Lunch and Learn – The People and the Law in Revolutionary Massachusetts

Virtual Presentation!

Conflict over the law played a defining role in shaping the political landscape of Revolutionary Massachusetts. The state’s Revolutionary period was bookended by upheaval centered around the courts: the rebellion against the Coercive Acts began in 1774 with a series of court closings in western Massachusetts, and Shays’s Rebellion commenced in a similar manner, with attempted court closings in the same part of the state. In the interim, Massachusetts Patriots struggled to work out what the American Revolution meant for the law. Should the English common law inheritance be upheld, or did the Revolution signal an opportunity to reshape the legal system in the image of the people?

This talk by New England Regional Fellowship Consortium grantee, Tristan New, examines how this struggle to define the relationship between popular rule and the law informed the state’s politics during the Revolutionary era.

This virtual event is free and open to the public. Get tickets to receive the Zoom link.

Questions? Contact Jen Busa, Public Programs Coordinator at jbusa@connecticutmuseum.org.

About the speaker: Tristan New is a PhD Candidate in American History at Boston University, where his research focuses on the political and constitutional dimensions of the American Revolution. His dissertation, “The People, the Courts, and the Contested Revolution in Massachusetts, 1772-1788,” examines how conflict over the law shaped the course of the American Revolution in Massachusetts. His research has been supported by institutions including the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium and the Boston University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and he has presented his work at forums including the David Center for the American Revolution and the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

Image: Note of Hand, John Bliss Justice of the Peace Records, 1784-1786, MS 34746, Connecticut Museum of Culture and History collection.