Professor Alan Taylor

It's not the wealthiest people who are showing up in this mob.

There are a lot of sailors, artisans, shipbuilders.

It is the working people of Boston who have been worked up by Sam Adams' publications against the Stamp Tax and against any colonist who has spoken out in favor of the Stamp Tax.

suddenly the newspapers have to address women and say, no, no, no, we were wrong about saying you don't have political opinions, and we value your political opinions, and we need you to produce more cloth.

And women start to then express themselves more openly, and some of them start to write in the newspapers to rally other women to this cause of supporting the boycott

Before the Seven Years' War, there were almost no British troops in North America.

So for British troops to be sent into an American seaport city, Boston, in large numbers to occupy the city and essentially to enforce the laws of parliament in the most militant, radical, resisting city in the colonies, it's a major escalation.