What set Massachusetts apart from the sister colonies? By the mid 18th century, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was populated by multigenerational families which had depended on one another for well over 100 years. Their system of education for both sons and daughters was well-established. They shared the same Christian dogma. And the abuse of Parliament was encountered in Massachusetts twenty-five years before the Stamp Act of 1765.
Struggling with a shortage of specie by 1740, the Massachusetts colonists were having difficulty paying their bills. Many were falling into debt. British regulations prohibited the exportation of silver and gold coins or bullion to the colonies. No mines of gold or silver had yet been discovered. The coins colonists initially brought with them were spent to establish themselves.
As they sought to find a solution to the problem of limited specie, the colonists began to consider the possibility of currency backed by property. Their wealth was their land, therefore the issuance of monetary notes backed by land seemed a solution to their problem. In 1740, two Land Banks were established–without the legal authorization of the King and Parliament. Many colonists, desperate to pay their mounting debts, virtually mortgaged portions of their property to obtain currency. It wasn’t long before news of the Massachusetts Land Banks and the colonists’ resourcefulness in independently uniting in a solution to their monetary crisis reached Great Britian. With one fell swoop it was crushed. Many were financially damaged and even destroyed. Among them was the father of Samuel Adams and the grandfather of Joseph Warren. Though separated by twenty years in age, Adams and Warren became intimate friends whose hearts beat in unison for their injured country. Samuel Adams would become known as the ‘Father of the American Revolution’ and Warren the ‘Father of the Republic.’