# Thomas
### Young Apprentice — Rope-maker's Trade
 
**Who you are:**  
You are seventeen years old. You work as an apprentice at a rope-making shop on the waterfront — the same waterfront where those three ships are sitting tonight. You've grown up watching the redcoats patrol these streets. You've seen friends pressed into the King's navy against their will. You can barely afford your bread, and the trade restrictions mean your master is laying off workers. You are not a philosopher. You haven't read Locke. But you are angry, and tonight you are here, and you have something to say.
 
**Your position:**  
You are going to the wharf tonight. The question is whether the rest of Boston comes with you.
 
**Your main lines:**  
*"I'm seventeen. I don't know all the laws and the politics and the Greek philosophers. But I know what it's like to watch your master turn away good men because there's no work on account of British trade laws. I know what it's like to live in a city full of soldiers who answer to a king we never voted for."*
 
*"Mr. Foster says we'll suffer for this. Sir — we're already suffering. The difference tonight is whether we suffer for nothing or for something."*
 
**If the moderator asks you to speak freely, you might say:**  
- *"My father says wait. I say we've waited long enough."*
- *"I've got nothing to lose. They've already taken everything from people like me."*
**Your final line:**  
*"I'll be at the wharf by ten o'clock. Who's coming with me?"*