On This Day In The Revolution

On this day 250 years ago, a group of Patriots in Boston led by William Powell, Joseph Warren and Sam Adams sign a petition demanding the resignation of Richard Clarke and the other consignees of the East India Company. Later that night a large number of people attack and damage Richard Clarke’s home. Sources: https://dp.la/item/b7807750c2cbb83d01bd29f289097e5d;…

On this day 250 years ago, the Second Session of the Maryland Proprietary Assembly convened in Annapolis. The colonial Assembly would convene for one more session in 1774 before it was replaced by the Maryland Convention and then the Maryland Assemby of Freemen. The Assembly in 1773 included many Members who would soon be leading…

On this day 250 years ago, an article written by “Junius Brutus” in the South Carolina Gazette warned Carolinians that the Tea Act enacted by Parliament would “establish a precedent for subjugating you to future impositions equally unjust and impolitic- to raise a revenue out of your pockets, against your consent- and to render assemblies of…

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Hamlet was performed by The American Company in Philadelphia with an original prologue written by William Eddis, that extolled “the sweets of Liberty”. Even at the theater, there was no escaping Americans’ demands for their rights. Source: https://research.colonialwilliamsburg.org/DigitalLibrary/view/index.cfm?doc=ResearchReports%5CRR0057.xml&highlight=#n850 at p. 231 (the prologue was reported in the…

On this day 250 years ago, Peter Timothy announced in his South Carolina Gazette (two other competing newspapers in Charleston used the same title) that “300 chests of tea were on their way to Charles Town.” He urged Patriots to “band together to take the necessary steps to prevent the landing” of the tea. Source:…

On this day 250 years ago, John Fleeming, former publisher of the Chronicle in Boston, wrote British Prime Minister Lord North seeking compensation. The Chronicle was funded by contracts with the British government and had supported the British government’s policies. As a result the paper was forced to close by the Patriots of Boston, and…

On this day 250 years ago , the Massachusetts Spy published on its front page radical arguments that would underpin a Revolution to establish a democratic government: “The people at large, are . . . the only safe repository of the power of framing, amending and repealing laws. . . . “The province was from…

On this day 250 years ago, Moses Brown of Providence, Rhode Island, one of the four Brown brothers who were the leading Patriots in that colony, freed his slaves with this letter of manumission: “Whereas I am clearly convinced that the buying and selling of men of what color soever is contrary to the Divine…

On this day 250 years ago the Essex Gazette in Salem, Massachusetts republished a reply by the commissioners who would receive the East India Company’s tea in Boston indicating that they were not intimidated by the threats issued by the Sons of Liberty. It was becoming clear to the Patriots that rallies, pamphlets and warnings…

On this day 250 years ago The Boston-Gazette, and Country Journal published on its front page a letter from “A Countryman” from Chester County, Pennsylvania that had previously been published in Philadelphia. The letter argued that “Surely there is not a man in North America so lost to virtue and common sense as to doubt…