Michael Jackson, likely a tanner and militiaman from Newton, Massachusetts, spent most of his adult life in the service of and fighting for the emergence of the new American nation.
Prior to the Revolutionary War, he had served as a Lieutenant in the French and Indian War. Jackson potentially served at Fort Edward, under Colonel Richard Gridley, from February 1756 until early December of that year. He saw further duty in 1762, serving nearly a year under Captain Johnson Moulton. His descendant Alice Fanny Jackson later wrote about his participation in the Boston Tea Party, which the family knew of from an 1823 letter Michael’s son Ebenezer wrote to his own son, detailing his many exploits. In that work, Three Hundred Years American, Alice wrote:
“At Newton Lieutenant Michael Jackson II, with several of his kin and many townsmen, similarly garbed, hastily mounted their horses, galloped into Boston and to the harbor, where they joined the crowd, raided the ships, and dumped nearly ten thousand pounds’ (£ ) worth of tea into the water.”
What became known as the Boston Tea Party was planned and carried out in utmost secrecy. The action was considered an act of treason at the time. The citizens of nearby Newton, Massachusetts, were acutely aware of the fraught political issues over East India Company tea. At a Town Meeting called on December 20, 1773, Jackson was appointed to the Committee of Fifteen to “confer with the inhabitants of the town as to the expediency of leaving off buying, selling, or using any of the India teas.” While it was recorded that “two or more” Newton men were present at the uprising in Boston Harbor, Jackson was not specifically mentioned as a participant. It is the 1823 letter from Ebenezer Jackson that first told of Michael’s participation.
When the Revolutionary War broke out, Michael Jackson’s prior military experience led to his post as captain of a group of Minute Men at Lexington on April 19, 1775. He was seldom far from the action after that. Commissioned as a Major in Colonel Gardner’s Massachusetts regiment on June 3, 1775, he was wounded at the Battle Bunker Hill. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, he led the 16th Continental Infantry from January 1 to December 31, 1776. In that capacity, he was severely wounded at the Battle of Montressor’s Island in New York. Despite a shattered lower leg, he re-enlisted upon his recovery as a full Colonel in the 8th Massachusetts regiment on January 1, 1777. On June 12, 1783, Jackson transferred to the 3rd Massachusetts regiment, where he was made a Brevet Brigadier General on September 30, 1783. He served until he was discharged on November 3, 1783.
General Michael Jackson serves as an example that history is forever changing. Jackson’s name does not appear on any previously published list of Boston Tea Party participants. It is through the combined work of his family, his descendants, the historical community of Newton, Massachusetts, The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, and American Ancestors that Mr. Jackson’s involvement in one of the most iconic historical events in American history has come to light.
Michael Jackson died in Newton, Massachusetts, on April 3, 1801. He is buried in the East Parish Burying Ground in Newton, Massachusetts.
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