Journalist Jack Hitt returns to tell the story of James Otis Jr., an overlooked founding father whose 1764 pamphlet 'The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved' laid the ideological groundwork for the American Revolution. Through the lens of a single historical object, Hitt explores Otis's radical arguments against parliamentary overreach and the personal tragedy that erased him from national memory.
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Canon
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No Taxation Without Representation
Otis's pamphlet asserted that the colonists could not be taxed by a Parliament in which they had no elected representatives, a radical principle that became a rallying cry for revolution.
James Otis Jr.'s 1764 pamphlet challenged the limits of British parliamentary power and planted the seeds of revolutionary thought in the American colonies.
Despite his early influence, Otis's later life was marked by mental instability and a violent end, leading to his erasure from popular American history.