ABSTRACT
In America, civil insurrections led by Jacob Leisler, John Coode, and Nathanial Bacon were said to be 'Masaniellian' in nature. For some time now, historians have acknowledged that early American radicalism had deep roots in Anglo American culture, which emerged from politically turbulent times in England. Consequently, while riots may have constituted legitimate means of political protest, the Real Whigs demanded that such displays of public resistance be conducted with order, restraint, and limited violence. In a series of nighttime raids, planters-turned-rioters descended on farms and plantations and began to cut thousands of young tobacco plants. As in Europe, the prospect of food shortages motivated riots in America, especially in New England, where food riots broke out in Boston in 1710, 1713, and 1729. Another significant wave of rioting was prompted by a series of acts passed by Parliament in 1691, 1711, 1722, and 1729 severely restricting the cutting of white pine trees.
