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Today, I am thinking of Betsy and Ame Cuming, sister shopkeepers who were charged with "Treasons and High Crimes" in Massachusetts in 1781.
Why were they charged? Because they sold imported goods — ribbons, lace, cloth — at their Boston shop in 1769-70.
Why were they charged? Because they sold imported goods — ribbons, lace, cloth — at their Boston shop in 1769-70.
Their small property was confiscated by the new Commonwealth of Massachusetts and sold at public auction.
Betsy and Ame kept selling because they never expected that Bostonians would "tack notis or try to inger two industrious Girls striving in an honest way to Git their bread.”
Betsy and Ame kept selling because they never expected that Bostonians would "tack notis or try to inger two industrious Girls striving in an honest way to Git their bread.”
The Sons of Liberty tried to intimidate Betsy and Ame by tarring a man and exhibiting his body on their doorstep. The two women huddled inside, “trimbling lick Co[wa]rds.”
They fled to Nova Scotia for their safety.
They fled to Nova Scotia for their safety.
