Thomas Hutchinson and the Origins of the American Revolution

Rarely in American history has a political figure been so pilloried and despised as Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts and ardently loyal to the Crown in the days leading up to the Revolution. This narrative and analytic biography traces his decline from respected member of Boston’s governing class to leading object of America’s revolutionary hostility. The author argues that Hutchinson, rather than simply a victim of his inability to understand the passions associated with a revolutionary movement, was in fact defeated in a classic political and personal struggle for power; no mere sycophant for the British, he was keenly aware of how much he had to lose if revolutionary forces prevailed. This, Walmsley contends, partially explains Hutchinson’s evolution from near-Whig to intransigent loyalist - his consequent vilification became a vehicle through which the growing patriot movement sought to achieve legitimacy.