“Believing himself best rid of troublemakers who had ‘hostile intentions against his Majesty’s troops,’ General Gage at first moved to accelerate the evacuation of the city. In a meeting on April 22 between Gage and town officials, both sides agreed that ‘the women and children, with all their effects, shall have safe conduct without the garrison’ and that male inhabitants ‘upon condition…that they will not take up arms against the King’s troops’ would also be permitted to leave…All possessions except plate and firearms could be taken from the town. General Gage assured those civilians desiring to stay that they would receive his protection. At a town meeting the following day the inhabitants agreed to the terms…Between late April and early June a mass exodus occurred. Within eight weeks approximately ten thousand inhabitants fled Boston. Confused, terrified, uncertain as to the state of events, inhabitants gathered what possessions they could. Now refugees, they fled along the crowded roads throughout the surrounding countryside seeking places of refuge…As thousands of terrified Bostonians fled the town, Loyalist refugees from throughout Massachusetts, clinging to entry passes from the Provincial Congress, poured into Boston seeking refuge in an otherwise hostile world. Many left behind pillaged homes, the remnants of months of persecution from their Whig neighbors…Across the narrow neck of the Boston peninsula, in the shadow of the town gallows and the fort that British soldiers were busily erecting, both Whig and Tory sympathizers passed. One might only imagine the mixture of anger, resentment, fear, and melancholy that each of them faced as they looked at the thousands around them pulling carts and carrying in their arms and on their backs the few possessions with which they were allowed to depart. ‘You can have no conception of the distresses [of] the people,’ wrote one observer. ‘You’ll see parents that are lucky enough to procure papers, with bundles in one hand and a string of children in the other…wandering out of the town…not knowing whither they’ll go…’ The previous day he informed a friend, ‘If I can escape with the skin of my teeth, shall be glad, as I don’t expect to be able to take more than a change of apparell with me.’ Lives were turned upside down: some would never see their homes again.”
