Cradle of violence

by Russell Bourne

"Before John Adams and John Hancock, before the Sons of Liberty and the Committees of Correspondence, before Paul Revere's midnight ride, there were the rebellious maritime poor of Boston. Although these fishermen and merchant seamen had sweated and died to produce the vast wealth of America's preeminent port, they were cut off from its benefits. Impressed by the Royal Navy and slaughtered in Great Britain's imperial wars, they were the first to feel the pain and privation of the Stamp Act, the Townsend Acts, and other measures imposed by Parliament and King George III. And they were the first to take violent action against them." "Cradle of Violence tells the story of these sailors and their families and the rest of the oppressed maritime populace: the exploited apprentices and runaway slaves, the career smugglers and sometime pirates, the laid-off dockworkers and seasonal ropewalk spinners. Casually dismissed by political leaders, but with a salty heritage of crewing and fighting tog