The Bostonians Paying the Excise-Man, or Tarring and Feathering, 1774 In January 1774, Boston customs collector John Malcolm beat a patriot shoemaker with his cane. An incensed crowd nabbed him and subjected him to a painful tarring and feathering. This ritualized humiliation involved stripping a victim and dipping him in warm tar followed by chicken feathers. Note the pictorial references to other events in Boston. Does this artist support the American cause? What’s your evidence?

Gilder Lehrman Collection, New York, USA/Bridgeman Images.