A band of 19 warriors from three different tribes (Delaware, Shawnee and Cherokee) angry at the westward expansion of white settlements attacked, tortured and killed James Boone, Henry Russell, John Mendenhall, Richard Mendenhall, Samuel Drake and Charles (an enslaved member of their party) on Wallen’s Creek in the Yadkin Valley of Virginia. Although the attack was not sanctioned by their tribes, this attack is considered by some historians to be the beginning of Dunmore’s War, a precursor of the Revolution. Warfare between Native Americans and the American colonists continued with few interruptions from this time throughout and long after the conclusion of combat with the British in the American Revolution. For the next year, the British government and American colonists were united in combat with Native Americans, but soon after the beginning of the war between the American colonists and the British, several tribes joined the British side.

Source: Williams, Glenn F., Dunmore’s War: Tthe Last Conflict of America’s Colonial Era, Westholme Publishing, 2017 at p. 3.

Captain William Russell’s 17-year old son Henry Russell with Daniel Boone’s 17-year old son James Boone departed Russell’s home at Castle’s Woods in Fincastle County, Virginia with a party of 8 carrying supplies to join Daniel Boone’s trek into Kentucky. They would soon become the first casualties in “Dunmore’s War”, an importtant precursor to the Revoluion.

Source: Williams, Glenn F., Dunmore’s War: Tthe Last Conflict of America’s Colonial Era, Westholme Publishing, 2017 at p. 3.

Thomas Mifflin of Philadelphia, writing as “Scaevola” published a broadside threatening any agents accepting delivery of tea from the East India Company. Mifflin was a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly and later would serve in the Continental Congress, the Continental Army and as Governor of Pennsylvania.

Source: Norton, Mary Beth, 1774: The Long Year of Revolution . New York, Vintage Books, 2020 at p. 13.

Alexander McDougall, a leader of the Sons of Liberty in New York City, writing as “Hampden” published the first of five broadsides (essays printed on a large sheet of paper) entittled The Alarm attacking the East India Company. His final essay called for a boycott of its tea. McDougall would later servc with distinction as a general in the Continental Army.

Source: Norton, Mary Beth, 1774: The Long Year of Revolution . New York, Vintage Books, 2020 at p. 13.

The Massachusetts Gazette republished the Pennsylvania Chronicle‘s September 29 article calling Prime Minister North a “great schemer.”

Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-ushistory1/chapter/the-destruction-of-the-tea-and-the-coercive-acts/#footnote-170-2

Pat and I are going on vacation out of the country and I won’t be posting again until October 11. But I am posting in advance a few dates of significance while we are gone.

On this day 250 years ago, the Pennsylvania Chronicle published an excerpt from a letter with intelligence that the East India Company was making arrangements to ship tea to American ports. The letter writer did not know that the ships had set sail that very day from England but he encouraged Philadelphians to reject the tea if it arrived there. The publisher of the Philadelphia paper added his own plea for Americans to resist!:

Extract of a letter from New-York, September 27.

“Six hundred chests of tea are destined by the 
East-India House for your place, 600 for this, and 
300 for Boston. Our London Captains have refus-
ed taking it, and I hope yours will follow their ex-
ample. Their owners have commended them. 
Some ships will no doubt be hired, to transport it 
hither. Whether it may be landed or not, I will 
not take upon me to say ; if it is, I hope no pur-
chaser will offer for it. I am told that it is to be 
exposed at vendue as soon as it comes.”

We are assured the above is a scheme of Lord 
North’s, to whom an application was made by the 
East-India Directors, the last Session of Parliament, 
to bring in a bill for the repeal of the American 
Tea Act, as they found the merchants on this side 
the Atlantic, had virtue enough to forego their 
profit, stand to their agreement, and did not pur-
chase or import any tea, which he absolutely re-
fused ; and being a great schemer struck out the 
plan of the East-India Company’s sending this ar-
ticle to America ; hoping thereby to out wit us, 
and to effectually establish that Act, which will for 
ever after be pleaded sa a precedent for every imposi-
tion the Parliament of Great-Britain shall think 
proper to saddle us with.

It is much to be wished, that the Americans will 
convince Lord North, that they are not yet ready 
to have the yoke of slavery rivetted about their necks, 
and send back the tea from whence it came.

Source: https://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=401&mode=dual&img_step=1#page1

On this day 250 years ago, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney married Sarah Middleton uniting two of the most prominent Patriot families of South Carolina. Sarah was the daughter of Henry Middleton, who would soon serve as President of the First Continental Congress, and brother of Arthur Middleton who would be a Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney would serve in the Continental Army during the Revolution rising to the rank of Brigadier General, and later sign the Constitution and run for President as the candidate of the Federalist Party.

Source: https://www.nps.gov/people/charles-cotesworth-pinckney.htm

On this day 250 years ago the first of seven ships carrying East India Company tea left England for America. One ship was headed to Charleston, another to Philadelphia, a third ship to New York, and four ships headed to Boston. The cargo of three of those ships ended up in Boston Harbor in the well-known Boston Tea Party, but Patriots in the other three cities would take less drastic measures that also effectively prevented the sale of the East India Company’s tea. The coordinated efforts of Patriots in all the American Colonies to block the sale of tea taxed by Parliament without any representation of the Colonies would lead directly to the Independence of the United States of America.

Source: https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/tea-blog/five-facts-you-didnt-know-about-the-boston-tea-party

On this day 250 years ago, George Washington was taking a break from politics and dined at Rawling’s Tavern in Anne Arundel County, Maryland on his way to the races in Annapolis.

Source: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=3141