On This Day In The Revolution

On this day 250 years ago in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Town’s Patriots erected a Liberty Pole in the Town Square, in front of the County Courthouse.  At the same time, 20 teams of oxen dragged to the Town Square the top half of the rock that the Mayflower passengers supposedly stepped on to reach shore. …

On this day 250 years ago, members of the Massachusetts General Court (i.e., the Massachusetts Assembly) gathered in Salem, Massachusetts as originally scheduled in defiance of Governor Gage’s proclamation of September 28 dissolving the Assembly. The members waited all day to see if the Governor would reconvene the Assembly in accordance with the Massachusetts Charter. …

On this day 250 years ago the Worcester, Massachusetts, Town Meeting voted for these instructions to Timothy Bigelow, its representative to the upcoming Massachusetts Provincial Congress: If all infractions of our rights, by acts of the British Parliament, be not redressed, and we restored to the full enjoyment of all our privileges, . . .…

On this day 250 years ago, the county militias of Massachusetts were organizing for war. The Worcester County, Massachusetts militia elected Artemas Ward as their Colonel, even though he had been previously been removed from office by the Royal Governor of Massachusetts due to his ardent Patriotism. The Town Meeting of Framingham “Voted — that…

On this day 250 years ago in Boston, Samuel Swift wrote to Thomas Cushing and the other members of the Massachusetts delegation at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Among other things, he reported that: Jealousies seem to rise higher between the People and the Army. It has been Rumour’d they were about to Fortifie Dorchester…

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress appointed a committee chaired by Richard Henry Lee, with John Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Johnson of Maryland, and John Rutledge of South Carolina as members, to prepare a “loyal address to his Majesty.” The Congress directed the Committee to request “royal attention to the…

On this day 250 years ago in Framingham, Massachusetts, the Town Meeting elected Josiah Stone to the Massachusetts Great and General Court (the official title of a body also referred to as the Massachusetts Assembly, or House of Representatives or Legislature) that had been scheduled to meet on October 5 in Salem. Two days before…

On this day 250 years ago in Boston, Joseph Warren wrote to Samuel Adams attending the Congress in Philadelphia about mounting tensions between the British Army and Patriots in Boston and the British Army’s actions to acquire arms and supplies from the citizens of Boston. Aside from the mention of the British Navy’s capture of…

On this day 250 years ago Patriot leader Josiah Quincy, Jr. set sail from Salem, Massachusetts, on a secret mission to England. Quincy was a member of the Boston Committees of Correspondence and Safety, confidant of Samuel Adams, and author of numerous pamphlets and articles supporting the Patriot cause and Observations on the Boston Port…

On this day 250 years ago, hundreds of Patriots marched from Sandwich, Massachusetts to the Barnstable Court House where they met other Patriots from Barnstable County. A total of 1500 people, one tenth of the total population (men, women and children) of the county, there confronted James Otis, Chief Judge of Barnstable County’s Court of…