People and is a great insult upon this government.”
Two years later, Commodore Charles Knowles sailed into Boston on his way to the West Indies.
While he resupplied and refit his ships, some of his crewmembers escaped from service.
To make up his diminished crew, on November 16 Knowles ordered local workers to be rounded up as replacements.
Fed up Bostonians detained members of the British fleet including one of Knowles lieutenants.
The Massachusetts Governor William Shirley was able to persuade Knowles not to retaliate.
He helped facilitate an exchange the impressed Bostonians for the British hostages.
That January a young Samuel Adams founded the newspaper the Independent Advertiser, published to “defend the rights and liberties of mankind.”
The paper commended the mob for standing up to impressment.
Samuel Adams would go on to become a leader in the American Revolution.
May 4 - UE Beats Back HUAC in Dayton
May 3 - First Workers Compensation Law is Passed
May 2 - Our Thing is DRUM!
May 1 - Mayday Marchers Attacked in Cleveland
April 30 - Refinery Workers Walk Off the Job
April 29 - Allis-Chalmers and the Road to Taft-Hartley
April 28 - OSHA Goes Into Effect
April 27 - Disaster in West Virginia
April 26 - National Guard Ousts Montgomery Ward CEO
April 25 - UAW Mobilizes Against Taft-Hartley
April 24 - The California Spinach Riot
April 23 - Sitting Down for Dignity at Ford
April 22 - The Red Jacket Mine Explosion
April 21 - The Hated Taylor Law Takes Effect
April 20 - Deepwater Horizon Explosion Kills 11
April 19 -The Daughters of Mother Jones
April 18 - We Have Fed You All A thousand Years
April 17 - Fatal Explosion in West, Texas
April 16 - Jacob Coxey is Born
April 15 - Telephone Girls Cripple New England Bell
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