The Tax Man - American History, 1493-1945

The Bostonians Paying the Excise-Man, or Tarring and Feathering

31 October 1774

View The Bostonian's Paying the Excise-man, or Tarring & Feathering in the resource

One of the most dramatic and significant images in the Gilder Lehrman Collection is this British engraving by Philip Dawe dated 31 October 1774. Entitled ‘The Bostonian’s Paying the Excise-Man, or, Tarring & Feathering’, the hand-colored print shows the Commissioner of Customs John Malcolm, a Loyalist, being victimized by a group of Patriots.

According to the Massachusetts Gazette, on 25 January 1774 an argument broke out between Malcolm and a Patriot shoemaker, George Hewes, who was then struck hard on the head with the Commissioner’s cane. In order to punish Malcolm for the attack a mob later seized him, stripped him to the waist and covered him with tar and feathers. He was then marched to the Liberty Tree and was ordered to renounce his customs commission, yet it was only when the mob threatened to cut off his ears that Malcolm finally relented and was sent home. After these events John Malcolm moved to England, where he unsuccessfully ran for Parliament against the colonial sympathizer John Wilkes.

Acts of humiliation such as this were typical eighteenth-century punishments and were particularly common during the American Revolution. In this case, the Patriots were angered by the Tea Act of 1773 and a three-penny tax; British officials such as Malcolm, as well as American merchants who violated the non-importation of British goods, found themselves subjected to these public reprimands. What makes this print particularly notable is that it is by far the most publicized tarring and feathering incident of the American Revolution.

The symbols that can be found within the image certainly demonstrate Patriot attitudes and feelings. The inclusion of the Liberty Tree and the attached noose highlights the violence that was taken in the name of liberty. By the mid-eighteenth century the tree had become the main place for public gatherings and protests and it symbolized many of the features that Boston Whigs aspired to defend. Similarly, the paper ‘Stamp Act’ that can be seen fixed to the tree hangs upside down, which represented the negativity towards the Loyalist agenda and the perceived backwardness of the legislation. Another significant aspect of the print is the background vignette of the Boston Tea Party in progress. It is now believed that this is one of the earliest known pictorial representations of the event, despite it actually occurring four weeks prior to Malcolm’s punishment.

News of Malcolm’s humiliation was greeted with approval by colonial sympathizers and the event inspired numerous satires. Dawe’s cartoon was intended to arouse British opposition to colonial demands and it could certainly be argued that it went some way to achieving this aim. This print also shows us colonial grievances with the thugs’ mockery of both the Tea Act and the authority of the loyalists based in Boston; this reveals it to be a clear example of how economics and trade changed and developed the course of American history.