Spoilers: they did.

Here's a meme that's been going around Facebook lately: http://imgur.com/a/jYdtt

Obviously, R2, so I will not be giving my personal opinion on the riots or anything like that. But this is some bad history, and how. Where to start?

I guess let's go with the general knowledge before we even start citing sources: the whole reason 5 people were shot in the Boston Massacre in the first place was because colonists were rioting. By bringing it up at all, the meme completely contradicts itself.

Simple enough, and I could stop there, but on this board? Never. Pedantry forever. The meme implies that colonists never rioted in the fashion we might see today, but pretty much everyone knows about the Boston Tea Party, which featured, gasp, local destruction of private property! So there's one example we all learned about in like, 2nd grade.

But let's put that very famous example aside for a second. We know from historians like T.H. Breen that rioting was not entirely rare. In fact, in American Insurgents, that is basically Breen's whole point. He notes such acts as arson, destruction of property, intimidation, and extremely personal acts of violence. This meme seems to be implying that colonists never committed such acts, even though the historical record is very clear on this. Again, I don't want to get into Rule 2, but I really haven't seen anyone be tarred and feathered recently, nor have I seen reports of boiling tea being forced down people's throats before they are ridden out of town on a rail.

All of this is to say that regardless of any personal opinions on any riots anywhere, Revolutionary America had more than its share of riots and other violent acts against people and property. They are amply recorded and professional historians from Breen to Wood to have written on them. To imply otherwise is simply not good history.