Thomas Hutchinson, the Massachusetts Politician

1. Turning point

1.1. His fate began to change as he became the most wealthy and influential leader of Massachusetts

1.2. His political power lead him to be the target of jealousy and resentment from both the Americans and the Britons

1.3. The most important turning point of his life was the exposure of his private letters in 1772

1.4. Those letters motivated colonists to view him as an accomplice of "British Tyranny" and to make ruthless accusations about him

2. Fled to Britain

2.1. Feeling intolerable about the rebellious Americans, he fled to Britain in 1773

2.2. He hided away from the rebels and stayed in Britain

3. His political opinions and arguments

3.1. Thomas Hutchinson almost always held a conflicted political belief

3.2. He approved Americans to have certain independence, while he denied the necessity and the right of revolution

3.3. He stuck to the absolute supremacy of British control

3.4. Except the last several years of his life, he took a moderate position between Patriots and Loyalists

4. Involvement in the French and Indian War

4.1. He played an active role in the Albany Congress of 1754

4.2. This Congress strongly facilitated colonial unity

5. Opinions about the Declaration of Independence

5.1. He viewed it as an unnecessary preparation for an unnecessary violence (the American Revolution)

6. Childhood and young adulthood

6.1. Great-great-grandson of Anne Hutchinson

6.2. Born: on 09, September, 1711 in Boston, Massachusetts

6.3. Graduated from Harvard College at age sixteen

6.4. In 1734, he married Margaret Sanford

7. Beginning of his career

7.1. He began a career in commerce

7.2. With his election as a Boston selectman, Hutchinson started his political career

7.3. Becoming Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, he made further political influence

8. Involvement in the Stamp Act Crisis

8.1. He acknowledged that British tax policies were unjust

8.2. However, he refused colonists' right to revolt against the policy

8.3. He tried to suppress the rebellious Bostonians and forced them to comply the tax acts

9. Death

9.1. Thomas Hutchinson died on 03, June, 1780 in Croyden, United Kingdom

9.2. He died full of sorrow because of his unachievable dream about the reconciliation between America and Britain