On This Day In The Revolution

On this day 250 years ago, General Gage, Royal Governor of Massachusetts, retrieved from the commander of the local militia the key to the storehouse (called the Powder House) where the King’s gunpowder was stored in Charlestown (now Somerville). Gage ordered a detachment of Redcoats to depart early the next morning in boats across the…

On this day 250 years ago in Springfield, Massachusetts, more than 3,000 Patriots marched “with staves and musick” to block the Hampshire County Court from convening. “Amidst the crowd in a sandy, sultry place, exposed to the sun,” the judges appointed by the Crown to replace elected officials were forced to renounce “in the most…

On this day 250 years ago, the Boston Evening Post reported on how the people of Plymouth pressured George Watson to resign from the Massachusetts Council. Watson was appointed to the Council by Governor Gage under the authority of the hated Massachusetts Government Act which abolished Massachusetts’s elected Council and replaced it with appointed Councilors.…

On this day 250 years ago, from Princeton, New Jersey, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail. He promised to give her the details of the Massachusetts delegation’s journey from Boston to Princeton when he returned home but succinctly stated that “The Spirit of the People wherever we have been seems to be very favourable.…

On this day 250 years ago the Patriots were very busy in Massachusetts. Two thousand men surrounded the home of Timothy Paine in Worcester to demand, successfully, his resignation as a Mandamus Councilor to Governor Gage. In Boston, the multicounty convention of town Committees of Correspondence meeting at Faneuil Hall issued a report declaring unequivocally: No…

On this day 250 years ago a meeting at Faneuil Hall in Boston proposed creation of a Provincial Congress for Massachusetts. Source: https://www.yorkmaine.org/DocumentCenter/View/10986/Colonial-Boston-from-the-newspapers-6-28-14

On this day 250 years ago in New Bern, North Carolina, “a general meeting of deputies of the Inhabitants of this province” led by John Harvey elected North Carolina’s Delegation for the First Continental Congress. The three Delegates to the Continental Congress would all go to be recognized as Founding Fathers from North Carolina. Joseph…

On this day 250 years ago, Robert Champlin of Newport, Rhode Island purchased a 5ft 4 ¾in tall “negro” boy of about 16 years of age who had been enslaved in Africa, most likely Ghana, and who would eventually go by the name “York Champlin.” On March 15, 1778 York Champlin would enlist in the…

250 years ago this week, Ebenezer Hazard of New York wrote to Thomas Jefferson requesting Jefferson’s subscription and contribution to a collection of “American State Papers” that Hazard proposed to publish. The collection would include every important public Paper (such as Royal Grants, Charters, Acts of Parliament, &c. &c.) relating to America, … down to…

250 years ago on August 22, 1774, the people of Hatfield, Massachusetts erected a Liberty Pole to symbolize their commitment to the Patriot cause. 250 years ago this week in New York City, John Adams recorded in his diary meetings of the Massachusetts delegation to the Continental Congress with Patriot leaders in New York. Source:…