1775 - A Bad Year for Massachusetts

The Loyalist Counter-Insurgency, 1775: Rebel Nightmare, British Opportunity?

During the winter months of 1774-75, two serious threats to “patriot” insurgency appeared in southeastern Massachusetts. In the rural towns of Marshfield and Freetown, the militant activities of Loyalists, coupled with British armed support, suggested a promising strategy to disrupt colonial resistance from within. Could it have worked? The rebels apparently feared so . . .

The eruption of violence on the following April 19 put an end to any hopes General Gage may have had of Loyalist ascent in Massachusetts. But Professor Len Travers will argue in this presentation that, for the three tense months preceding, two Massachusetts communities offered the enticing possibility of an “Americanization” of the coming conflict.  

Len Travers holds the title of Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. He authored Celebrating the Fourth: Independence Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic (1997) and Hodges’ Scout: A Lost Patrol of the French and Indian War (2015). His research focuses on how violence—whether imagined, threatened, or actual—has shaped and continues to shape American societies, politics, and identities.