Historian Alexander Cain returns to Newburyport to explore one of the most tense and transformative moments in American history in this engaging lecture on Massachusetts and Newburyport in early 1776. As the Siege of Boston drags through a bitter winter, he will discuss civilian suffering inside the town, the controversial use of smallpox in efforts to break the stalemate, and the evolving roles of the militia and the Continental Army. He then turns to Newburyport’s own story: the growing rumblings of independence, the dangerous position of Loyalists, and the unleashing of the town’s most potent weapon in support of the American cause: its “wolfpack” fleet of privateers, which struck at the heart of British supply lines and reshaped Newburyport’s economy and identity on land and at sea.
