Salem in the American Revolution

When the French and Indian War ended in 1763, Salem longed for a time of tranquility.

However, that conflict left England deeply in debt and determined to reduce its obligations by taxing America. Salem’s citizens initially opposed parliamentary taxes because they believed that the English were profiting from them. As Britain levied new taxes and pressed local officials to collect them, divisions erupted in town. In 1774, Salem became the capital of Massachusetts. By then, its citizens were being taxed from abroad, governed by an English general and tried before judges and juries appointed by royal officials. Join historian Richard J. Morris as he explores how the struggle for independence changed the town of Salem.

Richard J. Morris was born and raised in Boston, where he attended Boston State College. He later completed graduate degrees at Ohio University and New York University. He began studying Salem’s people in a seminar with Carl Prince at New York University in 1971. After graduating from NYU, he spent a year as a National Historical Publications and Records Commission fellow at the Papers of Alexander Hamilton at Columbia University. He then taught at Lycoming College from 1976 until he retired in 2013. Always interested in the American Revolution, especially in coastal New England, he published a half-dozen articles on Revolutionary Salem between 1978 and 2022.