Customer Reviews

The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson

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I'll cheerfully agree with the reviewer below who claims that Bailyn's biography of Thomas Hutchinson, who was a fixture in Massachusetts politics for the last two decades of the colonial period and who was the loyalist governor of the province at the time of the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party, presupposes a general knowledge of American Revolutionary History and the acts of Parliament which figured so prominently in it. In fact, I'll go a step further and say that one's enjoyment of this book would be greatly enhanced by reading two of Bailyn's other works which provide the scholarly framework for Bailyn's argument in this book: THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION and THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN POLITICS. Bailyn's central argument in this book is that Hutchinson, the prototypical Loyalist, failed because he could never conceptually understand the ideological underpinnings of his opponents' thought. He was convinced that a small group of demogogues motivated by base self-interest had managed to convince the populace at large that the British government was plotting against them and their God-given rights when it was clear to Hutchinson that all notions of a perfidious British plot were absolutely ridiculous. Unfortunately, Hutchinson's analysis of the situation was severely flawed, and Hutchinson's failure to understand his opponents made him incapable of convincing them that they were in error.

Bailyn is the foremost living historian of the American Revolution, and this book is what one would expect from someone of Bailyn's stature. It's wonderfully researched and wonderfully written, and it truly is a joy to read. It's not the first book that one should read about the American Revolution, but it's certainly on the list.

This really interesting book is a sympathetic biography of the American loyalist politician Thomas Hutchinson. Bailyn uses Hutchinson's extensive correspondence and diaries to reconstruct the life and thought of a intelligent opponent of the American Revolution. In part, this is an interesting and extremely well written effort to cast light on the Revolutionary generation with a detailed examination of the major alternative to the Revolution. Highly intelligent, thoughtful, politically experienced, and deeply rooted in colonial Massachusetts, Hutchinson made his career in trade and also by serving as an official in the colonial-imperial government. He, and his considerable extended family, were deeply enmeshed in the web of governmental patronage centered on London and he was quite successful in using the patronage system to further his career and that of his relatives. Bailyn also makes clear that Hutchinson was patriotic (both towards Massachusetts and the British Empire), civic minded, and that his career was marked by many actions that benefited his native colony. In many ways, he was a model imperial official whose actions aimed at, and often succeeded in, benefiting Massachusetts and Britain.

Hutchinson was caught in the middle when the existing imperial structure began to unravel after the Seven Years War. Responding to the arguments of individuals like Sam Adams and James Otis, Hutchinson was arguably more perceptive than many among the incipient Revolutionaries. He foresaw that the logical conclusion of these arguments would be independence. Beyond his intrinsic conservatism and success in the existing imperial system, Hutchinson reasonably believed that independence for the colonies would result in a weak state that would fall prey to other European powers. If he had lived to see the USA under the Articles of Confederation, he probably would have felt vindicated. Given the great distance between America and Britain, full participation in the British political system was impossible, so Hutchinson felt that the colonies had to accept a limited political status. Bailyn shows that Hutchinson was simply unable to grasp the more daring visions of the Revolutionaries and its possible that his deeply felt Massachusetts patriotism precluded envisioning a nationalist future for the USA. At the same time, Hutchinson was charged with executing the unpopular policies of successive British governments. He tried hard to prevent governments in London from imposing unwise policies, but usually failed, and as a result, often took the blame for policies originating in London. Hutchinson was also frustrated by what appear to be vacillating behavior of the British government and the time gap between London and Boston often made it difficult to formulate and execute policy in a sensible manner.

Hutchinson's story reveals a rather nasty aspect of the Revolution, the treatment of loyalists in general and Hutchinson in particular. Hutchinson was singled out as a conspiratorial enemy by many important Revolutionary leaders and the subject of generally unfair, and sometimes dreadfully immoral attacks. This story reveals some of outright paranoia and bigotry that was characteristic of the Revolution. Hutchinson was essentially forced into exile just prior to the Revolution and lived out the next few years miserably homesick for New England. His property was expropriated and his family also forced into exile. In an ironic coda which seems to sum up his career, and which he fortunately was not alive to witness, his beloved country home was purchased by Mercy Otis Warren and her husband. Famous for her history of the Revolution, she was one of his most vitriolic critics, and its fair to say that she slandered him on multiple occasions.

"The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson," one of Bernard Bailyn's many histories that will forever keep him on the radar of scholars, is an excellent, if apologist account of one of 18th century Boston's most controversial loyalist leaders.

The work, which serves (very effectively) to vindicate the man of the demonization he suffered in life at the hands of Samuel and John Adams, James Otis and others, also fills in a hole often left vacant in histories of the revolution - that of the loyalist that loves America. Bailyn's portrait of Hutchinson is that of a shrewd and wise statesman that truly believes he is doing what is best for his country, and is thwarted continuously by men he feels to be of lesser intelligence or of self-serving objectives. For his goodness, if Bailyn is to be believed, Hutchinson is made to suffer through unimaginable slanders and libels, not to mention violence. Through it all, as well as through the ineptness of the British crown, which is revealed to him later in life, Hutchinson, in his way, is painted as a patriot, and it is a service to him and to students of history that Bailyn revealed him as such.

The one shortcoming of this book is its aim at scholars exclusively. Those with a casual interest in American Revolutionary history might feel lost in this book. And while that is certainly not a bad thing for those of us who are looking for a deeper look, it certainly limits the book's appeal to a broader audience.

I was assigned this book for AP U.S. History class and was excited to read a book that focused on the point of view of a loyalist during the pre-revolutionary era instead of the typical rebel point of view that we've studied in the past. I reccommend this book to anyone who likes alternative points of view on possibly controversial subjects. The only drawback, the reason I did not give it four or five stars, is that it gives a lot of facts from the era like specific act names. I don't deem these things important when trying to understand where a loyalist in this area is coming from.