Ebenezer Mackintosh (June 20, 1737 – 1816) was a

shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as '' cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen ...

who lived in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

in the 18th and 19th centuries. He is known for his role as a leader in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

riots protesting the Stamp Act.

Early life

Ebenezer Mackintosh was born on June 20, 1737, in Boston to impoverished parents Mary Everet and Moses Macintosh, an intermittent soldier in the 1730s and 1740s. Ebenezer lived with them until 1751 when Mary died and Moses departed Boston, leaving the 14-year-old as apprentice to his shoemaker uncle, Ichibod Jones. This gave Mackintosh few career possibilities as well as limited opportunities for social mobility; shoemakers in Boston were usually lower class. Mackintosh enlisted in the militia in 1754 and was part of the British-colonial mission to

Fort Ticonderoga Fort Ticonderoga (), formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain, in northern New York, in the United States. It was constructed by Canadian-born French milit ...

in 1758. In 1760, Mackintosh joined Fire Engine Company No. 9 in Boston's South End. Meanwhile, he married Elizabeth Maverick in August 1766, with whom he had two children, one of whom was named Paschal Paoli for the Corsican rebel who was at the time leading his ethnically Italian island in revolt against French rule.

Rise to popularity and recognition

In the 1760s, Mackintosh gained notoriety as a popular leader among the poor in Boston's South End. He became head of the South End gang in the Pope's Day or

Guy Fawkes Day Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Fireworks Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in Great Britain, involving bonfires and fireworks displays. Its history begins with the e ...

yearly festivities, from which we can reasonably guess that he was a

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

. Each year on November 5, Guy Fawkes Day or Pope's Day, the South End mob fought with their rival the North End mob over each other's effigies of the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, which were burned by the winners. In 1764, however, the fight turned especially violent; many were injured and a young boy was killed. Because of this turn of events, sheriffs and militia were called to destroy the North and South end effigy popes and stop the events. The authorities took apart the North End mob's pope, but under Mackintosh's lead the South End crowd protected theirs. The North End then rebuilt their effigy and the wild celebration continued. In response to the actions that took place that day, Mackintosh and others were arrested, but nothing came f it.

The Stamp Act protests

Mackintosh played a key role in other riots and events in the following year related to the protests and eventual repeal of the Stamp Act in March 1766. The passing of the Stamp Act in March 1765 caused a good deal of unrest in the American colonies. The

Sons of Liberty The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It pl ...

were a leading group of American dissidents at this time. The Loyal Nine, a group of nine businessmen, led the Sons of Liberty and were a link between the common people and wealthier classes. In August 1765 the Loyal Nine arranged the unification of the North and South End crowds. The group also found a mob captain among the common people to do their bidding: Ebenezer Mackintosh. The crowds were brought together by feelings of discontent and anger about economic depression and unemployment as well as the Stamp Act; only basic leadership was necessary. Mackintosh was a good choice as he was lower class and had a small government position – he had been chosen that year for the unpaid town position of sealer of leather. On August 14, Mackintosh led a destructive wild riot of more than 3,000 in protest of the Stamp Act. The crowd invaded the house of soon-to-be stamp distributor Andrew Oliver. The crowd also destroyed, in less than 30 minutes, an office that he had built, and then used the timbers for a bonfire. Furthermore, rioters hung both an effigy of Andrew Oliver and a boot that represented the British men of power, the

Earl of Bute Marquess of the County of Bute, shortened in general usage to Marquess of Bute, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1796 for John Stuart, 4th Earl of Bute. Family history John Stuart was the member of a family that ...

and

George Grenville George Grenville (14 October 1712 – 13 November 1770) was a British Whig statesman who rose to the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain. Grenville was born into an influential political family and first entered Parliament in 1741 as an ...

. The next day Andrew Oliver resigned through letter from the position of stamp distributor.

Samuel Adams Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, an ...

was pleased with the crowd's actions and described it as "deliberately nd… rationally destroying property, after trying every method to preserve it…when the men in power had rendered the destruction of that property the only means of securing the property of all." Not long after, on August 26, Ebenezer Mackintosh led a riot that destroyed three houses, including that of lieutenant governor Thomas Hutchinson. Afterwards, Mackintosh had to run for his life, breaking up his possessions, including his many manuscripts, and stealing his money. He was, however, caught and arrested, but leading Whigs stopped the Suffolk County policeman Stephen Greenleaf from keeping him by swearing peace would be maintained in Boston only if Mackintosh was set free. Andrew Eliot, a witness of the events, wrote in a letter to a colleague, Thomas Hollis, in England: "The good people of Boston are very careful to distinguish between the 14th and the 26th of August. The attack on Secretary Oliver…it is supposed was under direction of some persons of character. It is certain, people in general were not displeased. The 26th of August was under a very different direction. It was a scene of riot, drunkenness, profaneness and robbery." Today there is debate about whether Mackintosh and his companions went beyond the tame protests wanted by the wealthier class. There is also speculation about the motives behind the August 26 riot and whether it was not the idea of someone other than the Loyal Nine, such as perhaps Mackintosh. Samuel Adams was, unlike with August 14, displeased by what happened on August 26, describing it as "a lawless attack upon property in a case where if there had been right there was remedy." Later the same year, on Pope's Day, the North and South End mobs came together under "General" Mackintosh to parade. The Loyal Nine rewarded Mackintosh with a gilt uniform and a speaking trumpet for the occasion. About a month later, in December, Mackintosh led another crowd, this time that led Andrew Oliver, whom town soldiers would not defend, to an elm that would come to be known as the Liberty Tree and made him again resign his position as stamp distributor.

Character and life after the Stamp Act protests: 1766–death

Ebenezer Mackintosh was known as a capable leader. He could supposedly lead a crowd with a whisper or gesture and could get 2,000 men to walk in two neat lines. Andrew Oliver's brother and fellow loyalist,

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, described Mackintosh as "sensible and manly" and that for someone generally doing the dirty work for more prominent people did it "with great éclat." Upon observing the 1765 Pope's Day event, he described Mackintosh as "endowed with superior Honor." Even Thomas Hutchinson described Mackintosh in a letter to

Thomas Pownall Thomas Pownall (bapt. 4 September 1722 N.S. – 25 February 1805) was a British colonial official and politician. He was governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1757 to 1760, and afterwards sat in the House of Commons from 1767 t ...

in 1766 as "a bold fellow and as likely for Massiangello Sicilian revolutionaryas you can well conceive." Yet many men who tried to lead the protest movement in 1764 and 1765 might not have liked Mackintosh because of his low social status. "We do everything in order to keep this and the first Affair Private," merchant and Loyal Nine member Henry Bass wrote to his friend Samuel P. Savage in December 1765 after Andrew Oliver's second resignation, "and are not a little pleas'd to hear that Mackintosh has the Credit of the whole Affair." Additionally, Mackintosh criticized economic superiority and mocked those with more wealth than him, those who he often took directions from, and criticized with his elaborate garb on Pope's Day 1765. Furthermore, the Sons of Liberty would have had to trust Mackintosh while he was taking directions from them with a lot of valuable information. Despite Mackintosh's possibly strained relationship with those he listened to, he was again chosen as sealer of leather in 1766, 1767, and 1768, but not in 1769. There is also no record of him being involved in mobs in the late 1760s and 1770s protesting regulations by Britain. The following year Mackintosh spent some time in

debtors' prison A debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. Until the mid-19th century, debtors' prisons (usually similar in form to locked workhouses) were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe.Cory, Lucinda"A Histori ...

. By September 1774, Mackintosh had left Boston and settled in the town of

Haverhill, New Hampshire Haverhill is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,585 at the 2020 census. Haverhill includes the villages of Woodsville, Pike, and North Haverhill, the historic town center at Haverhill Corner, and the dis ...

. In 1777 he joined the army for two months to fight the attack on

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led by British General

John Burgoyne General John Burgoyne (24 February 1722 – 4 August 1792) was a British general, dramatist and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1761 to 1792. He first saw action during the Seven Years' War when he participated in several bat ...

. Having returned to Haverhill, he served as the town's sealer of leather in 1782, 1783, and 1784. In 1784 his wife Elizabeth died. Mackintosh later married Elizabeth Chase, a widow and mother of three, and went on to have three children of his own with her. Many of his children from his two marriages moved to

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. When he was 65, he walked all the way to Ohio and back to see his children there. He was poor towards the end of his life, having to sell his work to the overseer of the Haverhill

poor farm A poorhouse or workhouse is a government-run (usually by a county or municipality) facility to support and provide housing for the dependent or needy. Workhouses In England, Wales and Ireland (but not in Scotland), ‘workhouse’ has been th ...

in 1810 and 1811 to get by. When he died in 1816, he was buried in the local Haverhill cemetery under the name of Philip McIntosh by mistake, with the claim that he led the

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell t ...

in 1773. Mackintosh claimed involvement in the Boston Tea Party, and although there is no direct evidence of this, researchers have opined "that he had a hand in the affair seems reasonably certain."

Memorials

New Hampshire historical marker The U.S. state of New Hampshire has, since 1958, placed historical markers at locations that are deemed significant to New Hampshire history. The New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources (DHR) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) are j ...

( number 104) in Haverhill, New Hampshire, reads:

Born in Boston and a veteran of the 1758 Battle of Ticonderoga. As a known participant in the Boston Tea Party, for his own and his children’s safety, he walked to North Haverhill in early 1774. He later served in the Northern Army under Gen. Gates in 1777. He was a shoemaker by trade and practiced his vocation here for the rest of his life. He is buried nearby in Horse Meadow Cemetery.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mackintosh, Ebenezer 1737 births 1816 deaths Patriots in the American Revolution People from colonial Boston People from Haverhill, New Hampshire People from South End, Boston