“The Shoemaker and the Revolution” by Alfred Young
Much has been written over the years about the heroes of the American Revolution, men like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. However, little is known or discussed about the ordinary men and women who caused leaders like Washington and Jefferson to do what they did for America. In the article “The Shoemaker and the Revolution,” author Alfred Young talks about one ordinary citizen, shoemaker George Robert Twelves Hewes, and what he did, had to go through, and witness as a Boston citizen during the 1760s-1770s, and how it changed the type of man he was entirely.
The main thesis of this article is that an ordinary citizen and shoemaker, George Robert Hewes, gets to meet one of the Founding Fathers, John Hancock, on New Year’s Eve. This is a bigger deal then it at first seems because Hewes, you find out, was a huge part of the Patriot movement in Boston during the early stages of the American Revolution, and this article goes into depth about each of Hewes experiences during that time, starting from the very beginning. Over the course of the revolution, and with more and more British soldiers entering America, Hewes became more and more defiant against the crown, thus leading to his growing participation in the Patriot movement. Hewes was always a good, involved Bostonian, reporting and pressing charging against British soldiers he witnessed doing things they shouldn’t, such as British Captain Thomas Preston not paying for his shoes, or British Private Kilroy stealing from a woman. Hewes then began to take more initiative against the wrong doings of the British and is quoted in this article talking about his involvement in 3 huge events in the revolution: the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the tarring and feathering of British customs officer John Malcolm. Regarding the Boston Massacre, Hewes was a witness and right in the midst of the killings, so much so that one of the men that were killed...