Episode 2: The Uprising
The Boston Tea Party commences when Sam Adams and friends seize a British ship and proceed to dump its cargo in Boston Harbor. In retaliation the British prime minister back in London, despite Ben Franklin's futile ministrations on behalf of Boston, dispatches the "cancer" otherwise known as General Gage to Boston with more troops to bring the city to heel.
After relieving the governor of his duties in Boston and putting the city under military rule (for all intents and purposes really), Gage attempts to placate the Sam Adams problem by buying the man off. This fails miserably, and so Gage decides the next best thing is to send a message to the city and its citizens by publicly flogging a man caught stealing. In another attempt to solve the Sam Adams problem, Gage summons Sam's cousin, John Adams, to a meeting where the general proceeds to intimidate and threaten John Adams and everything he's worked for and holds dear if the poor man doesn't rein his cousin. Instead John Adams is finally spurred to action after a whole lotta doin' nothin' except trying to talk some sense into his cousin, Sam, while observing most of the goings on in Boston from the side lines. Then Gage confiscates Hancock's house, and Hancock throws in again with Sam Adams.
John Adams' call for a Continental Congress in Philadelphia spectacularly fails to rally other colonies' support for Boston's British problem (except from Virginia's George Washington, who sees the writing on the wall long before the other delegates thanks to prior personal experience with Gage). Boston's delegates return to the city to heed Washington's advice to build their own militia to defend themselves. Adams and company recruit some men and get their hands on an armory's worth of guns, but the British have gun powder on lock down, and without gun powder the guns are useless. So for the second time in two episodes Sam Adams gets to stick it to the British by stealing all the barrels of gun powder out of the heavily guarded British storehouse in the middle of the night right under the British soldiers' noses. And then the colonists blow up the storehouse for good measure. The episode ends on the green at Lexington where the British had hoped to surprise the colonial militia and crush the resistance once and for all. The colonial militia is neither surprised nor will the resistance be crushed.
My thoughts
--Why does everyone except Sam Adams paint their faces for the Boston Tea Party?
--I think Hancock should know better by now than to think he will successfully be able to talk down Sam Adams from whatever foolhardy plan the man's cooking up.
--My reaction to Gage's mistaken assumption that Sam Adams can be bought off: HAHAHAHAHAHA.
--Dr. Warren and Mrs. Gage are playing with fire and only painting targets on their backs because when the general finds out about those two, they will both be lucky to survive.
--George Washington says General Gage is a cancer, and Gage is indeed a cancer.
--Why does Gage confiscate Hancock's house? Is it retaliation because Gage suspects Hancock is mixed up with the rebels? Or is the governor's mansion not fancy enough for Gage?
--Reviewed by Ms. Angie
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