On This Day In The Revolution

On this day 250 years ago, the Pennsylvania Gazette reported that effigies of Alexander Wedderburn, Solicitor General of Great Britain, and Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts, were paraded through the streets of Philadelphia on a cart, then hanged and burned. Wedderburn and Hutchinson were the British officials who were most responsible for the sacking of…

On this day 250 years ago, the annual Boston Town Meeting elected Boston’s representatives to the Massachusetts House. Samuel Adams was elected with 535 of the 536 votes cast. Adams was also named the moderator of the Town Meeting.  Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/samuel-adams-104357

On this day 250 years ago in Parliament in London Isaac Barre delivered a prescient speech predicting the outcome of Parliament’s adoption of the Intolerable Acts: The question now before us is, whether we will choose to bring over the affections of all our Colonies by lenient measures, or to wage war with them? I…

On this day 250 years ago, the London Magazine published the political cartoon “The able Doctor, or America swallowing the Bitter Draught.” The cartoon was reprinted by Paul Revere and widely distributed by Patriots throughout the American Colonies. Source: https://emuseum.history.org/objects/16031/the-able-doctor-or-america-swallowing-the-bitter-draught

On this day 250 years at Baker’s Bottom in what is now Hancock County West Virginia, across the Ohio River from the mouth of Yellow Creek in Ohio, a group of 20 some White settlers led by a villain named Daniel Greathouse perpetrated a massacre of friendly Native Americans that directly resulted in Dunmore’s War…

On this day 250 years ago, the Connecticut Journal published “The PLAN for establishing a New American POST-OFFICE” proposed by the Boston Committee of Correspondence working with William Goddard. The Plan proposed to replace the Royal Post Office with what Goddard called a “Constitutional Post Office” to serve the American Colonies. The Plan proposed to…

On this day 250 years ago in London, Benjamin Franklin wrote to Thomas Cushing, Speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly, that he was sending “the Report of the Committee of the [House of] Lords, which seems hard upon us, as every thing written by any Officer of Government is taken for undoubted Truth.” On the same…

On this day 250 years ago Virginia frontiersman were attacking Native Americans on the Ohio River south of Wheeling (then in Virginia and now West Virginia). Two days earlier, a body of 80 to 90 frontiersmen led by Michael Cresap had declared war in the Indian fashion by gathering to strike a pole with their…

On this day 250 years ago in Wilmington, North Carolina, William Hooper wrote to his friend James Iredell a letter that predicted “the Colonies . . . are striding fast to independence, and ere long will build an empire upon the ruins of Great Britain.” Hooper would become a Signer of the Declaration of Independence…

On this day 250 years ago, The Boston-Gazette and Country Journal published an article criticizing Benjamin Franklin’s mistreatment by the Privy Council and reporting his removal as Postmaster for the Colonies. Following was an article announcing William Goddard’s arrival in Boston carrying letters from committees of correspondence of the surrounding towns of Portsmouth, Newbury, Newburyport…