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On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, George Washington wrote to his friend and former neighbor George William Fairfax, who had recently moved to Yorkshire, England, about the upcoming general meeting requested of all the late Representatives in this City on the first of August when it is hopd, & expected that some vigorous…
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On this day 250 years ago, the “Freeholders and other inhabitants” of Loudoun County, Virginia, met at the court house in Leesburg to “consider the most effectual method to preserve the rights and liberties of N. America, and relieve our brethren of Boston, suffering under the most oppressive and tyrannical Act of the British Parliament.”…
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On this day 250 years ago, Rhode Island banned the importation of slaves. The Rhode Island legislature passed “An Act for Prohibiting the Importation of Negros” likely drafted by Stephen Hopkins that read: Whereas, the inhabitants of America are generally engaged in the preservation of their own rights and liberties, among which, that of personal…
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On this day 250 years ago, in Boston, Patriot merchant John Andrews wrote to his business colleague in Philadelphia William Barrell about life in Boston with the Port closed to all commerce. He wrote that: Our wharfs are intirely deserted; not a topsail vessel to be seen either there or in the harbour, save the…
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On this day 250 years ago, residents in southern Frederick County. Maryland gathered at Hungerford Tavern to adopt resolutions pledging to break off all commerce with Great Britain in support of Boston. This site is in present-day Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland. The Moderator of the meeting was Henry Griffith, and he and Dr. Thomas Sprigg…
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On this day 250 years ago, the North Carolina Committee of Correspondence forwarded the letter and package from the Boston Committee that it received from the Virginia Committee to the South Carolina and Georgia Committees of Correspondence. The North Carolina Committee stated that they considered “the cause of the town of Boston as the cause…
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On this day 250 years ago, the first issue of the Virginia Gazette or, Norfolk Intelligencer was published in Norfolk, Virginia. The front page article was a letter on the “Liberties of America and the danger which threatens them” but was a long-winded legal argument that both condemned “the conduct of the Bostonians in destroying…
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On this date 250 years ago in Winchester, Virginia, a large crowd gathered at the Frederick County Courthouse but had to move to the larger Church of England in town to adopt resolutions in support of the Patriots in Boston. The Frederick Resolves read: Voted 1st. That we will always cheerfully pay due submission to…
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On this day 250 years ago, the Massachusetts Assembly convened in Salem, Massachusetts instead of in the capital of Boston. Governor Gage had ordered the Massachusetts legislature to convene in Salem to remove the legislature from the pressure of Boston mobs. However, the Assembly’s first order of business was to complain about the removal from…
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On this day 250 years ago, the Prince William Resolves were adopted in “a Meeting of the Freeholders, Merchants, and other Inhabit-ants of the County of Prince William, and town of Dumfries, . . . at the Court House” in Dumfries, Virginia. George Mason drafted the Resolves which declared: Resolved, And it is the unanimous opinion of…