The American Revolution throws cold water on the Guy
As the English began to establish colonies in North America, their settlers as a matter of course brought the most prominent and celebrated English holiday with them. And as long as the colonies remained English, Gunpowder Treason Day continued to be celebrated with increasing enthusiasm throughout most of the colonies, both the sermons in the mornings and the bonfires at night.
The most notable celebrations of the day were in Massachusetts, but all the colonies participated in various ways. Though the Puritan government of Massachusetts was not always sympathetic to making it a special day of thanksgiving, let alone a day to be idle from work, the bonfire builders and mischief makers kept busy from the start.
In 1607, less than two years after Gunpowder Night, the first English-speaking American colony was established in what is now Virginia. With a charter from King James I, and the name Jamestown, it maintained good relations with the king and thus very likely celebrated Gunpowder Night, at least the bonfires. But disease, chronic shortages of food, and war with Indians beset the colony throughout its early years, and their chronicles and reports make almost no mention of Gunpowder Night, very likely because at starvation level they wouldn’t have had time or strength for such a celebration.
Because Jamestown remained affiliated with the Church of England, however, that colony would have observed the church calendar designating November 5 a day of thanksgiving. The memory of November 5, 1605, was vivid enough that members of the Jamestown colony in 1607 had to swear an oath not to attempt anything like what Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators had undertaken. You can almost smell the gunpowder:
I. . . . . . M. . . . . . doe trulie and sincerely acknowledge. professe testifie and declare in my Conscience before God & the world, That our Soveraigne Lord King James ys lawfull and rightful King of Great Britaine and of the Colony of Virginia, and of all other his Majesties Dominions and Countries. And that ye pope neither of himselfe, nor by any Authoretie of the Church or See of Rome, or by any other meanes (with any other) hath any power or authoritie to depose the King or to dispose any of his Majesties Dominions.
Meanwhile, to the north, the first recorded observance of Gunpowder Night in America happened in the Plymouth colony of New England in 1623, just three years after the Pilgrims arrived there. There was a little trouble with the bonfire, as Governor William Bradford wrote:
This fire was occasioned by some of the seamen that were roistering in a house where it first began, making a great fire in cold weather, which broke out of the chimney into the thatch. . . .
The house in which it began was right against their storehouse, which they had much ado to save, in which were their common store and all their provisions, the which, if they had been lost, the plantation had been overthrown. But through God’s mercy it was saved by the great diligence of the people and care of the [government]. . . .
But a trusty company . . . suspected some malicious dealing, if not plain treachery, and whether it was only suspicion or not, God knows; but this is certain, that when the tumult was greatest, there was a voice heard (but from whom it was not known) that bid them look about them, for all were not friends that were near them. . . . But God kept them from this danger, whatever was intended.
That was not only the first but apparently the only Massachusetts religious celebration of the Fifth of November for some time. The Church of England’s calendar of feasts wasn’t followed in the Massachusetts colony, but nobody in authority, governors or clergy, dared to advocate abolishing the November 5 celebration.
Further to the north, the Newfoundland colony weighed in on Gunpowder Treason in 1628 with a book of epigrams and verses by Governor Robert Hayman. His poem, “Of the Gunpowder Holly-day, the 5. of November,” includes this stanza:
The Powder-Traytors, Guy Vaux, and his mates,
Who by a Hellish plot sought Saints estates,
Have in our Kalendar unto their shame,
A joyfull Holy-day cald by their Name.
By the 18th century, both the preaching and the bonfires of Gunpowder Day reached a peak of participation and enthusiasm. But then came the American Revolution.
The Revolution inadvertently encouraged a rethinking of the role of Guy Fawkes. The guy was still tossed in the bonfire of Guy Fawkes Night, but American colonists found themselves with the same goal as Fawkes: removing the English monarchy and government.
Ironically, by the mid-18th century, New England commemorations of Gunpowder Treason were at their height. Guy Fawkes wasn’t as prominent a figure in New England as he was in Old England, however. Because of strong anti-Catholic sentiment in pious New England, the focus there was more on the pope—and the Devil, and other current personages, including Stuart pretenders to the English throne in the 18th century. In contrast, Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators of 1605 were less emphasized as the years went on, becoming historical figures from the past and not a present danger.
Each New England locality developed its own way of celebrating Gunpowder Night, but all involved something like this: men and boys would construct effigies of the hated figures. Boys would go house to house with the figures, demanding cash contributions for the expense of building them. At night, the effigies would be burned in great bonfires.
Leading all others in celebrating was Boston. By mid-18th century the Boston bonfire of every November 5 ended up with an extra act: a brawl between North Enders and South Enders armed with stones and barrel staves. The gangs of the North End were pro-royalty, those of the South End anti-royalty, but their chief interest on November 5 was to drink, fight each other, and capture the other’s effigy of the pope. Both papal effigies ended up in a bonfire outside the gates of the city. The bonfire remained decidedly anti-Catholic.
A lengthy broadside poem sold by Boston printers’ boys for Gunpowder Night 1768 starts like this:
1. HUZZA! brave Boys, behold the Pope,
Pretender and Old-Nick,
How they together lay their Heads,
2. To blow up KING and PARLIAMENT
To Flitters, rent and torn:
—Oh! blund’ring Poet, Since the Plot,
Was this Pretender born. . . .
4. Come on, brave Youths, drag on your Pope
Let’s see his frightful Phiz:
Let’s view his Features rough and fierce,
That Map of Ugliness!
5. Distorted Joints, so huge and broad!
So horribly drest up!
‘Twould puzzle Newton’s Self to tell,
The D—l from the Pope.
And so on, for a total of 28 stanzas mocking the Pope, with no mention of Guy Fawkes.
That also was about to undergo a change after 1776. General Washington, in particular, wanted no part of anti-Catholicism. Among other reasons, he was hoping to persuade French-Canadian Catholics to join in the Revolution. In 1775, camped near Boston, he was displeased with the bloody Boston fights. He issued this Order in Quarters to his army on November 5:
As the Commander in Chief has been apprized of a design form’d for the observance of that ridiculous and childish custom of burning the Effigy of the pope, He cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be Officers and Soldiers in this army so void of common sense, as not to see the impropriety of such a step at this Juncture; at a Time when we are solliciting, and have really obtain’d, the friendship and alliance of the people of Canada, whom we ought to consider as Brethren embarked in the same Cause. The defence of the general Liberty of America:
At such a juncture, and in such Circumstances, to be insulting their Religion, is so monstrous, as not to be suffered or excused; indeed instead of offering the most remote insult, it is our duty to address public thanks to these our Brethren, as to them we are so much indebted for every late happy Success over the common Enemy in Canada.
Boston went ahead and celebrated November 5 anyhow that year, but Washington’s declaration remained and helped tone down the anti-Catholic rhetoric. So Washington did his part in downplaying Guy Fawkes Day by directly attacking the religious premise for Pope Night celebrations.
At about the same time, John Adams inadvertently added to the downplaying of Pope Night by ignoring it. He foresaw instead an entirely different American occasion for celebratory bonfires. In a letter to his wife Abigail, he was off by just two days in his prediction:
3 July 1776
The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
And so when in due course the United States adopted a Constitution and added a Bill of Rights, the first clause of the first amendment declared:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
This did not immediately quash all celebrations of November 5, but they gradually diminished until by mid-19th century few remained. And that was necessary in order to pave the way for a very different use of “guy.”