1 00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:06,280 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Today is July fourth, twenty twenty sixth, which 2 00:00:06,320 --> 00:00:09,400 Speaker 1: is the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration 3 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:13,440 Speaker 1: of Independence here in the US. So for Today's Saturday Classic, 4 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:16,120 Speaker 1: I wanted to pick something at least related to the 5 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:20,040 Speaker 1: Revolutionary War. It is our episode about Sarah Bradley Fulton, 6 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:23,400 Speaker 1: who is sometimes called the mother of the Boston Tea Party. 7 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:26,600 Speaker 1: This was recorded in the run up to that two 8 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:30,640 Speaker 1: hundred and fiftieth anniversary. This episode originally came out on 9 00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:38,159 Speaker 1: December thirteenth, twenty twenty three. Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You 10 00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:48,400 Speaker 1: Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and 11 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:51,560 Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm 12 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:56,000 Speaker 1: Holly Frye. The two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 13 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,520 Speaker 1: Boston Tea Party is right around the corner on December 14 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:03,240 Speaker 1: sixteenth this year, which is twenty twenty three. There have 15 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:08,200 Speaker 1: been various events related to this anniversary already, leading up 16 00:01:08,240 --> 00:01:11,680 Speaker 1: to a commemoration on the afternoon and evening of the sixteenth, 17 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:15,000 Speaker 1: and the plan for that is to culminate in a 18 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:19,120 Speaker 1: reenactment of dumping the British East India Company's tea into 19 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:23,839 Speaker 1: Boston Harbor. There is an episode on the Boston Tea 20 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: Party in the archive from way back in two thousand 21 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:28,720 Speaker 1: and eight, when the show was only about six months 22 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:32,400 Speaker 1: old and was just almost a completely different podcast from 23 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:37,399 Speaker 1: what it is now. And while I definitely don't encourage 24 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:40,560 Speaker 1: people to take the name stuff you missed in history 25 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:45,000 Speaker 1: class completely literally, you can't really describe the Boston Tea 26 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:49,120 Speaker 1: Party as lesser known, at least not in the United States. 27 00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:52,200 Speaker 1: At the same time, I wanted to do something connected 28 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:55,000 Speaker 1: to all of this, and eventually I landed on Sarah 29 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:59,400 Speaker 1: Bradley Fulton, who is sometimes called the mother of the 30 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:04,000 Speaker 1: Boston Tea Party. What we know about Sarah Bradley Fulton 31 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:10,000 Speaker 1: is kind of a series of anecdotes. They mostly trace 32 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:16,359 Speaker 1: back to the same sources, and those can't really be corroborated. 33 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:19,840 Speaker 1: We can't prove that they didn't happen, but we also 34 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,320 Speaker 1: can't prove that they did, so that is where we 35 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:27,080 Speaker 1: will start. The first written mention at least that we 36 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:30,600 Speaker 1: know of, connecting Sarah Bradley Fulton to the Boston Tea 37 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:34,720 Speaker 1: Party is from eighteen seventy three. It was written by 38 00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:38,040 Speaker 1: Eliza M. Gill for the Boston Tea Party Centennial, and 39 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:41,360 Speaker 1: it was printed in the Boston Evening Traveler a day later. 40 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:44,560 Speaker 1: Gill was born in eighteen fifty one and had been 41 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:46,880 Speaker 1: a school teacher before going to work for the city 42 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 1: of Medford, Massachusetts, and she was also active in local history. 43 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:54,600 Speaker 1: She described the content of her letter as something quote 44 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:58,639 Speaker 1: imparted to me by descendants still living of men who 45 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:02,320 Speaker 1: took part in the Boston Tea Party. So this letter 46 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:05,560 Speaker 1: includes some of the same basic points as our main 47 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:09,519 Speaker 1: source of information on Sarah Bradley Fulton that was written 48 00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:13,560 Speaker 1: by Helen T. Wilde about twenty five years later. There 49 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:17,639 Speaker 1: are a whole lot of like recently written articles about 50 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:21,560 Speaker 1: Sarah Bradley Fulton that are point for point this article. 51 00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:26,280 Speaker 1: Wilde was born in Medford in eighteen sixty. She also 52 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:29,239 Speaker 1: worked as a school teacher before eventually going to work 53 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 1: for the city, first as a clerk and then as 54 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:35,600 Speaker 1: a tax assessor. She and gil knew one another. Both 55 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:39,240 Speaker 1: of them held leadership roles in the Medford Historical Society, 56 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: and both of them were among the founders of Medford's 57 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:46,840 Speaker 1: chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. That chapter 58 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:51,000 Speaker 1: was named for Sarah Bradley Fulton, and when that chapter 59 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:56,240 Speaker 1: was first founded, Wild was its secretary and Gil was historian. 60 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:00,000 Speaker 1: Wild's piece on Fulton was written for the eighteen nineties 61 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:04,240 Speaker 1: inauguration of the Sarah Bradley Fulton chapter of the DAR, 62 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:07,400 Speaker 1: and it was later printed in the Medford Historical Record 63 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:12,360 Speaker 1: and in American Monthly Magazine, and just about everything that 64 00:04:12,480 --> 00:04:16,080 Speaker 1: comes up in articles about Sarah Bradley Fulton today traces 65 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:19,800 Speaker 1: back to this one piece. Gil had not named the 66 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:22,720 Speaker 1: descendants still living that she talked to in writing her 67 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:26,039 Speaker 1: letter to The Boston Evening Traveler, other than saying that 68 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:28,839 Speaker 1: it was one of the descendants of Sarah's husband, John, 69 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: and Wild doesn't name her sources in her piece either, 70 00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:37,680 Speaker 1: But Fulton's grandson, also named John Fulton, had been profiled 71 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:40,560 Speaker 1: by The Boston Globe the year before, and he told 72 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:44,839 Speaker 1: some similar stories about his grandmother. As a side note, 73 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:50,240 Speaker 1: this Boston Globe article includes a three paragraph quotation that 74 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:54,040 Speaker 1: as presented as though it is in Sarah Bradley Fulton's 75 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:59,200 Speaker 1: own voice and words. It's not totally clear whether this 76 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:02,240 Speaker 1: was someth things she actually said or wrote, or if 77 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:06,520 Speaker 1: this quotation was more like a literary device that passage 78 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:11,360 Speaker 1: is gonna come up again later. This article also describes 79 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:16,200 Speaker 1: John Fulton as walking quote arm in arm with a 80 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:21,120 Speaker 1: modern analyst. So could that modern analyst have been Wild 81 00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:25,159 Speaker 1: or Gill or someone else completely different who can say? 82 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 1: We don't really know. And just to be clear, that's 83 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:32,360 Speaker 1: not analysts like someone who analyzes things. It's analyst an 84 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:36,080 Speaker 1: n al like someone who is involved in the annals 85 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:41,520 Speaker 1: of history. Right, there are some discrepancies between what Eliza M. 86 00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:44,240 Speaker 1: Gil wrote and Helen T. Wild's piece a couple of 87 00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 1: decades later, Like according to Gill's letter, Sarah Bradley and 88 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:50,960 Speaker 1: John Fulton were not married yet when the Boston tea 89 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:55,640 Speaker 1: party happened, but according to Wild, they were. Wild is correct. 90 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:59,239 Speaker 1: We also don't really know the explanation for the discrepancies, 91 00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:02,200 Speaker 1: Like you see, information came from different people, or if 92 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:05,120 Speaker 1: Wild and Gil each talked to the same person and 93 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:08,920 Speaker 1: their recollection changed over the years, or if new documentation 94 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:14,080 Speaker 1: was unearthed, or some other possibility. Regardless, what we're talking 95 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:17,720 Speaker 1: about today was definitely part of local law in Medford 96 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: and Fulton family law by the mid to late nineteenth century, 97 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:25,680 Speaker 1: but there's no direct evidence to substantiate a lot of it, 98 00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:30,240 Speaker 1: and no corroborating accounts from the same time, like there 99 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:33,799 Speaker 1: were no friends of Sarah Bradley Fulton who wrote about 100 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:37,159 Speaker 1: her in their diary that we have unearthed so far 101 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:40,480 Speaker 1: to kind of back up these stories. Although some of 102 00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:45,800 Speaker 1: the Bradleys were documented as being actively involved with the Colonists' uprising, 103 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:49,240 Speaker 1: there are no written mentions of Sarah Bradley Fulton or 104 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:52,160 Speaker 1: her family members in connection to the Boston Tea Party 105 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:56,560 Speaker 1: until about one hundred years after the fact. Her grandson 106 00:06:56,720 --> 00:06:59,680 Speaker 1: John was in his thirties when she died and he 107 00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:03,200 Speaker 1: did know her, but that was also decades after the 108 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:07,080 Speaker 1: Boston Tea Party happened, and then the Boston Globe profile 109 00:07:07,279 --> 00:07:11,000 Speaker 1: and Wildsbeasts for the Dar those are written another sixty 110 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:14,640 Speaker 1: more years or so after her death. There are also 111 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:18,080 Speaker 1: some details that seem maybe a little questionable. We will 112 00:07:18,080 --> 00:07:21,720 Speaker 1: talk about them. We do know that Sarah Bradley Fulton 113 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:25,160 Speaker 1: was a real person. She was born Sarah Bradley on 114 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: December twenty fourth, seventeen forty in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Her birth 115 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:33,440 Speaker 1: was registered with the town of Dorchester, although her last 116 00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:37,760 Speaker 1: name in the registry is spelled Bradley bradl e Y 117 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:44,080 Speaker 1: instead of Brdlee. Allegedly, this spelling change was intentional because 118 00:07:44,080 --> 00:07:46,720 Speaker 1: there were so many Bradley's that it was getting hard 119 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:49,600 Speaker 1: to keep up with who was related to who. At 120 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:52,120 Speaker 1: the time, Dorchester was its own town, but it was 121 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:56,040 Speaker 1: annexed by the City of Boston in eighteen seventy. In 122 00:07:56,080 --> 00:08:00,000 Speaker 1: seventeen sixty two, so skipping ahead quite a bit, Sarah 123 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:03,920 Speaker 1: Bradley married John Fulton. Later they moved to Medford, where 124 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:06,200 Speaker 1: they lived for the rest of their lives. They had 125 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:08,960 Speaker 1: at least ten children together, with seven or eight of 126 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:12,720 Speaker 1: them surviving to adulthood. I found slightly different names and 127 00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:16,720 Speaker 1: counts among different sources. A few years after getting married, 128 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:20,720 Speaker 1: Sarah Bradley Fulton reportedly became active in the Daughters of Liberty. 129 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:24,440 Speaker 1: As with the more widely known Sons of Liberty, the 130 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:28,040 Speaker 1: origins of the Daughters of Liberty are pretty murky. It 131 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:31,000 Speaker 1: also seems like the name Daughters of Liberty was used 132 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:34,640 Speaker 1: for established organizations as well as more broadly for women 133 00:08:34,679 --> 00:08:37,400 Speaker 1: who were, in one way or another working toward the 134 00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:42,360 Speaker 1: same overall goals, that is, resisting British taxation and advocating 135 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:45,560 Speaker 1: for the rights and freedoms of Britain's colonies in North America. 136 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:49,080 Speaker 1: This is another case or we don't have specific documentation 137 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:52,400 Speaker 1: of what she was doing, but both the sons and 138 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:56,080 Speaker 1: daughters of Liberty started to coalesce in seventeen sixty five 139 00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:59,760 Speaker 1: in response to the Stamp Act. This is a tax 140 00:08:59,800 --> 00:09:04,200 Speaker 1: on legal documents and printed materials that Parliament passed in 141 00:09:04,280 --> 00:09:06,520 Speaker 1: the wake of the Seven Years War as a way 142 00:09:06,559 --> 00:09:10,199 Speaker 1: for Britain to bring in more revenue. All such documents 143 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:12,720 Speaker 1: had to be stamped as proof that the tax had 144 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:15,320 Speaker 1: been paid, and a lot of people in the colonies 145 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:19,480 Speaker 1: objected to this tax, both because of the tax itself 146 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:23,480 Speaker 1: and because the colonies did not have direct representation in 147 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:26,600 Speaker 1: the Parliament that had passed it, so, in other words, 148 00:09:27,280 --> 00:09:32,200 Speaker 1: no taxation without representation. In the wake of protests and 149 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:36,800 Speaker 1: unrest and various threats against tax collectors and other British officials, 150 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:41,120 Speaker 1: Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in seventeen sixty seven, while 151 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:44,280 Speaker 1: stressing that it did have the right to tax the colonies. 152 00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:48,720 Speaker 1: Soon after, Parliament passed another set of acts known as 153 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:51,640 Speaker 1: the Townsend Acts. One of the towns In Acts was 154 00:09:51,679 --> 00:09:57,480 Speaker 1: the Revenue Act, which established duties on various goods, including lead, glass, paper, paint, 155 00:09:57,600 --> 00:10:01,200 Speaker 1: and tea. Another of the acts, the Indemnity Act, was 156 00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:03,760 Speaker 1: passed a few days later and lowered the duty on 157 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:07,560 Speaker 1: the East India Company's tea imports into England and also 158 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:10,640 Speaker 1: refunded duties on tea that was then exported to the 159 00:10:10,679 --> 00:10:14,280 Speaker 1: American colonies or to Ireland. This was really an effort 160 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:17,679 Speaker 1: to try to save the East India Company from financial collapse. 161 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:21,720 Speaker 1: Smugglers were bringing a lot of Dutch East India Company 162 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:24,880 Speaker 1: tea into the colonies, which could be sold much cheaper 163 00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:28,040 Speaker 1: than British East India Company tea with all its duties 164 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:31,800 Speaker 1: in place. People were still not happy about these taxes though. 165 00:10:32,480 --> 00:10:35,080 Speaker 1: While the Sons of Liberty were known for public and 166 00:10:35,160 --> 00:10:40,720 Speaker 1: sometimes destructive protests like hanging officials in effigy and eventually 167 00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:43,679 Speaker 1: the destruction of the tea that later became known as 168 00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:47,120 Speaker 1: the Boston Tea Party, the Daughters of Liberty were not 169 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:51,640 Speaker 1: usually out in the streets demonstrating. Instead, they wrote letters 170 00:10:51,679 --> 00:10:55,680 Speaker 1: and gathered signatures. They organized boycotts of British goods, and 171 00:10:55,720 --> 00:10:59,199 Speaker 1: they sought out locally made alternatives. When the Sons of 172 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:04,320 Speaker 1: Liberty organized non importation associations in which merchants would agree 173 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:08,440 Speaker 1: not to import British goods. The Daughters of Liberty worked 174 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:12,559 Speaker 1: on ways to deal with all the resulting shortages. Linen 175 00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:15,560 Speaker 1: and cloth were among the goods that merchants refused to 176 00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:18,880 Speaker 1: import from Britain, so the Daughters of Liberty's part in 177 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:23,200 Speaker 1: this included a lot of spinning. Spinning bees were already 178 00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:25,840 Speaker 1: a thing, but especially in the Northeast, they became a 179 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:30,440 Speaker 1: widespread act of collective resistance among colonial women, as did 180 00:11:30,520 --> 00:11:34,480 Speaker 1: wearing homespun like Here's a description from the Boston Chronicle 181 00:11:34,520 --> 00:11:38,320 Speaker 1: in seventeen sixty six. Quote on the fourth instant eighteen 182 00:11:38,400 --> 00:11:42,080 Speaker 1: Daughters of Liberty, young ladies of good reputation assembled at 183 00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:44,760 Speaker 1: the house of doctor E. Fhram Bowen in this town, 184 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:48,319 Speaker 1: in consequence of an invitation of that gentleman who had 185 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:52,960 Speaker 1: discovered a laudable zeal for the introducing home manufacturers. There 186 00:11:53,040 --> 00:11:56,360 Speaker 1: they exhibited a fine example of industry by spinning from 187 00:11:56,400 --> 00:11:59,760 Speaker 1: sunrise until dark, and displayed a spirit for saving their 188 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:03,040 Speaker 1: sins thinking country rarely to be found among persons of 189 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:06,679 Speaker 1: more age and experience. In the wake of all of this, 190 00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:10,959 Speaker 1: the value of imports from Britain into the colonies dropped 191 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:15,520 Speaker 1: enormously between seventeen sixty seven and seventeen sixty eight, although 192 00:12:15,559 --> 00:12:19,080 Speaker 1: this drop was largely focused in the North. In terms 193 00:12:19,160 --> 00:12:21,959 Speaker 1: of British imports, things didn't really change all that much 194 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:24,680 Speaker 1: in the South at all, with the exception of the 195 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:28,480 Speaker 1: tax on tea. The Townshend Acts taxes were repealed in 196 00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:31,480 Speaker 1: seventeen seventy. We're going to come back to the Tea 197 00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:34,440 Speaker 1: and the Boston Tea Party after we have a sponsor break. 198 00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:47,960 Speaker 1: While Sarah Bradley Fulton and her husband John established their 199 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:51,360 Speaker 1: home in Medford, which is northwest of Boston on the 200 00:12:51,400 --> 00:12:56,320 Speaker 1: Mystic River, her brother Nathaniel Bradley continued to live in Boston. 201 00:12:56,800 --> 00:12:59,400 Speaker 1: He was a carpenter and a craftsman, and according to 202 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:03,679 Speaker 1: Helen's Ta D Wilde's account, friends and neighbors gathered at 203 00:13:03,679 --> 00:13:07,280 Speaker 1: his home at the corner of Hollis and Tremont Streets 204 00:13:07,320 --> 00:13:11,280 Speaker 1: for codfish suppers on Saturday nights. In her words, his 205 00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:15,480 Speaker 1: carpenter shop and kitchen became quote meeting places for Boston's 206 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:20,600 Speaker 1: most devoted patriots. And again, according to Wilde's account, the 207 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:23,199 Speaker 1: Bradley home in Boston was one of the places where 208 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:26,480 Speaker 1: men prepared for the Boston Tea Party, although that name 209 00:13:26,559 --> 00:13:30,440 Speaker 1: was not coined until decades after it happened. The Boston 210 00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:33,080 Speaker 1: Tea Party circled back to Britain's efforts to keep the 211 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:36,480 Speaker 1: British East India Company afloat in terms of both revenue 212 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:39,920 Speaker 1: and offloading enormous amounts of tea that were sitting in 213 00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:46,120 Speaker 1: London warehouses unsold. Enormous as in about seventeen million pounds 214 00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:50,320 Speaker 1: of unsold tea. Parliament passed the Tea Act on May tenth, 215 00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:53,960 Speaker 1: seventeen seventy three, which gave the British East India Company 216 00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:57,600 Speaker 1: the right to ship tea directly to the colonies, rather 217 00:13:57,679 --> 00:14:00,600 Speaker 1: than having to ship it to Britain first. The company 218 00:14:00,679 --> 00:14:03,480 Speaker 1: was also allowed to employ its own agents to sell 219 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:07,520 Speaker 1: tea rather than going through colonial merchants, since it was 220 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:09,880 Speaker 1: no longer having to ship tea to England and pay 221 00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:12,520 Speaker 1: a duty on it there. This meant the British East 222 00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:15,720 Speaker 1: India Company could start selling tea in the colonies for 223 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:19,080 Speaker 1: less than the price of smuggled Dutch tea. But to 224 00:14:19,160 --> 00:14:21,760 Speaker 1: a lot of people in the colonies, access to cheaper 225 00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:24,920 Speaker 1: tea was not what mattered. It was that tax they 226 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:28,880 Speaker 1: would be paying if they bought it. Although the Townshenacts 227 00:14:28,960 --> 00:14:32,000 Speaker 1: tax on tea had still been in place between seventeen 228 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:35,280 Speaker 1: seventy and seventeen seventy three, and there were still a 229 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:37,920 Speaker 1: lot of people in the colonies who refused to drink 230 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:42,120 Speaker 1: tea during those years, the Tea Act really revived people's 231 00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:45,960 Speaker 1: anger and frustration over this issue. A lot of people 232 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:49,240 Speaker 1: in the colonies really doubled down on their boycott of tea, 233 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:54,440 Speaker 1: and the Daughters of Liberty promoted alternatives sometimes called Liberty Tea, 234 00:14:55,000 --> 00:15:00,120 Speaker 1: including mint, raspberry leaf, and various herbs and roots. Ship 235 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:03,600 Speaker 1: arriving in American ports were met by angry mobs and 236 00:15:03,720 --> 00:15:08,120 Speaker 1: forced to leave still laden with their tea. On November 237 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:11,200 Speaker 1: twenty eighth, seventeen seventy three, a ship called the Dartmouth 238 00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:15,120 Speaker 1: arrived in Boston. The Eleanor arrived on December second, and 239 00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:19,320 Speaker 1: the Beaver on December fifteenth. Each of these ships carried 240 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:22,440 Speaker 1: more than one hundred chests of East India Company tea, 241 00:15:23,120 --> 00:15:27,520 Speaker 1: but the ships themselves were owned by local merchants. Newspapers 242 00:15:27,520 --> 00:15:30,040 Speaker 1: had started reporting on shipments of tea that were headed 243 00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:32,840 Speaker 1: for the colonies in October, so the Sons of Liberty 244 00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:35,600 Speaker 1: had been holding public meetings on the issue for weeks 245 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:39,480 Speaker 1: before these ships started arriving, at locations including the Liberty 246 00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:43,840 Speaker 1: Tree near Boston Common and Faniel Hall. These meetings grew 247 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:47,000 Speaker 1: after the Dartmouth arrived, with organizers moving to the Old 248 00:15:47,040 --> 00:15:51,720 Speaker 1: South Meetinghouse to accommodate the larger crowd. So people like 249 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:54,840 Speaker 1: the Sons of Liberty demanded that these ships be sent 250 00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:58,520 Speaker 1: back to England, but the Collector of Customs refused to 251 00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:01,920 Speaker 1: let them leave the harbor without the duties being paid 252 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:05,040 Speaker 1: on the tea. Of course, the people who owned these 253 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:07,520 Speaker 1: ships did not want to pay a duty on a 254 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:12,040 Speaker 1: product that could not be unloaded or sold. While officials 255 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:15,600 Speaker 1: in other port cities had allowed ships carrying tea to 256 00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:20,680 Speaker 1: return to England, Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor Thomas Hutchinson insisted 257 00:16:20,680 --> 00:16:23,520 Speaker 1: that the ships remain in the port until the tea 258 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:28,200 Speaker 1: was unloaded, and he stationed two gunships at the harbor 259 00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:32,120 Speaker 1: to prevent their departure. He was not interested in de 260 00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:37,160 Speaker 1: escalating the situation at all. The last of a long 261 00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:39,760 Speaker 1: series of public meetings was held at the Old South 262 00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:44,480 Speaker 1: Meetinghouse on December sixteenth, seventeen seventy three. That day, the 263 00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:46,800 Speaker 1: Governor was once again asked if the ships could be 264 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:50,720 Speaker 1: sent back to England, and he once again refused. There's 265 00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:53,480 Speaker 1: a little bit of fuzziness regarding the sequence of events 266 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:56,880 Speaker 1: from here. There's a popular story that Samuel Adams gave 267 00:16:56,920 --> 00:16:58,960 Speaker 1: a pre arranged signal for the men to go down 268 00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:02,080 Speaker 1: to the harbor to destroy the tea, by saying this 269 00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:05,480 Speaker 1: meeting can do nothing more to save the country. But 270 00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:08,119 Speaker 1: this is another thing that didn't appear in writing until 271 00:17:08,119 --> 00:17:12,440 Speaker 1: almost one hundred years after the fact. Regardless, shortly after 272 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,520 Speaker 1: getting this last update on the governor's refusal, a group 273 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:18,600 Speaker 1: of men boarded the dartmouth the Eleanor and the beaver 274 00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:21,160 Speaker 1: broke open the more than three hundred crates of tea 275 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:24,480 Speaker 1: they were carrying and dumped the contents into the harbor. 276 00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:28,440 Speaker 1: At least some of these men were dressed in costumes 277 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:32,520 Speaker 1: meant to resemble indigenous people. Here's an account from participant 278 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:35,480 Speaker 1: George Hughes, written in eighteen thirty four, so more than 279 00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:39,520 Speaker 1: sixty years after this event occurred. Quote. It was now 280 00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:42,760 Speaker 1: evening and I immediately dressed myself in the costume of 281 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:45,840 Speaker 1: an Indian equipped with a small hatchet, which I and 282 00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:50,280 Speaker 1: my associates denominated the tomahawk, with whitch and a club. 283 00:17:50,359 --> 00:17:53,119 Speaker 1: After having painted my face and hands with coal dust 284 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:56,600 Speaker 1: in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin's Wharf, 285 00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:59,800 Speaker 1: where the ships lay that contained the tea. When I 286 00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:03,280 Speaker 1: appeared in the street after being thus disguised, I fell 287 00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:06,120 Speaker 1: in with many who were dressed, equipped and painted as 288 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:09,200 Speaker 1: I was, and who fell in with me and marched 289 00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:13,600 Speaker 1: in order to the place of our destination. There's really 290 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:18,119 Speaker 1: no firsthand documentation about why, specifically, at least some of 291 00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:20,680 Speaker 1: the men were in these costumes, and it's also not 292 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:25,520 Speaker 1: clear what exactly those costumes entailed. Some participants' first hand 293 00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:29,920 Speaker 1: accounts used generic words like Indian or Indian dress, including 294 00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:33,040 Speaker 1: that of Joshua Wyeth, who wrote the first published account 295 00:18:33,119 --> 00:18:36,800 Speaker 1: from a participant more than fifty years later. One Boston 296 00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:39,080 Speaker 1: news report from a couple of days after the event 297 00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:43,520 Speaker 1: describes the men as dressed as quote mohawks or Indians, 298 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:48,359 Speaker 1: while another references Indians from Narragansett, and still other accounts 299 00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:50,359 Speaker 1: mentioned that at least some of the men were not 300 00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:54,639 Speaker 1: in indigenous dress at all. We also don't definitively know 301 00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:57,800 Speaker 1: why the Mohawk and the Narragansett were the nations that 302 00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:01,520 Speaker 1: were specifically named in various Newsts and other accounts. But 303 00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:05,800 Speaker 1: these are not the same indigenous nation. The Mohawk or 304 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:09,480 Speaker 1: the Kenyakinaka are one of the six nations of the Hadenashani. 305 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:13,560 Speaker 1: They're an Iroquoisan speaking people. Their ancestral homeland is in 306 00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:16,560 Speaker 1: what's now eastern New York State, as well as adjacent 307 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:20,720 Speaker 1: parts of Canada and Vermont. The Narragansett are an Algonquian 308 00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:24,320 Speaker 1: speaking people whose ancestral homeland is in what's now Rhode Island. 309 00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:27,000 Speaker 1: So these are two different nations from two different language 310 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:30,760 Speaker 1: groups whose homelands are hundreds of miles apart. Neither of 311 00:19:30,800 --> 00:19:34,560 Speaker 1: them are among the nations whose homelands are near what's 312 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:38,800 Speaker 1: now Boston. The reason for adopting this dress also is 313 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:43,159 Speaker 1: not clearly documented anywhere, but a lot of colonists, particularly 314 00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:45,960 Speaker 1: colonists who are aligned with groups like the Sons of Liberty, 315 00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:50,000 Speaker 1: already saw indigenous people as something of a symbol representing 316 00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:54,600 Speaker 1: ideas like autonomy, freedom, and unity. People had worn so 317 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:59,199 Speaker 1: called Indian dress and other protests against British policies. Prior 318 00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:03,240 Speaker 1: to the Boston Tea Party in New York, Broadsides signed 319 00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:06,919 Speaker 1: the Mohawks had been circulating warning people against assisting with 320 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:11,080 Speaker 1: the landing of ships carrying British tea. The destruction of 321 00:20:11,119 --> 00:20:14,800 Speaker 1: the tea was also a symbolic protest, and dressing as 322 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:18,800 Speaker 1: Native Americans or in clothing inspired by indigenous dress was 323 00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:22,520 Speaker 1: symbolic of the men's connection to America, not to Britain. 324 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:26,400 Speaker 1: So this may have been meant as a basic disguise 325 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:30,320 Speaker 1: or to try to deflect suspicion away from the colonists, 326 00:20:30,359 --> 00:20:35,359 Speaker 1: But Indigenous imagery already had these additional layers of meaning, 327 00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:40,359 Speaker 1: and there's obviously also some irony here. Colonists were appropriating 328 00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:44,800 Speaker 1: indigenous imagery as an emblem of ideals like freedom while 329 00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:48,800 Speaker 1: also waging war against indigenous nations and violating treaties and 330 00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:54,240 Speaker 1: generally viewing Indigenous peoples as savage and inferior. Also, the 331 00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:57,880 Speaker 1: idea that these men were specifically dressed as Mohawk rather 332 00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:01,680 Speaker 1: than more generically Indian or possibly Narragansett like that doesn't 333 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:06,320 Speaker 1: seem to have really solidified until decades later. Okay, So 334 00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:10,760 Speaker 1: to get back to Sarah Bradley Fulton. According to Wilde's account, 335 00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:13,760 Speaker 1: some of the men who participated in the destruction of 336 00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:17,719 Speaker 1: the tea met and prepared at her brother, Nathaniel Bradley's 337 00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:21,320 Speaker 1: carpenter shop. Fulton and her sister in law, who was 338 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:24,960 Speaker 1: just referred to as Missus Bradley in surviving accounts, were 339 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:28,320 Speaker 1: there to help. This is also one of the discrepancies 340 00:21:28,359 --> 00:21:32,320 Speaker 1: between wild and gil. Eliza m. Gill's letter says this 341 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:35,639 Speaker 1: happened at the home of Bradley's father, not her brother. 342 00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:41,959 Speaker 1: The letter also says that John Fulton and four Bradley brothers, Nathaniel, Josiah, David, 343 00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:46,600 Speaker 1: and Thomas, were all involved. That passage from the Boston 344 00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:49,800 Speaker 1: Globe that reads like a quote from her says that 345 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:53,880 Speaker 1: Sarah Bradley Fulton helped her brothers quote make a perfect disguise, 346 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:58,080 Speaker 1: and some sources describe Fulton as having been the one 347 00:21:58,119 --> 00:22:00,639 Speaker 1: to come up with the whole idea that the sons 348 00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:04,320 Speaker 1: of liberty should dress like indigenous men. Is really not 349 00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:07,199 Speaker 1: clear who first gave her the credit for doing that, 350 00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:11,000 Speaker 1: But as we just established, so called Indian dress had 351 00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:15,200 Speaker 1: already become part of the culture of protest among the colonists, 352 00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:19,280 Speaker 1: especially in the northeast, and doing this already had some 353 00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:22,240 Speaker 1: layers of symbolic meetings. So even if she was the 354 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:26,520 Speaker 1: person who said and also where this y'all should do this? Yeah, 355 00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:30,560 Speaker 1: like that was something people were already doing. The accounts 356 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:34,280 Speaker 1: we have of Sarah Bradley Fulton's involvement very a little bit. 357 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:37,480 Speaker 1: Either she stayed behind to keep the water hot so 358 00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:39,639 Speaker 1: the men could remove whatever they'd put on their faces 359 00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:42,719 Speaker 1: when they returned, or she went down to the harbor 360 00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:45,000 Speaker 1: to watch from a distance and then left before the 361 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:49,159 Speaker 1: men did to get everything ready. And there's some suggestion 362 00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:52,960 Speaker 1: that a British soldier or spy stopped by the Bradley 363 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:56,560 Speaker 1: holme at some point during the evening, either while Fulton 364 00:22:56,720 --> 00:22:59,280 Speaker 1: was there with her sister in law or after the 365 00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:02,480 Speaker 1: men had come back and remove their costumes. But this 366 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:05,879 Speaker 1: soldier or spy concluded that there was just some laundry 367 00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:09,719 Speaker 1: or other housework being done, and he moved along. Wild's 368 00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:13,159 Speaker 1: account describes it this way, quote Nathaniel Bradley's principles were 369 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:15,919 Speaker 1: well known, and a spy, hoping to find some proof 370 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:19,160 Speaker 1: against him, peered in at the kitchen window but saw 371 00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:22,399 Speaker 1: these two women moving about so quietly and naturally that 372 00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:28,119 Speaker 1: he passed on, little dreaming what was really in progress there? Uh, 373 00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:30,840 Speaker 1: this is one of the things that doesn't really make sense. 374 00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:34,399 Speaker 1: Though Gill's letter and the Boston Globe profile mentioned this 375 00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:37,159 Speaker 1: as well. All three of them seemed to make it 376 00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:40,119 Speaker 1: sound like this guy came and looked in the window 377 00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:44,200 Speaker 1: and left unnoticed. So how did anyone know they had 378 00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:46,680 Speaker 1: that he had been there. This is what the Internet would 379 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:50,560 Speaker 1: call a plot hole. Regardless of all that, toward the 380 00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,280 Speaker 1: end of the nineteenth century, in the Arow, when Wild 381 00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:56,880 Speaker 1: and gil were writing about Sarah Bradley Fulton, the Bradley 382 00:23:56,960 --> 00:23:59,800 Speaker 1: Home at the corner of Tremont and Hollis became known 383 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:03,560 Speaker 1: as the Tea Party House. There were even photo postcards 384 00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:05,960 Speaker 1: of it available for sale, which is what people had 385 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:09,080 Speaker 1: to content themselves with after the house was torn down 386 00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:12,719 Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety eight. We will talk about Sarah Bradley 387 00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:16,560 Speaker 1: Fulton's life after the Boston Tea Party after a sponsor break. 388 00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:29,520 Speaker 1: Tensions between Britain and its colonies and the Americas had 389 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:32,919 Speaker 1: been growing for years before the Boston Tea Party, which 390 00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:36,119 Speaker 1: again was not called that until much later, and those 391 00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:41,400 Speaker 1: tensions escalated really dramatically, and its aftermath tea protests continued 392 00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:45,879 Speaker 1: in Massachusetts and other colonies. In seventeen seventy four, Parliament 393 00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:48,400 Speaker 1: passed a set of laws that came to be known 394 00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:53,240 Speaker 1: as the Intolerable Acts as one of several putative measures. 395 00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:56,840 Speaker 1: The Revolutionary War began with the Battles of Lexington and 396 00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:01,600 Speaker 1: conquered in April of seventeen seventy five. According to Helen T. 397 00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:05,640 Speaker 1: Wilde's account of Sarah Bradley Fulton's life, she was actively 398 00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:08,960 Speaker 1: involved in the war. Hearing Paul Revere's ride to raise 399 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:12,160 Speaker 1: the alarm as he passed through Medford on April eighteenth, 400 00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:15,400 Speaker 1: he allegedly made a little pit stop for some Medford rum. 401 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:19,040 Speaker 1: On June seventeenth, the Medford militia fought at the Battle 402 00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:22,239 Speaker 1: of Bunker Hill, across the Charles River from Boston and 403 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:26,600 Speaker 1: down the Mystic River from Medford. Fulton organized local women 404 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:28,879 Speaker 1: to work as nurses in a field hospital that was 405 00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,720 Speaker 1: set up in an open area by Wade's tavern. In 406 00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:36,160 Speaker 1: Wilde's words, quote among them, the steady nerves of Sarah 407 00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:39,280 Speaker 1: Fulton made her a leader. One poor fellow had a 408 00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:42,640 Speaker 1: bullet in his cheek, and she removed it. She almost 409 00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:45,960 Speaker 1: forgot the circumstance until years after he came to thank 410 00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:49,879 Speaker 1: her for her service. A year later, Major John Brooks 411 00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:53,720 Speaker 1: of Medford needed a message delivered to General George Washington 412 00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:56,639 Speaker 1: at the front and asked Fulton's husband to do it. 413 00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:00,720 Speaker 1: She went herself instead, and according to a story passed 414 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:03,320 Speaker 1: down in her family as recorded by a great great 415 00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:07,440 Speaker 1: great great granddaughter, Fulton concealed the message in the hem 416 00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:11,040 Speaker 1: of her skirt, and then after the war Washington came 417 00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:14,119 Speaker 1: to thank her in person for delivering that message. Again. 418 00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:17,280 Speaker 1: In Wilde's words quote, it is said that, according to 419 00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:20,320 Speaker 1: the fashion of the day, John Fulton on this occasion 420 00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:24,680 Speaker 1: brewed a potation whose chief ingredient was the far famed 421 00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:28,639 Speaker 1: product of the town. The little silver mounted ladle was 422 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:31,560 Speaker 1: dipped in the steaming concoction, and the first glass for 423 00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:35,600 Speaker 1: Missus Fulton's new punch bowl was sipped by his excellency. 424 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,560 Speaker 1: This was the proudest day of Sarah Fulton's life. The 425 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,119 Speaker 1: chair in which he sat and the punch bowl and 426 00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:46,919 Speaker 1: ladele were always sacred and are still treasured by her descendants. 427 00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:51,000 Speaker 1: That far famed product of the town mentioned in Wilde's 428 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:53,639 Speaker 1: account was that rum that was allegedly enough of a 429 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:56,720 Speaker 1: draw to entice Paul Revere to stop for some while 430 00:26:56,760 --> 00:27:00,760 Speaker 1: warning people of an advancing army. Distilling rum was also 431 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:03,400 Speaker 1: a major part of the New England economy and one 432 00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:06,639 Speaker 1: of the ways it was interconnected with slavery. The sugar 433 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:08,720 Speaker 1: that was used to make the molasses that was turned 434 00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:12,160 Speaker 1: into rum in New England distilleries was grown and processed 435 00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:15,880 Speaker 1: at slave labor camps on islands in the Caribbean. There's 436 00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:18,760 Speaker 1: also a story about the Siege of Boston. A load 437 00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:22,080 Speaker 1: of firewood was expected to come through Medford, or maybe 438 00:27:22,119 --> 00:27:25,199 Speaker 1: was being harvested at one of Medford's woodlots, and it 439 00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:29,000 Speaker 1: was meant for Revolutionary troops in Cambridge. Knowing that this 440 00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:32,360 Speaker 1: wood would likely be confiscated by the British, Fulton sent 441 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:35,200 Speaker 1: her husband to buy it, hoping that the British soldiers 442 00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:39,080 Speaker 1: would respect it as his private property. This didn't work out, 443 00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,480 Speaker 1: and the soldiers confiscated it anyway. This is one of 444 00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:45,239 Speaker 1: the things I have some questions about, like how they 445 00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:49,119 Speaker 1: knew about this wood and why they thought that buying 446 00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:53,160 Speaker 1: it wouldn't leave it untouched, because you know, the British 447 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:56,800 Speaker 1: confiscating property from people was kind of a thing. In 448 00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:00,639 Speaker 1: Wild's words, quote when his wife heard the story, she 449 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:04,679 Speaker 1: flung on a shawl and went in pursuit. Overtaking the party, 450 00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:08,480 Speaker 1: She took the oxen by the horns and turned them around. 451 00:28:09,119 --> 00:28:12,399 Speaker 1: The men threatened to shoot her, but she shouted defiantly 452 00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:17,520 Speaker 1: as she started her team shoot away. Astonishment, admiration, and 453 00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:20,880 Speaker 1: amusement were too much for the regulars, and they unconditionally 454 00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:26,000 Speaker 1: surrendered as a delightful story, even though there's some question marks, Yeah, 455 00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:28,879 Speaker 1: for sure. At some point after the war, the Marquis 456 00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:32,159 Speaker 1: de Lafayette reportedly visited the Fulton home, and he was 457 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:34,840 Speaker 1: seated in the same chair and served from the same 458 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:39,280 Speaker 1: punch bowl as George Washington had been years before. In 459 00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:43,320 Speaker 1: Wilde's account, the chair, punch bowl, and ladle were always sacred. 460 00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:46,760 Speaker 1: The punch bowl was donated to Mount Vernon in Fulton's 461 00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:50,040 Speaker 1: memory in two thousand and six. Some accounts described this 462 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:53,000 Speaker 1: punch bowl as silver, but the one that was donated 463 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,600 Speaker 1: to Mount Vernon is porcelain. After the war, the Fultons 464 00:28:56,600 --> 00:28:59,120 Speaker 1: bought a house on the road that ran from Medford 465 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:03,800 Speaker 1: north to STONA John Fulton died on February ninth, seventeen ninety, 466 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:07,680 Speaker 1: when Sarah was forty nine. Decades later, on November ninth, 467 00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:10,880 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty five, Sarah Bradley Fulton died in her sleep 468 00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:13,520 Speaker 1: at the age of ninety five, and she was buried 469 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:17,440 Speaker 1: at Salem Street Cemetery in Medford. At the first town 470 00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:19,960 Speaker 1: meeting to be held after her death, the road she 471 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:22,920 Speaker 1: had lived on was renamed Fulton Street in her honor. 472 00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:25,600 Speaker 1: As we said at the top of the show, the 473 00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:28,520 Speaker 1: Medford Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was 474 00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:32,000 Speaker 1: named for Sarah Bradley Fulton when it was established. The 475 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:35,800 Speaker 1: DAR placed a marker at Fulton's burial site in nineteen hundred, 476 00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:37,960 Speaker 1: made from the stone that had served as the door 477 00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:42,880 Speaker 1: stop at her Medford home. It reads Sarah Bradley Fulton 478 00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:46,800 Speaker 1: seventeen forty to eighteen thirty five, Heroine of the Revolution. 479 00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:50,480 Speaker 1: Created by the Sarah Bradley Fulton Chapter of the DAR. 480 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:55,320 Speaker 1: Nineteen hundred, Poet and playwright Grace Stewett Austen wrote a 481 00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:59,360 Speaker 1: play called Sarah Bradley Fulton Patriot, a Colonial drama in 482 00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:04,600 Speaker 1: three acts, in nineteen nineteen. Austin was born in New Hampshire, 483 00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:07,720 Speaker 1: but at this time was living in Bloomington, Illinois, and 484 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,920 Speaker 1: she wrote this play under the auspices of the Letitia 485 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:15,280 Speaker 1: Green Stephenson chapter of the DAR. Letitia Green Stephenson was 486 00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:19,280 Speaker 1: the wife of Adelaide Stevenson, vice president under Grover Cleveland, 487 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:22,120 Speaker 1: and she was one of the founders of that Bloomington chapter. 488 00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,720 Speaker 1: To circle back on the authors of those two sources 489 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:29,040 Speaker 1: of information on Sarah Bradley Fulton that we've been talking about, 490 00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:32,440 Speaker 1: Eliza M. Gill lived in her family's home in Medford 491 00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:36,440 Speaker 1: for more than sixty years before eventually moving to Waltham, Massachusetts, 492 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,040 Speaker 1: toward the end of her life. She died there on 493 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:42,280 Speaker 1: February tenth, nineteen twenty three, at the age of seventy one. 494 00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:45,240 Speaker 1: In addition to her work with the DAR in the 495 00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:48,440 Speaker 1: Medford Historical Society, she was also a member of the 496 00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:52,760 Speaker 1: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, also of the Society 497 00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:56,880 Speaker 1: for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. Helen C. Wilde 498 00:30:56,880 --> 00:30:59,480 Speaker 1: died in nineteen forty eight at the age of eighty eight. 499 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:02,480 Speaker 1: In addition to her work that we've already talked about, 500 00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:05,600 Speaker 1: wild was part of the Medford Dar's efforts to purchase 501 00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:09,960 Speaker 1: and restore a property known as Royal House. To that end, 502 00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:14,840 Speaker 1: she helped establish the Royal House Association in nineteen oh six. Today, 503 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:17,880 Speaker 1: Royal House is a museum called the Royal House and 504 00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:20,720 Speaker 1: Slave Quarters, which we visited Holly and I back in 505 00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:24,280 Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. We talked more about this house and its 506 00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:29,200 Speaker 1: history in our episode Belinda Sutton's post enslavement petitions. We 507 00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:32,000 Speaker 1: haven't talked very much about slavery in today's episode, but 508 00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:36,240 Speaker 1: enslaved people in Massachusetts were advocating for their own liberation 509 00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:39,880 Speaker 1: before and during the Revolutionary War, and it was through 510 00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:44,160 Speaker 1: that advocacy that the Supreme Judicial Court effectively abolished slavery 511 00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:48,680 Speaker 1: in Massachusetts in seventeen eighty three. And during and after 512 00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:51,760 Speaker 1: the war. Belinda Sutton, who was enslaved at Royal House, 513 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,400 Speaker 1: petitioned to be paid for her years of labor while 514 00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:56,800 Speaker 1: she was enslaved by the Royals. We are going to 515 00:31:56,880 --> 00:32:06,600 Speaker 1: run our episode on this as our next Saturday Clime. Yeah. 516 00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,800 Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. If 517 00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:11,960 Speaker 1: you'd like to send us a note, our email addresses 518 00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:16,680 Speaker 1: History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com and you can subscribe 519 00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,840 Speaker 1: to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or 520 00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:21,920 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.