Thomas Young (revolutionary)

Thomas Young (born February 19, 1731 in Little Britain in the town of New Windsor , New York Province, † June 24, 1777 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) was an American doctor and patriot in the American Revolution . He was one of the leaders of the Boston Tea Party .

Life

Thomas Young was born in Little Britain, Ulster County, the eldest of seven children to Irish and Scottish immigrants John Young and Mary Crawford. He grew up in very simple circumstances. He learned to read and write from his grandmother and his father taught him mathematics. His intelligence was noticed and he was supported and encouraged with books by his neighbor Charles Clinton . Clinton also campaigned for Young to go to school. He learned Latin and French and did medical training with John Kitterman . He then settled as a doctor in Amenia , New York. Young married Mary Winegar and the couple had two sons and four daughters. There he met Ethan Allen , who was six years his junior , and became his mentor. Young was an American deist , poet, and writer.

After the Stamp Act was passed by the British government in 1765 , with which the settlers in the colonies were first imposed direct taxes to offset the costs of the Seven Years' War , resistance formed. Young moved to Boston in 1766 and joined the Sons of Liberty . He quickly became one of the loudest voices in the group and one of the leaders of the people. Governor Thomas Hutchinson thought Young was one of the most dangerous men in town.

Young was the author of numerous medical and political articles in Boston newspapers and magazines. He founded the Boston Committee of Correspondence with like-minded people in 1772 . Formally a local letter club; informally, the Boston People's Liberation Organization. Years later, John Adams suggested that the history of the United States could only be written if it was evaluated. The fonts are now in the collection of the New York Public Library. Among them is also the declaration "Rights of the Colonists", partly written by Young in 1772, which became one of the models for the United States' declaration of independence .

In 1773, Thomas Young suggested throwing the tea bales into the harbor as a protest against the Tea Act .

After Young led a group of people in a protest in September 1774, he had to leave Boston. Young fled to Newport so as not to be arrested, from there to Philadelphia. There he resumed his work as a doctor. He was also interested in politics and was involved in shaping the Pennsylvania constitution. To Ethan Allen trying to found a state in the Green Mountains and to support independence from the New Hampshire Colony and the province of New York , Young suggested the name Vermont from the French les Verts Monts for the Green Mountains .

While working at the Continental Hospital in Philadelphia, Young developed yellow fever and died on June 24, 1777 in Philadelphia.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} New York State Museum: Dr. Thomas Young by Stefan Bielinski , accessed January 7, 2014.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} DR. THOMAS YOUNG, EARLY AMERICAN DEIST , accessed January 7, 2014.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Politico Magazine: The Original Tea Partier Was an Atheist by Matthew Stewart, September 1, 2014 , accessed January 7, 2015.
4. ↑ Old South Meeting House: A Short History of the Boston Tea Party , accessed January 7, 2015.