The Commodification of Revolution

.  Wealthy merchants and members of “gentleman” society, including John Hancock and William Levingston, either supported the mobs or actively participated in the riots and mob action in the name of freedom and American liberty.[1]  Without the upper-classes invoking the lower-class to rise against the British, “the lower-class would have remained quiet, content to see the British government impose taxes which would have fallen most heavily upon the wealthier colonists.”[2]                 Mob violence, riots, public outrage, and a colonial boycott of British goods, forced Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act in February 1766[3] after less than twelve months.  Swift repeal of act by those in power could be seen as an indication of the mistake made on their own part, but the colonists took this to imply there was more behind it; it was too suspicious, there must be a hidden motive.[4]

[1] Miller, 130-131.

[2] Ibid., 131.

[3] Wood, 30.

[4] Bailyn, 99.

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