Amid growing tension, the shooting death of a child, Christopher Seider, brought the crisis to a new level.
Innocence itself is not safe. . .
- Translation of the Latin Inscription on The Coffin of Christopher Seider
”
Nonimportation . . .
As during the Stamp Tax crisis, colonists forged a non-importation agreement, hoping to decrease saks of British goods. As a protest of the Townshend Acts it was less effective, although attempts were made to humiliate merchants who violated it. HouGHTON LIBRARY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY
- Massachusetts ArchivesChristopher Seider
Christopher Seider was a child of German immigrants. He was baptized in Braintree in 1759 and the family later moved to Boston. His exact name is not certain. It may have been Snyder among other possibilities. Names were not always spelled carefully, especially true in the case of immigrants who were not from the British Isles.
Frontespiece . . .
Frontespiece from Phillis Wheatley, book of poetry. 1773.
- LIBRARY Of CONGRESSPoetic Justice
Phillis Wheatley was a slave who became well known as a poet. She had been brought to Massachusetts from Africa at a young age. Although holding her in slavery, the Wheatley family saw her potential and encouraged her to write. Among her works is this poem, lamenting the death of Christopher Seider. Snider behold with what Majestic Love The Illustrious retinue begins to move With secret rage fair freedom's foes beneath See in thy corse ev'n Majesty in Death
This marker, at the Old Granary Burial Ground, lists "Christopher Snider" along with the victims of the later Boston Massacre. - Swamp Yank
Ebenezer Richardson
Ebenezer Richardson was a loyalist who sometimes informed the government about smuggling. One day he removed signs that identified and threatened merchants who were importing British goods. An angry mob followed him home and began pelting the house with eggs and other debris. The confrontation escalated when a brick was thrown through a window. From within the house, bird shot was fired into the crowd, killing Christopher Seider, not yet eleven years old.
A Town in Mourning
Samuel Adams and other Sons of Liberty organized the largest funeral ever seen in Massachusetts. Mourners followed Seider's casket through the town to the Liberty Tree before burial. In part because of his age, Seider's death came to symbolize British oppression. The incident might be better known today, if not overshadowed by an event that occurred eleven days later ... the Boston Massacre
Samuel Adams
- Museum of Fine Arts Boston