Boston’s distinctive geography transformed it from a key British port to a center of political unrest, where residents navigated a growing conflict between liberty and freedom.
Soldiers, civilians, free and enslaved workers, migrants, and many others jostled together in an urban area of just a few square miles. The city’s shape—a peninsula connected to the mainland by a tombolo, or narrow spit of land—created a terrain for both resistance and military strategy that pivoted on key points and routes. This landscape shaped the early events of Revolutionary crisis, from the Boston Massacre in 1770 to the Tea Party in 1773 to the early months of fighting in 1775.
Boston stood out among colonial cities for its resistance to British authority and widespread support for independence. But allegiances during the Revolution rarely fit neatly into one group. Colonists across social classes weighed competing loyalties to family, religion, and occupation, making difficult choices that often changed as the war raged on. Some tried to remain neutral. Others maintained their ties to Britain, preferring British rule to the uncertainties of a new American government. These “Tories,” as rebel Bostonians mockingly called them, came from varied backgrounds.
Meanwhile, Black Bostonians—both free and enslaved—challenged the hypocrisy of slaveholding rebels by pursuing freedom and autonomy through petitions, fugitive self-emancipation, and military service. Maps reveal the city’s connections and vulnerabilities, showing how Boston’s local resistance rippled outward to ignite a continental war.
In 1765, 15,520 people lived in Boston. The composition of the population shifted in October 1768 with the arrival of British troops. Suddenly, 1 in 3 men living in Boston were British soldiers.