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On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the First Continental Congress adjourned with plans to reconvene in May of the next year. As its final two acts the Congress forwarded the “Humble Petition” adopted the previous day to Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee and William Bollan in London for delivery to the King, and approved…
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On this day 250 years ago the women of Edenton, North Carolina, led by Penelope Barker met to sign a resolution pledging to adhere to the North Carolina Provincial Congress’s ban on imports from Britain including linen and tea. This was the first organized action by a group of women in support of the Revolution.…
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On this day 250 years ago the Boston Evening Post published an article saying “We have just received the following intelligence from Taunton, [Massachusetts] ‘that on Friday last a Liberty Pole of 112 Feet long was raised there, on which . . . a Union Flag flying, with the Words LIBERTY and UNION thereon” and…
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On this day 250 years ago in London, Member of Parliament John Burgoyne declared in an address in the House of Commons that “should the American colonists rebel against the treatment accorded them by His Majesty’s Government, I, for one, would not blame them.” Burgoyne would later become more famous in American history as the…
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On this day 250 years ago, William Molineux died after an unexpected illness. Although little known today, at the time of his death Molineux was known to both the Loyalists and the Patriots as the leader of the Boston crowds who agitated against the British. Molineux participated in the Boston Tea Party and in almost…
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On this day 250 years ago in Taunton, Massachusetts the “Liberty and Union” flag was raised for the first time. https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/before-old-glory-there-was-the-taunton-flag Also on this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted its Address to the People of Great Britain. The Address laid out the arguments for repeal of the Intolerable Acts and…
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On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the Continental Association. The Continental Association was a “Non-importation, Non-consumption, and Non-exportation Agreement” to end trade with Great Britain over the coming year in order to pressure Parliament to repeal the Intolerable Acts. It was signed by delegates of the Continental Congress representing…
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On this day 250 years ago, the Shawnee under Chief Cornstalk and the Virginians led by Governor Dunmore entered into the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, near present-day Chillicothe, Ohio. Under this treaty the Shawnee led by Cornstalk agreed to recognize the land cessations granting Virginia the territory south and east of the Ohio River (present…
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On this day 250 years ago a Boston sailor named Samuel Dyer attacked two British officers with a sword and pistols on a crowded street in Boston in broad daylight and then fled to Cambridge to demand protection from the Massachusetts Provincial Congress meeting there. Dyer had been arrested in Boston by the British earlier…
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On this day 250 years ago the Massachusetts Provincial Congress convened in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Congress received a letter from Governor Gage declaring “that by your assembling, you are . . . now acting in violation of your own constitution” and directing the Congress to “desist from your illegal and unconstitutional proceedings.” The Provincial Congress…