Student Discontent at Harvard Before Revolution
As Boston Raged, Scholars at Cambridge Staged Their Own Rebellions
Oct 15, 2009
In the years just before the American War of Independence, Harvard College was not immune to the spirit of liberty that washed over colonial America. At this time Harvard was a cozy campus of six buildings for about 180 undergraduates, who were taught and supervised by a college president, three professors and four tutors.
While isolated violations of rules was hardly a novelty at the school, three series of disturbances between 1766 and 1770 were more serious than usual. None were directly related to the simmering discontent among colonists over taxes without representation. However, news about broken windows, tar and feathering, attacks on customs officials in Boston may have inspired students to act out.
Stinking Butter
The first of these student rebellions took place in 1766. Students were angry about the poor quality of the food they were provided, especially the butter, which was rancid. According to student account of the incident, a student, Asa Dunbar, presented the bad butter to a tutor and, according to his own recollection, demanded in biblical language, "Behold our Butter stinketh, and we cannot eat thereof; now give us, we pray thee, Butter that stinketh not."
Without getting any response to his protest, Dunbar was told to sit down. He refused. The faculty punished him by censuring him and by degrading him to the bottom of his class. His fellow students then got together and voted to leave the commons "if bad & unwholesome Butter should be served out unto them on the Morrow." When rancid butter was served up once again, most students, as threatened, walked out, gathered outside to denounced their tutors, and walked into Cambridge for breakfast.
The revolt did not last. Students quickly agreed to admit that their actions were ""irregular and unconstitutional and confess their "Sorrow" for upsetting good order.
Turkish Tyranny
A more serious revolt occurred in 1768. This came to be known as the Turkish Tyranny, as students likened school authorities to Turkish despots. This revolt came about after the college changed its rules about how students could respond when asked in class to recite. The rule had been that students could simply say "nolo," meaning "I don't want to" and be excused.
Under the new policy, which applied to all students except the seniors, students couldn't excuse themselves so easily. Students had to get permission from tutors before class to be excused from reciting. As a consequence many students promptly asked tutors to be excused. Some tutors, such as Thomas "Horsehead" Danforth, turned down all requests. He subsequently had manure smeared on his door. Another tutor, Joseph Willard, had his room ransacked, and several had their chamber windows broken. Then rumors circulated that Willard his efforts to find the identities of the students who ransacked his room, had locked up a freshman "without Victuals, Fire or Drink." A mob of students soon appeared at Willard's quarters and broke the windows.
In the following days, many students met to plan protests at a large elm tree, which they called their Liberty Tree, the same name given to an elm in Boston where Sons of Liberty gathered to protest the Stamp Act.
Threat To Go To Yale
Seniors, who had been aloof from the whole controversy, finally became involved and asked the faculty to properly look into recent events.When the faculty ignored the request, the seniors went to the college president to request a transfer to Yale College.
Little came of that threat and when the freshman in question swore he was never restrained in any way, the revolt collapsed. Eventually, the student ringleader signed a humiliating confession. he later baca a Congregational minister. Meanwhile, Willard, one of the tutors at the center of the controversy, eventually became president of Harvard. The freshman who was involved, transferred to the College of Rhode Island, but never graduated, became a preacher, but was dismissed from his church for "irregularities."
Another series of noteworthy disturbances occurred in 1770, the same year as the Boston Massacre. A rash of incidents included an assault and a threat to kill, a break in into a house, an assault on a deputy sheriff, and entertaining women "of ill Fame" in student living quarters.
Sources:
Chase, Theodore, "Harvard Student Disorders in 1770." The New England Quarterly, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Mar. 1988), p. 25-54.
Cohen, Sheldon S., "The Turkish Tyranny." The New England Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Dec. 1974), p. 564-583.
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