4. Document Projects for Exploring American Histories, Document Project 4: A New Commercial Culture in Boston

**Quiz for Document 4.6: Letter from a Boston Protester (1737)**

Quiz for Document 4.6: Letter from a Boston Protester (1737)

Document 4.6: Letter from a Boston Protester (1737)

Select the best answer for each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question 4.16

1. What message was the anonymous writer of this letter communicating to the Boston sheriff?

Bostonians’ destruction of the new market was an accidental consequence of their protest.

He was the organizer of the protest and personally responsible for the market’s destruction.

The working men of Boston who had joined him in destroying the market were apologizing.

Boston’s working classes were united in their opposition to the merchants’ growing power.

Question 4.17

2. Why does the letter’s author say that he and his men “had no design to do the town any damage, but a great deal of good”?

He believed that by destroying the market the mob had protected its own economic interests, which was a good thing.

He believed that by destroying the market the group had destroyed the power of Boston’s elites.

He aimed to explain that although the mob had destroyed the market by accident, they had called attention to the struggles of the poor.

He intended to demonstrate that the market displaced the poor residents of the neighborhood, who could now reoccupy the site.

Question 4.18

3. When the author concluded his letter by saying “there must be a great deal of blood shed before we will be suppressed, provided you take any advantage of us or any of us,” he was

pleading with the sheriff to find the perpetrators of the crime.

threatening violence against anyone who sought to hold someone responsible for the crime.

warning that Boston’s working men would boycott any merchant who tried to charge unfair prices.

asking the sheriff to do the hard work necessary to end the conflicts and divisions between Boston’s rich and poor.

Thinking through Sources forExploring American Histories, Volume 1Printed Page 26