DEFIANCE

A depiction of the Loyalist customs official John Malcolm’s second experience of tarring and feathering, a practice that gained traction throughout the colonies during the Revolutionary conflict. Despite the Liberty Tree in the background with the upside-down Stamp Act pinned to its trunk, Malcolm had in this instance earned the wrath of his fellow Bostonians for attempting to beat a child and striking a man who intervened.

Photograph by Rythum Vinoben for The Atlantic. Document Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library.