On This Day In The Revolution

On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Robert Carter Nicholas, Member of the House of Burgesses and Treasurer of Virginia introduces an Order for a Day of Fasting and Prayer to Virginia House of Burgesses. The Order passes unanimously but would soon receive a furious response for its revolutionary language: This House being deeply impressed…

On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee and other members of the Virginia House of Burgesses met in the evening to discuss how the Virginia House should respond to the news of the Boston Port Act that had just been received in Virginia. They…

On this day 250 years ago, the Boston Committee of Correspondence under the pen of Sam Adams wrote to the Marblehead Committee of Correspondence that We have receivd a Letter from New York dated the Day before the Post came out from that City, advising us that there was to be a meeting of the…

On this day 250 years ago, the Philadelphia Committee of Correspondence provided Paul Revere (or perhaps a different rider — scholars differ whether Revere personally rode from New York to Philadelphia or dispatched another rider from New York to carry the Boston Committee’s correspondence) with their response to the Boston Committee’s request that other colonies…

On this day 250 years ago in Farmington, Connecticut, almost one thousand people assembled to erect a forty-five feet high Liberty Pole. After erecting the Liberty Pole a copy of the  Boston Port Act was read to the crowd, and then burned. The assembly then adopted the following resolutions: 1st. That it is the greatest dignity,…

On this day 250 years ago the people of the town of Chestertown, Maryland assembled in a mass meeting and adopted the Chestertown Resolves. These Resolves were modeled on resolutions passed by towns in Massachusetts and other colonies. The Chestertown Resolves declared: that no duty or taxes can constitutionally be [imposed] on us, but by…

On this day 250 years ago Paul Revere rode into New York carrying a copy of the Boston Port Act and the recommendations of the Boston Committee of Correspondence that New York and other towns join Boston in committing to the non-importation of goods from Britain. Also on this day, the town meeting of Providence,…

On this day 250 years ago, in New York City a meeting of workingmen and merchants was convened by Isaac Low (leading the conservative merchants) and Alexander McDougall (leading the radical workingmen) to discuss New York’s response to the Boston Port Act. When the colonies subsequently went to war against Britain, Low would be a…

On this day 250 years ago, the New York Committee of Correspondence dispatched a rider to Boston to deliver the news of the passage of the Boston Port Act. They were unaware that the Boston Committee of Correspondence had already dispatched Paul Revere to ride to New York City to deliver that news but would…