Battle of Golden Hill, by Charles MacKubin Lefferts

The Battle of Golden Hill was a clash between

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

s and 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 ...

in the American colonies that occurred on January 19, 1770, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Along with the

Boston Massacre The Boston Massacre (known in Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain as the Incident on King Street) was a confrontation in Boston on March 5, 1770, in which a group of nine British soldiers shot five people out of a crowd of three or four hu ...

and the ''Gaspée'' Affair, the event was one of the early violent incidents in what would become the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

Background

During the imperial crisis with Britain in the 1760s, the

(or "Liberty Boys") in New York City sometimes erected "

Liberty pole A liberty pole is a wooden pole, or sometimes spear or lance, surmounted by a "cap of liberty", mostly of the Phrygian cap. The symbol originated in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar by a group of Ro ...

s" to symbolize their displeasure with British authorities. The first such pole was put up in

City Hall Park City Hall Park is a public park surrounding New York City Hall in the Civic Center of Manhattan. It was the town commons of the nascent city of New York. History 17th century David Provoost was an officer in the Dutch West India Company. Hi ...

on May 21, 1766, in celebration of the repeal of the

1765 Stamp Act The Stamp Act 1765, also known as the Duties in American Colonies Act 1765 (5 Geo. III c. 12), was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in May 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of U ...

. The British hated this pole and chopped it down in August in protest of the fact that the New York government had refused to enforce the Stamp Act. Another pole was put up which was quickly cut down. A third pole was put up which stayed up until 1767 when British soldiers cut it down after seeing colonists celebrating the anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act. A fourth was put up this time secured with iron bands. In 1767, the

Quartering Act The Quartering Acts were two or more Acts of British Parliament requiring local governments of Britain's North American colonies to provide the British soldiers with housing and food. Each of the Quartering Acts was an amendment to the Mutiny A ...

was passed which the New York government mostly left unenforced.

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

reacted to this by dissolving the assembly and replacing it with one that did agree. The Sons of Liberty posted a

broadside Broadside or broadsides may refer to: Naval * Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare Printing and literature * Broadside (comic ...

called “To the Betrayed Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York” in response. The British blew up this liberty pole on January 16 because of the broadside and as a result of the fact soldiers were given 1800 pounds for supporting the act. They left the remains of the pole on the door of a tavern owner named Mr. Montanye. The " red coats" also posted their own handbills which attacked the Sons of Liberty as "the real enemies of society" who "thought their freedom depended on a piece of wood".

Event

On January 19, 1770, six weeks before the

Isaac Sears Isaac Sears (1 July 1730 – 28 October 1786) was an American merchant, sailor, Freemason, and political figure who played an important role in the American Revolution. He was born July 1, 1730 at West Brewster, Massachusetts, the son of Joshua an ...

and others tried to stop some soldiers from posting handbills at the

Fly Market The Fly Market or Fly Market was an outdoor market located at the base of Maiden Lane, off the East River in Manhattan, New York City. The market ran from 1699 until the early 1800s, selling meat, country produce and fish under its covered roofs. ...

at the foot of Maiden Lane. Sears captured some of the soldiers and marched his captives towards the mayor's office, while the rest of the British soldiers ran to the barracks to sound the alarm. A crowd of townsfolk arrived along with a score of soldiers. The soldiers were surrounded and badly outnumbered. Fellow soldiers tried to rescue them but were ordered to their barracks. As they were being escorted to their barracks, they reached John Street between William Street and Pearl Street. This area was known as "Golden Hill", after a nearby wheat field. An officer then said, “Soldiers, draw your bayonets and cut your way through them." More soldiers arrived and a group of officers arrived to disperse the soldiers before the situation got totally out of hand. Several of the soldiers were badly bruised and one had a serious wound. Some of the townsfolk were wounded and according to some sources, there was one death, though this is disputed.

Effects

Although several people were wounded in the event, no one was killed. It also made

Alexander McDougall Alexander McDougall (1732 9 June 1786) was a Scottish-born American seaman, merchant, a Sons of Liberty leader from New York City before and during the American Revolution, and a military leader during the Revolutionary War. He served as a majo ...

famous in the area and later a general in the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

. After the battle, the last Liberty Pole was raised on February 6, 1770. Though the event was not as famous as the Boston Massacre, it was remembered in 1898 with a plaque on the site of the battle, in current day Eden's Alley. However, the building was demolished and the plaque disappeared.

References

External links

Entry from u-s-history.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle Of Golden Hill 1770 in the Province of New York 1770 riots New York (state) in the American Revolution Riots and civil disorder in New York City