1776 Live

On 8 January 1776, British General John Burgoyne’s play, The Blockade of Boston, is interrupted when American Patriots attack Charlestown, Massachusetts. General Burgoyne was not only a soldier, but a minor playwright with several published plays under his name. This is the same general that, twenty-one months into the future, will surrender to American General Horatio Gates at Saratoga, New York. In May of 1775, Burgoyne used his influence to convert part of Faneuil Hall, into a theater. Faneuil Hall contained a marketplace and meeting hall at Boston’s waterfront. The theater provided the British soldiers trapped in Boston with an outlet from boredom by producing plays twice a week on the upper level of Faneuil Hall. The Puritan population, which had outlawed theater performances since 1750, considered the British soldiers and their plays to be instigators of “immorality, impiety and in contempt of religion”. The Blockade of Boston was a satirical play making fun of the colonists. No complete copy of the play has survived, but one diary account says George Washington was portrayed as an “uncouth countryman; dressed shabbily, with a large wig and long rusty sword.” One line from an American character in the play reveals how the Americans were depicted: “Ye tarbarrell’d Lawgivers, yankified Prigs, Who are Tyrants in Custom, yet call yourselves Whigs; In return for the Favours you’ve lavish’d on me, May I see you all hang’d upon Liberty Tree.” The Blockade of Boston was set to be performed at 9pm on January 8, 1776. Burgoyne was not in Boston but had left for London in December. Just as the play was about to begin, a group of 100 colonists, under the command of Major Thomas Knowlton, staged a raid on the British outpost (the fort at Bunker Hill) in Charlestown, across the water from Boston. Several homes were burned and five soldiers were captured in the raid. The audience heard the shots as they sat in the theater. One soldier, dressed in a costume and about to perform, rushed onto the stage and yelled out that the Rebels were attacking. The audience thought the outburst was part of the performance and stayed in their seats. After more pleading by the officer/actor, the crowd realized they were truly under attack and began to scramble as the soldiers in the audience ran to their posts. Eyewitness accounts have the soldiers tripping over each other, jumping over the orchestra pit, stomping on violins, and rushing to change from their costumes as they wiped the makeup off their faces before getting to their posts. The Americans had quite a laugh at the scene when it was reported in newspapers a few days later. revolutionary-war-and-beyond… scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/…