A Day to Remember: The 250th Anniversary of the Spencer Riot

November 2, 2009 · Filed Under History 

stampactOn this the 250th anniversary of the Spencer Riots in colonial New York City,  a look back by Dr. Thomas Truxes at what might be considered the opening event in the American Revolution in New York City.

Dr. Truxes teaches at New York University. His latest book, Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York, was a finalist for the 2009 Francis Parkman Prize.

Step aside, Boston and Philadelphia. The American Revolution may have begun on the streets of New York City 250 years ago today. A little-known incident on the morning of November 2, 1759, set in motion a chain of events that contributed to the breakup of Great Britain and its North American colonies. This is a cautionary tale about the lethal mixing of business interests and political power.

In 1759 Great Britain and France were locked in a death struggle—the French and Indian War—the most violent of the eighteenth-century colonial conflicts. By the autumn of 1759, fighting had been underway for over five years. And until the British victory at Quebec on September 13, momentum had mostly favored the French. The war didn’t end until 1763.

New York was both a thriving commercial center and the headquarters of the British army in North America. Military contracts were a source of wealth for well connected businessmen, and massive quantities of goods moved through the city into the hands of the army and navy. Vast quantities of goods were also being shipped to the French enemy in Canada and the West Indies.

By 1759, over one hundred trading firms in New York were doing business with the enemy. It was a time of full employment, windfall profits, and blind confidence. Those involved included members of the governor’s family, members of the provincial council and assembly, relatives of supreme court justices, the mayor, and other city officials. New York City’s thriving business with the French was an open secret.

Into this mix entered George Spencer, a failed New York wine merchant with debts in excess of a half million dollars (in today’s money). Though Spencer had worked out a bankruptcy settlement with a court in London, he was desperate to regain his financial footing. Ever the opportunist, the expedient he chose was the informer’s one-third share of the value of any ships and cargoes that might be confiscated from New York businessmen based on evidence he would provide regarding the violation of laws governing wartime trade.

On October 31, 1759, Spencer appeared separately before Lieutenant-Governor James Delancey and the head of the custom service in New York. Spencer named names and identified ships engaged in illicit trade. But the response from these officials was very different from what he had expected. The matter would be looked into, he was told by Delancey. These were complex issues best left to the proper authorities.

Immediately, word spread that an informer was loose in New York. Concerned citizens met that night to plan a response to this unexpected threat to the city’s prosperity. Late on the evening of November first, George Spencer was brought before an angry committee of merchants and told that he had eight hours to leave the city. If he failed to do so, they could not be responsible for the consequences. Though shaken, Spencer held his ground.

The next morning George Spencer was arrested on bankruptcy charges based on forged documents and marched from his home on lower Broadway to the New York City Jail (in present-day City Hall Park). On the way, he was taken to the Drovers’ Inn, a tavern on Broadway near the World Trade Center site, where a drunken and disorderly mob was assembling after having witnessed a public execution.

“With violence,” Spencer later wrote, he was thrust into a horse-drawn cart conveniently provided by the city fathers. The mob set off in the direction of Beekman Street and wound its way through the streets of the city. At each intersection, rioters pelted their terrified victim with mud, stones, and “the filth of the streets.” At Whitehall Street, Delancey appeared with a contingent of soldiers and ordered the immediate dispersal of the crowd. The riot ended as quickly as it began. By mid-afternoon, however, Spencer had been rearrested and taken to the New York City Jail.

Thus began George Spencer’s twenty-seven month incarceration. During his years of captivity, his tormentors bragged that he would not leave jail unless in a coffin. From his confinement, Spencer wrote dozens of letters to public officials in Britain and America pleading for justice. His release came in January 1762 following the appointment of a new chief justice in New York.

Broken in health and financially ruined, Spencer somehow made his way to London where in April 1762 he appeared on the doorstep of Benjamin Franklin who, as a fellow-American, took pity on the New York refugee and helped him find work as a scrivener. Over the next three years, George Spencer staged a one-man campaign to focus the attention of the London ministry on the wartime misdeeds of New York City. He presented detailed accounts of his ordeal to the Treasury, Board of Trade, and Customs Commissioners at the very moment the British ministry was drafting harsh legislation to raise revenue in America and discipline colonial commerce.

Historians may squabble over where the American Revolution actually began. But there can be no denying a role for New York where powerful interests countenanced the punishment of a man who stood up against the city (albeit for his own gain) for supplying the enemy in a time of war. The New York City elite who locked up George Spencer on November 2, 1759—and then threw away the key—considered themselves patriots. It had been all about the money. It’s still about the money.

Thomas M. Truxes

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