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Cradle of Violence: How Boston's Waterfront Mobs Ignited the American Revolution

russell bourne

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They did the dirty work of the American Revolution

Their spontaneous uprisings and violent actions steered America toward resistance to the Acts of Parliament and finally toward revolution. They tarred and feathered the backsides of British customs officials, gutted the mansion of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson, armed themselves with marline spikes and cudgels to fight on the waterfront against soldiers of the British occupation, and hurled the contents of 350 chests of British East India Company tea into Boston Harbor under the very guns of the anchored British fleet.

Cradle of Violence introduces the maritime workers who ignited the American the fishermen desperate to escape impressment by Royal Navy press gangs, the frequently unemployed dockworkers, the wartime veterans and starving widows--all of whose mounting ""tumults"" led the way to rebellion. These were the hard-pressed but fiercely independent residents of Boston's North and South Ends who rallied around the Liberty Tree on Boston Common, who responded to Samuel Adams's cries against ""Tyranny,"" and whose headstrong actions helped embolden John Hancock to sign the Declaration of Independence. Without the maritime mobs' violent demonstrations against authority, the politicians would not have spurred on to utter their impassioned words; Great Britain would not have been provoked to send forth troops to quell the mob-induced rebellion; the War of Independence would not have happened.

One of the mobs' most telling demonstrations brought about the Boston Massacre. After it, John Adams attempted to calm the town by dismissing the waterfront characters who had been killed as ""a rabble of saucy boys, negroes and mulattoes, Irish teagues, and outlandish jack tars."" Cradle of Violence demonstrates that they were, more truly, America's first heroes.

Genres historyamerican revolutionamerican history

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1,2006

This edition

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover
Published: April 1, 2006 by Trade Paper Press
ISBN: 9780471675518
ASIN: 0471675512
Language: English

About the author

russell bourne

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Russell Bourne began his career as a writer-editor on LIFE Magazine in 1950. Career interrupted by the Korean War, he operated as a Special Agent in the US Army's Counter-Intelligence Corps in Berlin until 1953. He then returned to Time, Inc and served as Henry Luce's assistant at Time-Life Books and went on to run several publishing departments for American Heritage, National Geographic and Smithsonian. In the 1980s, he began creating books on his own and published about a dozen works, mostly on American History and Transportation, while also writing poetry. His poems have been published in reviews and journals across the country. He was a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society. For many years his habit has been to spend summers in Maine and winters in the Finger Lakes.

Community Reviews

Rating(3.5 / 5.0, 2 votes)

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★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

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This was informative, decently organized, and had a strong and interesting central thesis.

The style wasn't annoying but I did find it a little denser than I thought strictly necessary, a little oblique. It kept me from fully hooking in, but that's entirely personal.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

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I was hoping for more information regarding riots I’d heard about like the 1776 coffee riot (involving specifically Bostonian women), but unfortunately this book focused more on the well-known mobs: Stamp Act riots, Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party etc. However, I did appreciate the in-depth look at race and class and how the participation and contribution of the “lower” sorts: sailors, waterfront laborers, African-Americans, etc. It framed the organization of the city and the Revolution in a different light and allowed me to better understand Boston at this time. I would recommend this book to other people who enjoy Boston history at the time of the Revolution, but not to someone who knew little or nothing. The book glosses over some details about large events like the Battle of Lexington and Concord in favor of examining other events where working class people made more of a contribution, which is of course completely in keeping with the thesis of this book.

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