Todd Otis, an East Bde Maka Ska resident who formerly served in the Minnesota State of House of Representatives, has written a book about his ancestor James Otis.
Todd’s relative James Otis helped the founders of the colonized United States free themselves from what they saw as arrogant custom officials entering Bostonians’ homes, in search of smuggled goods. “Sparks of the Revolution: James Otis and the Birth of American Democracy” is a close-up look at the beginnings of colonial America and how the people of Boston fought back against Great Britain's attempt at maintaining power over the new colony.
James used his sharp lawyer skills to argue against the Writs of Assistance–the warrants British custom officials used to enter people’s property to look for smuggled goods. At the time, John Adams said James’s arguments made in court against the warrants was when “the child Independence was born.”
Todd wrote the book without going to Boston and without James Otis’s papers–James burned them later in life.
“He was brilliant,” Todd Otis said of his relative James Otis. “But by 1770, 1771, they had to ask him to stop being a leader.” In 1768, James Otis was violently beaten by customs officials–the very people he fought against in the courts, and his mental health quickly deteriorated.
The lack of historical papers gave Todd a logistical challenge and some freedom.
“It liberated me to create dialogue and even relationships,” Todd Otis said.
While the book’s information about the birth of the United States’ democracy is factual, interpersonal details were left to Todd’s imagination. Todd said he enjoyed developing the narrative around Mercy Otis Warren who was a strong public communicator at the time, but has become largely unknown in history books.
Todd Otis served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1979-1990 in districts outside of Southwest Minneapolis. “Sparks of the Revolution” is published by Modern History Press.
Todd is celebrating the release of his book at Gigi’s Cafe on Oct. 26 from 3-5 p.m.
