On June 10, 1768, the King's Commissioners of Customs seized John Hancock's sloop Liberty and its smuggled cargo of Madeira wine. Already agitated by the imposition of the hated Townshend Duties, Bostonians took to the streets. William Fowler, Jr., Distinguished Professor of History, Northeastern University, describes how the Commissioners, fearing for their lives, fled to the safety of Castle William, while John Adams argued his case in defense of Hancock and Liberty at the Old State House. One of four lectures in the series "Lead, Glass, Paper, Tea: The Townshend Acts, Colonial Unrest, and the Occupation of Boston, 1768." Part of the Lowell Lecture Series presented by the Paul Revere Memorial Association at Old South Meeting House.