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Month: October 2023
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On this day 250 years ago, Sarah Franklin Bache wrote her father Benjamin Franklin in London that she was “much disapointed at your not coming home this Fall.” Franklin was serving as the agent of the American colonies in London and was working to convince the British Government to change its policies oppressing the Colonies.
Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%2230%20October%201773%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=2&sr=
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On this day 250 years ago, the British 23rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Welch Fusiliers), and the 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Artillery, paraded on the outskirts of New York City before the Royal Governor and a large crowd of New Yorkers. The military maneuvers by these units, which were garrisoned in New York City, were intended in part to intimidate the growing Patriot sentiment in New York that was then organizing to block imports of East India Company tea.
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On this day 250 years ago Josiah Flagg conducted a “final Grand Concert” at Faneuil Hall with about 50 players from the militia band of Boston that he had organized. Flagg later served as a Patriot lieutenant colonel during the Revolution.
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At the end of October 250 years ago, famed poet Phillis Wheatley was a free woman. At some point in October (I have not discovered the exact date) the Wheatley family that had enslaved her manumitted her from slavery immediately following her return from London where her book Reflections on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published. This was the first book of poetry written in English by a person of African ancestry.
In November 2023, a play to commemorate Phillis Wheatley’s life and accomplishments will be running at the Old South Meeting House in Boston, where she had attended church. https://revolutionaryspaces.org/explore/upcoming-programs/phillis-in-boston/
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On this day 250 years ago, the fifth installment of The Alarm, written by Alexander McDougall under the pseudonym “Hampden”, was published in New York City. The publication ended with a pledge to boycott tea and threat to anyone who attempted to import tea:
“We the subscribers, do agree, that we will not import, or receive from Great-Britain, any article, or articles, upon which a duty is laid, or hereafter may be laid, for the purpose of raising a Revenue in America. We do hereby also further agree, that we will not import from Great-Britain, any Tea, until the said duty be taken off. If any goods shall arrive contrary to this, and our former agreement, they shall be re shipped immediately; And any persons, masters of vessels, or others, that shall import, or receive a consignment of any dutiable goods, shall be deemed enemies to the Colonies, and treated accordingly. ”
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On this day 250 years ago, George Washington arrived in Williamsburg for a sojourn of more than a month. He had dinner in the Raleigh Tavern. During his previous visit to Williamsburg in March, Washington had participated in the House of Burgesses’ formation of Virginia’s Committee of Correspondence, and on his next visit in May 1774 he was again at Raleigh Tavern when the members of the Virginia Assembly defiantly reconvened there after being dissolved by Governor Dunmore. Washington’s time in Williamsburg from October to December 1773 seems to have been focused on his family’s personal affairs. But he did dine several times with Virginia Speaker Peyton Randolph, soon to be another of America’s Founding Fathers, and twice with Governor Dunmore, who would soon be the enemy as the war began.
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On this day 250 years ago, the Boston Gazette published a letter from “Scaevola” (Thomas Mifflin of Philadelphia) entitled “BY UNITING WE STAND — BY DIVIDING WE FALL To the Commissioners appointed by the EAST INDIA COMPANY For the SALE of TEA in AMERICA.” In this letter, Mifflin warned the commisioners “to save YOURSELVES much Trouble” and resign.
Source: https://www.masshist.org/2012/juniper/assets/ed-curricula/blackington_bostontea_party_documents.pdf
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Moravian missionaries established a church (their second) at Schoenbrunn, Ohio for Delaware Indians. These “praying Indians” were friendly to American colonists and provided supplies and information to American forces during the Revolution. Because of their pacifism, however they tried to remain neutral during the war but were mistrusted by both sides. In the worst atrocity by American forces in the Revolution, in 1782 the Moravian Indians in the nearby village of Gnadenhutten were massacred by Pennsylvania militiamen, but the Indians at Schoenbrunn were warned and fled their village before they could meet the same fate.
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On this day 250 years ago, Delaware formed a Committee of Correspondence, joining eight other colonies.
Source: https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/learn/deep-dives/committees-of-correspondence/
On This Day In The Revolution 