Empire and its Discontent, 1763-1773 Conference

Conference December 1 to 2, 2023

Empire and its Discontent, 1763–1773

Our mission is to promote understanding of the history of Massachusetts and the nation by collecting and communicating materials and resources that foster historical knowledge.

LOCATION 1154 Boylston Street Boston, MA 02215 CONTACT Tel: 617.536.1608 Fax: 617.859.0074 SOCIAL AND WEB

@MHS1791 @MassachusettsHistoricalSociety www.masshist.org 2

Conference Overview

PAGE

5

Conference Panels Schedule

PAGE

6

About the MHS and the DLAR

PAGE

10

Cover images: Top row (left to right): A view of the country round Boston, taken from Beacon Hill: showing the lines, intrenchments, redoubts, &c. of the rebels, also the lines and redoubts of his Majesty’s troops by William Wood after Richard Williams, 1775. Bucks of America flag, circa 1785–1786. Second row: Tea leaves in glass bottle collected on the shore of Dorchester Neck the morning of 17 December 1773; Boston Massacre, March 5th 1770, by J.H. Bufford’s Lith., after W. Champney, Boston: Published by Henry Q. Smith: J.H. Bufford’s Lith., 1856. Third row: Battle of Bunker Hill: This Song was composed by the British after the engagement, broadside, [England?: s.n., 1775?]; St-p! St-p! St-p! No: Tuesday-Morning, December 17, 1765, Broadside

by Sons of Liberty, [Boston, 1765]. Bottom row: A Perspective View of the Blockad[e] of Boston Harbour, by Christian Remick, circa 1768.

CONTENTS EMPIRE AND ITS DISCONTENT

Welcome to “Empire and Its Discontent, 1763–1773,” presented by the The David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society (DLAR) and the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS).

3

Interests & Ideals That Motivated the Boston Tea Party

Part two of this year-long exhibition explores the call of liberty and the complex nature of American freedom and unfreedom.

Visit in Person Monday, and Wednesday through Friday, from 10:00 AM to 4:45 PM Tuesday from 10:00 AM to 7:45 PM Saturday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM 4

Empire and Its Discontent, 1763–1773 This conference is part of a series of interdisciplinary and international meetings designed to re-examine the origins, course and consequences of the American Revolution. The 2023 conference marks the 260th anniversary of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years’ War and the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. We intend to use this gathering to examine the British empire at its moment of great triumph, in 1763, with its enemies defeated and its control spreading from India to the Mississippi; and again at 1773, with its control beginning to slip away in North America as a radical mobilization began against imperial power

The conference sessions will take place in Boston at the MHS. Massachusetts Historical Society 1154 Boylston Street Boston, Massachusetts 02215 www.masshist.org/research/conferences

OVERVIEW EMPIRE AND ITS DISCONTENT

Conference December 1 to 2, 2023

5

Friday, December 1 3:30 – 4:45 pm Panel 1: Imperial Administration Location: MHS, Ellis Hall Presenters: •

Andrew Shankman, Rutgers University, “Neither Prologue nor Insurmountable Crisis: Federalism, Settler Colonialism, and Empire in the Stamp Act Crisis”

•

Tanner Ogle, Texas A&M University, “The ’45 in 75: Conspiracy, Imperial Policy, and the Rebellious Turn in the American Revolution”

•

Rachel Banke, University of Illinois, “Imperium in imperio: Competing Authority in Colonial Governance and Policy”

Moderator: Andrew O’Shaughnessy (University of Virginia)

5:00 – 6:00 pm Opening Reception Location: MHS, second floor

6:00 – 7:00 pm Keynote Panel: Could the Empire Be Saved?

Location: MHS, Ellis Hall Presenters: •

Serena Zabin, Carleton College

•

Patrick Griffin, Notre Dame

•

Christopher Brown, Columbia University

Moderator: Brendan McConville (Boston University)

6

9:00 - 9:15 am Welcome 9:15 - 10:30 am Panel 2: Global Margins and Peripheries Location: MHS, Ellis Hall Presenters: •

Nicole Maib, Brunel University London, “The American Revolution and Ireland in the Parliamentary Debates c 1764–1776”

•

Ross Nedervelt, Florida International University, “Border-sea Colonists’ Influence and Imperial Security Policy in the British Atlantic, 1763–1773”

•

Heather Freund, The Saxo Institute, “The Proclamation of 1763 in the Caribbean”

Moderator: Eliga Gould, University of New Hampshire

10:30 – 11:00 am Break

SCHEDULE EMPIRE AND ITS DISCONTENT

Saturday, December 2

7

11:00 am – 12:15 pm Panel 3: Fringes and Frontiers Location: MHS, Ellis Hall Presenters: •

Robert Parkinson, Binghamton University, “‘Bewilderment’ as a Way to Interpret Empire and its Discontents”

•

Helena Yoo Roth, City University of New York, “Rethinking the Royal Proclamation of 1763 across Time and Space”

•

Loren Michael Mortimer, Emory University, ““One Spoon & one Knife to eat all together:” Indigenous Ecologies and the Environmental Limits of Empire, 1759–1774”

Moderator: Kate Grandjean, Wellesley College

12:15 – 1:30 pm Lunch 1:30 – 2:45 pm Panel 4: Commerce, Culture, and its Discontent Location: MHS, Ellis Hall Presenters: •

Christian Koot, Towson University, “Remaking the Empire’s Built Environment: Architecture and Governance in the Aftermath of the Treaty of Paris, 1763–1770”

•

Jared Hardesty, Western Washington University, “Cultivating Revolution: Danish St. Croix, Anglophone Enslavers, and the Imperial Crisis”

•

Nancy Siegel, Towson University, “A Revolution Brewing: The Boston Tea Party as a Catalyst for Culinary Change”

Moderator: Zara Anishanslin, University of Delaware

8

Break 3:00 – 4:00 pm Wrap Up: Spilling the Tea with Location: MHS, Ellis Hall Presenters: •

Jack Rakove, Stanford University

•

Mary Beth Norton, Cornell University

Moderator: Patrick Spero, George Washington Presidential Library, Mt. Vernon

MHS PODCAST

the object of Join our hosts as they chat with staff and outside scholars and interact with artifacts from the MHS collection to gain a richer understanding of the history behind them.

SCHEDULE EMPIRE AND ITS DISCONTENT

2:45 – 3:00 pm

Listen now at www.masshist.org/podcast or wherever you regularly listen to podcasts.

9

A Center for Learning and Engagement Founded in 1791, the Massachusetts Historical Society is an invaluable resource for American history, life, and culture.

With millions of pages of manuscript letters, diaries, and other documents, as well as early newspapers, broadsides, artifacts, artwork, photographs, maps, and prints, the MHS offers a wide-ranging perspective on the United States from the earliest beginnings of the nation to the present day.

The Society hosts a variety of scholarly activities aimed at a cross-section of academics and members of the public. These include seminars, conferences, grad student receptions, and brown-bag lunch programs, as well as a robust fellowship program.

MHS library hours: • Monday, and Wednesday through Friday, from 9:30 AM to 4:45 PM • Tuesday from 9:30 AM to 7:45 PM • Saturday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM Researchers are strongly encouraged to request an appointment. Learn more at www.masshist.org/library.

MHS gallery hours: • Monday, and Wednesday through Friday, from 10:00 AM to 4:45 PM • Tuesday from 10:00 AM to 7:45 PM • Saturday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM Please note that the last admission for exhibition visitors is 45 minutes prior to closing. Learn more about our in-person and virtual offerings at www.masshist.org/visit.

10

Learn more at www.amphilsoc.org/david-center-american-revolution.

ABOUT THE MHS & THE DLAR

The David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society (APS) is a collaboration between the David Library of the American Revolution (DLAR) and the APS dedicated to supporting scholarship on the American Revolution. The DLAR’s Founder, Sol Feinstone, believed that the examination of the Founding Fathers’ values and the events of the Revolutionary Period is essential to creating an informed citizenry able to comprehend and adapt those founding principles to the ever evolving circumstances of American society. The Center champions the active engagement of scholars, educators, and the general public of all ages in a continuing and dynamic encounter with this most central episode in the creation of the American nation.

11

1154 Boylston Street Boston, MA 02215 www.masshist.org