Lindsey Graham

To whom?

That was a private letter.

Sir, failure to comply will lead to your total isolation from the community.

Your neighbors will be forbidden from speaking with you, even in church.

Is that what you want for your business, for your family?

You glance at the crowd of men filling your yard, anxiety tightening within you.

Deep down, you don't see how your community could so openly defy British authority, but you also don't want to be publicly shamed.

Well, yes, then.

I recant my statement.

I spoke out of turn.

It was a mistake.

We will require a signature.

One of the other men hands McLean a piece of paper.

He holds it up for you to see.

By signing this document, you pledge your full, informed support for the Continental Association.

Well, allow me to retrieve my pen and ink pot.

You take the document from him and rush to your study, past the bewildered stares of your wife and children.

You have no wish to incur the scrutiny of your neighbors, but privately you're stunned by the forceful methods of people who claim to be protesting tyranny.

By 1775, local committees maintained strict adherence to the boycott on British goods by spying on their neighbors, forcing them to sign loyalty oaths, and publishing the names of violators in newspapers.

The threat of being stigmatized and shunned was a powerful weapon of enforcement, with one Pennsylvania writer saying that being declared a public enemy was "...more dreadful to a free man than the gallows, the rake, or the stake."