On This Day In The Revolution

On this day 250 years ago in London, Benjamin Franklin wrote to inform Thomas Cushing, the Speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly, of new bills introduced in Parliament to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party: The Torrent is still violent against America. A Bill is brought in to alter the Charter, appointing the Council by…

On this day 250 years ago, at Beaver Creek in what is now West Virginia, three traders were camped after canoeing down the Ohio from Pittsburgh in order to trade with the Shawnee for pelts. That morning the traders were attacked by party of four Cherokee without warning. One of the traders named Murphy was…

On this day 250 years ago in Savannah, Governor Wright of Georgia met with the Creek Indian Chiefs Emistisiguo, Alleck, and the second man of Little Tallassee. In this meeting Governor Wright urged Emistisiguo and the other Creeks not to attack British colonists, but Emistisiguo would later lead raids on the Georgia colonists at the…

250 years ago in Williamsburg, Virginia, Clementina Rind, publisher of the Virginia Gazette, executed a Deed of Trust for her printing press and household items to secure a loan from the Mayor and three other prominent citizens of Williamsburg. This loan enabled Rind to continue publication of the Virginia Gazette as the favored publication for…

On this day 250 years ago, the courts of Virginia closed. The law that set court fees expired, and Virginia courts need the fees to operate. Lord Dunmore will end up dissolving the Virginia Assembly before the Assembly can enact a new law in its upcoming session, all the courts remain closed until 1776. In…

On this day 250 years ago the Newport Mercury in Rhode Island published the open letter condemning slavery that the formerly enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley had written to the Reverend Samson Occom, a member of the Mohegan tribe of Native Americans, who was similarly preaching abolition. The open letter had been published previously and I…

On this day 250 years ago the Maryland General Assembly was in session in Annapolis but had adjourned for this Sunday so the Members of the Assembly could attend church. Nothing momentous was being considered in the Assembly, but the representatives of the people in Maryland, as in all the American Colonies, were engaged in…

250 years ago in London Lord Dartmouth wrote a letter to Governor Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts informing him that General Thomas Gage had been appointed as Governor of Massachusetts. Dartmouth indicated that Gage’s appointment was temporary, and that Hutchinson should expect to resume office at a later date. However, when Hutchinson departed for England in…

On this day 250 years ago in London Thomas Paine was fired from his job as an exciseman (i.e., tax collector) by the British Government for attempting to organize his fellow excisemen to demand higher wages. Before the end of the year Paine would be in America and soon thereafter causing much more trouble for…

On this day 250 years ago Royal Governor William Tryon’s ship departed New York City for London. Tryon took a leave of absence as Governor of New York for personal health and financial reasons. When he returned to New York in June 1775 the Colonies would be at war with Britain. Source: https://allthingsliberty.com/2021/05/william-tryon-and-the-park-that-still-bears-his-name/