On This Day In The Revolution

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Hamlet was performed by The American Company in Philadelphia with an original prologue written by William Eddis, that extolled “the sweets of Liberty”. Even at the theater, there was no escaping Americans’ demands for their rights. Source: https://research.colonialwilliamsburg.org/DigitalLibrary/view/index.cfm?doc=ResearchReports%5CRR0057.xml&highlight=#n850 at p. 231 (the prologue was reported in the…

On this day 250 years ago, Peter Timothy announced in his South Carolina Gazette (two other competing newspapers in Charleston used the same title) that “300 chests of tea were on their way to Charles Town.” He urged Patriots to “band together to take the necessary steps to prevent the landing” of the tea. Source:…

On this day 250 years ago, John Fleeming, former publisher of the Chronicle in Boston, wrote British Prime Minister Lord North seeking compensation. The Chronicle was funded by contracts with the British government and had supported the British government’s policies. As a result the paper was forced to close by the Patriots of Boston, and…

On this day 250 years ago , the Massachusetts Spy published on its front page radical arguments that would underpin a Revolution to establish a democratic government: “The people at large, are . . . the only safe repository of the power of framing, amending and repealing laws. . . . “The province was from…

On this day 250 years ago, Moses Brown of Providence, Rhode Island, one of the four Brown brothers who were the leading Patriots in that colony, freed his slaves with this letter of manumission: “Whereas I am clearly convinced that the buying and selling of men of what color soever is contrary to the Divine…

On this day 250 years ago the Essex Gazette in Salem, Massachusetts republished a reply by the commissioners who would receive the East India Company’s tea in Boston indicating that they were not intimidated by the threats issued by the Sons of Liberty. It was becoming clear to the Patriots that rallies, pamphlets and warnings…

On this day 250 years ago The Boston-Gazette, and Country Journal published on its front page a letter from “A Countryman” from Chester County, Pennsylvania that had previously been published in Philadelphia. The letter argued that “Surely there is not a man in North America so lost to virtue and common sense as to doubt…

On this day 250 years ago, George Washington was visiting the home of his sister-in-law Anna Maria Dandridge Bassett (Martha Washington’s sister) and her husband Burwell Bassett Sr. Burwell Bassett was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses with Washington and would join his brother-in-law as a member of the First and Second Virginia…

On this day 250 years ago George Washington was authorized to survey 10,000 acres along the Kanawha River in western Virginia (now in West Virginia) by the Virginia Governor’s Council. He had been granted 5000 acres for his service in the French and Indian War and purchased the remaining acreage from other officers who had…

On this day 250 years Patriots in both Boston and New York City held public meetings to organize opposition to the importation of East India Company tea. The Sons of Liberty in New York organized a huge crowd outside of the King’s Arms coffeehouse to protest the tea then on its way to New York.…