Lexington and Concord: 250 years on

Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. On 19 April 1775, American militia and British regulars clashed at Lexington and Concord in what would become the first battles of the Revolutionary War. But, as the historian Judge Goodwin reveals in this episode, the significance of the fighting lay as much in how it was reported as in what actually happened. To mark the 250th anniversary of the conflict, Ellen Evans spoke to him to find out more. Today we're talking about the Battle of Lexington and Concord, a key moment at the start of the American Revolutionary War.

I hoped we could start with a very quick reminder of the flashpoints of escalation in these tensions. What was going on with, you know, taxation and coercive acts that had been imposed, and particularly how in Massachusetts were these issues coming to a head? Well, we can go back to the Seven Years' War. And this was a problem of success in the end, because as a result of the Seven Years' War, the French were removed from Canada and they were pushed down the Mississippi, but of course they did still technically claim vast amounts of land. So there was a fear that the French might

try and make a return, so British troops continued to be stationed in America. Now the question was who was going to pay for them and who was actually going to carry the cost for the war and for the continuing presence of the troops. Now, Prime Minister George Grenville of Britain, he was a bit of an accountant really, and he decided that the key thing was just to get the money paid, he didn't really care about trampling over the rights of Americans, and this caused a major problem. First there was the sugar tax and then more importantly there was the stamp tax, which was a tax on everything which was printed.

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