"An Intire Stoppage of Every Court of Law": Crowds, Committees, Conventions, and the Suspension of the Courts in Revolutionary Massachusetts, 1774

Abstract: Parliament's passage of the Coercive Acts in 1774 sparked a firestorm of opposition in Massachusetts, where Patriot committees, crowds, and conventions of the people worked in concert to block the Acts' enforcement and effectively overthrow the colony's royal government. Town by town and county by county, Patriots closed the courts and publicly humiliated provincial officials in the summer of 1774. In their effort to close the courts and purge provincial officers from their communities, Patriots worked not only to dismantle an imperial system of politics, but also to consolidate community control over the law. This article examines the court closings within this local context, viewing them not simply as moments of imperial fracture or revolutionary mobilization, but also as a testing ground for Patriots' understanding of the relationship between political community and the law, and ultimately, the meaning of the sovereignty of the people.