Liberty Affair

Joseph Harrison, Benjamin Hallowell Daniel Malcolm, John Hancock The Liberty Affair was an incident that culminated to a riot in 1768, leading to the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770.

It involved the seizure of the Liberty, a sloop owned by local smuggler and merchant John Hancock, by British authorities.

[2] While the Liberty Affair took place on 10 June 1768, it was triggered by an earlier episode involving the smuggling of sixty casks of wine by Captain Daniel Malcolm in the spring of the same year.

[4][13][3] The Liberty Affair led the British Parliament to pass more restrictive laws to curb smuggling and increase troops to deal with colonial resistance in Massachusetts.

[14] Immediately after the Liberty Affair riot, Governor Francis Bernard was ordered to produce evidence against the leaders of the Boston insurrectionists so that they can be put to trial in England.

[15] Lord Hillsborough, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, also stationed two regiments from Halifax, Nova Scotia to garrison Boston.

[16][17] These events unified the colonies to support the non-importation policy of British goods, a development that Boston and Charleston was not able to accomplish previously.