On This Day In The Revolution

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Massachusetts delegates John Adams and Sam Adams dined with Joseph Reed, who was one of the leading Patriots of Pennsylvania, albeit not a delegate in Congress. Adams recorded in his diary that Reed “says the Sentiments of People here, are growing more and more favourable every day.”…

On this day 250 years ago, the Suffolk County Convention meeting in Milton, Massachusetts adopted the Suffolk Resolves. These 19 resolutions were drafted by Dr. Joseph Warren and were later adopted in large part by the Continental Congress. They were the most influential of the many resolutions adopted by counties and other local governments in…

On this day 250 years ago in the Continental Congress meeting at Carpenter’s Hall Philadelphia, John Adams made notes of the deliberations of the Committee for Stating Rights, Grievances and Means of Redress. Roger Sherman of Connecticut made the most radical comments in the debate: The Colonies not bound to the King or Crown by…

On this day 250 years ago, Rev. Jacob Duché of Christ Church in Philadelphia gave the convocation prayer at the First Continental Congress: O Lord our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and…

Worcester Revolt Source: On September 6, 1774 in the First Continental Congress at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, Patrick Henry delivered a famous speech declaring “Fleets and armies and the present state of things shew that Government is dissolved. Where are your landmarks? your boundaries of colonies? The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New…

On this day 250 years ago, the first Continental Congress convened at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Eleven of the thirteen colonies had delegates present — Georgia did not send delegates to the Congress and the North Carolina delegation had not yet arrived. As its first order of business the Congress elected Peyton Randolph of…

On this day 250 years ago in Boston John Adams’s law clerk Edward Hill wrote to John Adams to supplement the report from William Tudor the previous day: Many people were disappointed that the Bar did not refuse to go on with any Business. An Advertisement was posted up at the Court house threatning death…

On this day 250 years ago in Boston, William Tudor, an associate of John Adams, wrote Adams about how the Patriots were shutting down the Royal courts in Massachusetts: This Week has been fruitfull of extraordinary Transactions. . . . Tuesday the Superior Court opened . . . . When the grand Jury were called upon…

On this day 250 years ago, Patriots estimated to total from 2000 to more than 20,000, occupied the towns of Charlestown (now Somerville) and Cambridge, Massachusetts in response to the Powder Alarm. The assembled crowd demanded and received the resignation of royal officials who lived in Cambridge including Lieutenant Governor Thomas Oliver and Judges Samuel…

Early in the morning on this day 250 years ago, approximately 260 British regulars removed a large quantity of gunpowder owned by the King from the Powder House in Charlestown (now Somerville), Massachusetts. Once the ammunition was removed, most of the regulars returned to Boston by boat but a small detachment marched through the adjacent…