On This Day In The Revolution

On this day 250 years ago, the General Assembly of the Colony of New York formed a Committee of Correspondence, joining ten other colonies in this initial step on the road to self-governance independent of Britain. Source: https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/learn/deep-dives/committees-of-correspondence/

On this day 250 years ago, the ship Hayley arrived in England carrying news of the Boston Tea Party. Source: https://historyofmassachusetts.org/

On this day 250 years ago townspeople of Marblehead, Massachusetts, began a series of riots that eventually resulted in the destruction of a private hospital that had been established by leading merchants of the town to control smallpox outbreaks. The rioters were outraged that the proprietors of the hospital were not abiding by restrictions that…

On this day 250 years ago, the Town of Hampton, New Hampshire adopted Tea Act Resolves that condemned the tea tax as “unreasonable and unconstitutional” and stated that “it must be evident to every one that is not lost to virtue nor devoid of common sense that [the taxes] will be totally destructive to our…

During this month 250 years ago, students at Princeton (then known as the  College of New Jersey) hosted another tea party. Student Charles Clinton Beatty wrote that “to show our patriotism, we gathered all the Steward’s winter store of Team, and having made a fire on the campus, we there burnt near a dozen pounds,…

On this day 250 years ago, handbills were posted in Boston threatening consignees of East India Company tea who had fled to the protection of the British Army and Navy on Castle Island in Boston Harbor with “such a reception as such vile ingrates deserve.” The handbills were signed by the “Chairman of the Committee for Tarring…

On this day 250 years ago, the Town of Dover, New Hampshire adopted a Resolution praising “the general Exertions, and noble Struggles” of Patriots blocking imports of British East India Company tea.  Source: Norton, Mary Beth, 1774 the Long Year of Revolution at p. 365 n. 54                      

On this day 250 years ago the Massachusetts Spy published an article about how Philadelphia turned away the Polly and lauded “the united spirit” of Patriots in Philadelphia, Boston, Charleston and New York. Source: https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83021194/1774-01-13/ed-1/

On this day 250 years ago Patriots erected a flagpole and unfurled a Liberty Flag at the corner of what is now Church and Union Streets in Schenectady, New York. In 1776 and 1777, the flag was also reportedly carried during the Revolutionary War by the 3rd New York Regiment. Source: https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2023/12/schenectady-liberty-pole-flag/

On this day 250 years ago, Francis Salvador was elected to South Carolina’s Provincial Congress, becoming the first Jew to be elected to public office in America. Salvador would soon become one of the leading Patriots in South Carolina. Within two years he would die in combat fighting for American Independence. Source: https://www.jpost.com/Christian-News/Today-in-History-The-first-American-Jewish-patriot-441126