Biographies and Autobiographies

Reading “The Shoemaker And  The Tea Party” it is evident that history can only at times be only what one can remember or what one might think is important.  Hewes remembered more when Hawkes took him on a field trip to reminisce and then asked pointed questions about the past opposed to just trying to recall memories. There are many accounts in this book that the writer knows they’re accurate accounts.  “This was Hewes’s story, via Hawkes.  Thatcher, who knew a good deal more about the Tea Party from other sources, accepted it in its essentials as an accurate account.”

History is always living and breathing.  People are always finding new primary sources such as:  documents, pictures, and people whom may never been considered before like Hewes.

George Robert Twelves Hewes

                        George Robert Twelves Hewes

One of the “last surviving members”

Of the Tea Party

George Robert Twelves Hewes, if you’re wondering about his name, well, I can tell you that he and his wife Sarah, named one son Eleven and the last-born, George Robert Twelves Fifteen.  This was stated as “A mischievous sense of humor.”  Hewes was a brave,  high spirited and a warm hearted man who thought of others.  In the book written by Alfred R. Young , “ The Shoemaker and the Tea Party,” shares Hewes story of  being a patriot, soldier and sailor, a family man, a veteran and a Hero but, the chapter I believe that tells who Hewes really was is the Tar and Feather chapter where Hewes won public recognition.  

My heart broke for Hewes while reading “The Shoemaker and the Tea Party.” It seemed at first he was failing at all he did in life or did all this happen in order to succeed?  Hewes, wanting to get away from shoemaking but had the desire to support his family so he tried several times to join the service but was rejected because he was too short.  Then there was war, war was the perfect opportunity for Hewes to escape his humdrum occupation.  Most of his voyages were shattering. Hewes didn’t receive his share of prize money or wages for most of his voyages.  Hewes came out of war poor and he stayed poor.

Hewes was a family man.  He had great respect for his wife Sarah.  Together they had fifteen children. Hewes was very poor and didn’t own any real estate. He lost his shop that he built in Boston, the British troops appropriated if for the purpose of a wash and lumber house. When his wife passed away, Hewes was passed around to his children until they were financially unable to keep him.  In the end, a “worthy gentleman” in the neighborhood took Hewes in and cared for him. He was supported by the charity of others.

Although Hewes was a poor man he believed in equality. In the chapter Tar and Feathers, he won public recognition for an act of courage that almost cost his life.  This act would have been trivial at any other time, but instead it was the most publicized tarring and feathering of the Revolution.   The book states, Hewes, was walking down the street witnessing the redoubted John Malcolm standing over a small boy pushing a little sled, damning, cursing, threatening and shaking a large cane over the boy’s head.  Hewes knew that if Malcolm would strike the boy it would kill him. Hewes stated to Malcolm that he hoped that he wasn’t going to strike the boy with that cane.  Malcolm responded, “You are an impertinent rascal, it is none of your business.”  Malcolm struck Hewes almost killing him.  This led to a mob wanting to tar and feather Malcolm.  Hewes, for the same reason he didn’t want cruel punishment inflicted on the boy, didn’t want it to happen to Malcolm as well.  Hewes only wanted justice from the courts not from a mob.  Hewes didn’t tip his hat to Malcolm and stood up for equality which allowed this act to precipitated the most publicized tarring and feathering of the Revolution.  Hewes conveyed no hatred towards Malcolm. 

Hewes discusses the Tea Party as a matter of fact and never boast about his important role.  He was singled out of rank and file and made an officer in the field. He speaks about how it took three hours to throw the tea overboard on three ships while being surrounded by British armed ships and how they made no attempt to resist them.  Oh, and also how he worked alongside of John Hancock while throwing the tea overboard.  After three hours they returned to their residence without having any conversation with each other or trying to find out who their associates were. 

Hewes was a humble man.  What I’ve learned from him was that it didn’t depend on your wealth or social status to be happy, content, or to be a part of history.  It was his belief of equality and religion.  Hewes walked miles to church and read his Bible.  Hewes was a featured guest at many Fourth of July observances.   “Under the influence of strong emotion he gave the following toast, ‘Those I leave behind me, May God Bless them.’”  The Cole painting of Hewes told it all “It is not a picture of a man as a shoemaker, but we can understand it only if we know the man was a shoemaker.  It shows the pride of a man the world had counted as a nobody at a moment in his life when he was somebody, when he had won recognition from the town that had never granted it before. It is the pride of a citizen, of one who ‘would not take his hat off to any man’.”  Hewes was a man who’d had to defer to the royal and British Officers and lived to see General Washington and now the educated lawyers and lieutenant governors defer to him.  “It is the pride of a survivor.  His enemies had all passed on. His ‘associates,’ the patriots, had all gone to their graves.  He had out-lived them all.  Fortified by his religion, the old man could rejoice that he would soon join them, but as their equal. ‘May we meet hereafter,’ he told his Independence Day well-wishers, ‘where the wicked will cease from troubling and the true sons of Liberty be forever at rest.”