Nearly 100 years before the American Revolution, the Boston Revolt paved the way for American self-rule
With the advent of America’s 250th anniversary, our country has cast well-deserved attention on the Founding Generation, the Declaration of Independence, and the heroes of the American Revolution. While our nation is certainly a product of the political genius of individuals like Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, a review of earlier colonial history reveals the true depth of the American experiment.
Long before independence was declared in 1776, the habits of liberty, representation, and even resistance to arbitrary authority had already taken root. Many Americans are familiar with the Boston Tea Party of 1773 or the “shot heard ‘round the world” in 1775, but violent conflict in the colonies actually began much earlier. Nearly a century before the revolutionary period, the Boston Revolt of 1689 proved that American colonists could successfully resist British rule, acting as a pilot light for the revolutionary fire to come.
English politics set the stage for the revolt. King James II—a Catholic monarch with a strong belief in the “divine right of kings”—controversially came to power in 1685. His efforts to centralize authority and override traditional English liberties alarmed many in the largely Protestant nation, ultimately leading to the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The transition of power to James II’s daughter Mary II and her husband, William III, reaffirmed the supremacy of Parliament and the rights of English subjects.
However, the consequences of James II’s rule were already felt across the Atlantic. In an effort to tighten control over the American colonies, he consolidated several into a single administrative unit known as the Dominion of New England. This move stripped the colonies of their charters, eliminated local assemblies, and placed control in the hands of a royally appointed governor and council. For colonists accustomed to a significant degree of self-government, this was a direct assault on their rights.
When news of the Glorious Revolution reached Boston in 1689, colonists acted. They rose up against the Dominion government in what could be described as a dry run for the American Revolution, arresting royal officials and reasserting their previous system of governance.
As declared at the time, their justification was rooted in the language of rights and law: “Accordingly we have been treated with multiplied Contradictions to [the] Magna Carta, the rights of which we laid claim unto.” They protested both the violation of individual liberties and the destruction of local self-government: “Our charter was with a most injurious Pretense (and scarce that) of Law, condemned before it was possible for us to appear … and without a fair leave to answer for ourselves … we were put under a President and Council without any liberty for an Assembly.”
This was not a call for independence—rather, it was a demand that the government respect established rights, follow lawful process, and remain accountable to its constituents.
Understanding episodes like the Boston Revolt is key to understanding the American experiment. New World colonists had pushed back against perceived violations of rights in favor of self-government even before John Locke’s influential Two Treatises on Government was published. While theories of the Enlightenment undoubtedly influenced the Founders, so too did colonists’ lived experiences. This combination provided the foundation for an American government grounded in liberty, restrained in power, and dedicated to self-rule.