On this day 250 years ago, a mass meeting of more than 6000 of “the Freeholders, Freemen, and inhabitants of the City and County of New York” adopted a “General Association” that declared
that the Salvation of the Rights and Liberties of America, depends under GOD, on the Union of its Inhabitants, in the vigorous Prosecution of the Measures necessary for its Safety . . . We . . . Do in the most solemn Manner, resolve never to become Slaves; and do associate, under all the Ties of Religion, Honour, and Love to our Country to adopt…whatever Measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress, or resolved upon by our Provincial Convention, for the purpose of preserving our Constitution and opposing the Execution of the several arbitrary and oppressive Acts of the British Parliament, until a Reconciliation between Great-Britain and America, on Constitutional Principles, (which we most ardently Desire) can be obtained
More than 1000 Inhabitants of New York signed the General Association after the meeting.
Sources: https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.10801200/; https://www.varsitytutors.com/earlyamerica/early-america-review/volume-7/new-york-city-during-the-revolution
On that day in Fredericksburg, Virginia, about 700 militiamen had assembled to march to Williamsburg to confront Governor Dunmore about his seizure of the gunpowder in the Powder Magazine. Instead of marching they sent letters to Speaker Peyton Randolph in Williamsburg and to Col. George Washington at Mount Vernon to ask for instructions. Randolph and Washington advised the men to go home and by a narrow vote, they agreed to do so.
Sources: “From James Madison to William Bradford, 9 May 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-01-02-0044. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, vol. 1, 16 March 1751 – 16 December 1779, ed. William T. Hutchinson and William M. E. Rachal. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1962, pp. 144–145.]; https://www.revwartalk.com/04-20-1775-battles-gunpowder-affair-in-williamsburg-virginia/; https://250andcounting.com/
And also on that day 250 years ago in Charlottesville, Virginia the Albemarle Independent Company also wrote to George Washington for instructions on how to proceed:
The County of Albemarle in General & the Gentlemen Volunteers in particular are truly alarmed, & highly incensed with the unjustifiable proceedings of Lord Dunmore, who we are informed has Clandestinly taken possession of our ammunition lodged in the Magazine, we should have attended at Fredericksburgh in order to have proceeded to Williamsburgh to demand a return of the powder, had the Alarm reached us before an account of Security being given for its delivery—however to assure you, & the world of our readiness, & willingness to resent every encroachment of Arbitary power, we now declare to you, should it be necessary, that the first Company of Independents for Albemarle will attend in Williamsburgh properly equiped (& if not to be obtained ⟨other⟩wise) to Enforce an immediate delivery of the powder, or die in the Attempt, with respect we remain ready to obey your commands.
Source: “To George Washington from Albemarle Independent Company, 29 April 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-10-02-0273. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 10, 21 March 1774 – 15 June 1775, ed. W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995, pp. 349–350.]
And on this day 250 years ago, in Granville, Massachusetts, 39 men of the Granville Militia assembled and marched off to join the New England Army in the Siege of Boston.
On This Day In The Revolution 