The Continental Congress appointed George Washington Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army on June 19, 1775. Washington did not think he was qualified for the job. It’s not like any other part of the Patriot resistance was ready for war. Washington was off to lead a bunch of Massachusetts farmers who trained part-time. There were a […]
Read More
June 17, 1775, was considered for generations of Americans after the date an “ignominious defeat.” The colonists had executed a brilliant stealth maneuver. Overnight, they had erected fortifications on a hill across the Charles River from Boston and had taken the British forces under Generals Gage and Howe by surprise. A battle ensued; in the […]
Read More
On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress took its first bold step toward becoming a nation: it created a national army. Until then, each colony had relied on its own militia. But after the violent clashes at Lexington and Concord, it was clear that isolated efforts wouldn’t be enough. A unified defense would require […]
Read More
“Surrender, in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!” That was Ethan Allen gently explaining to the skeleton British garrison at Fort Ticonderoga that their time had come. The capture of the fort on May 10, 1775, by what amounted to a guerrilla American force was not a battle for the ages. […]
Read More
The Second Continental Congress opened on May 10, 1775. The British had already fired upon Massachusetts militia men at Lexington and Concord. Soon, Congress would make itself into a genuine, revolutionary government by taking on the traditional tasks of borrowing money, printing paper currency, and raising an army, which is what they needed the money […]
Read More
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the Journal of the American Revolution on November 26, 2024. With edits to match MTC’s style guidelines, it is cross-posted here with permission. The adjectives leveled Benedict Arnold’s way by contemporaries and historians leave little room for doubt. Though he inspired devotion among those serving under him, the […]
Read More
Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published by RealClear Politics on April 26, 2025. It has been edited to match MTC’s style guidelines and is crossposted here with permission. Many Americans of Generation X and older will recall the red, white, and blue American Freedom Train that was a centerpiece of America’s glorious Bicentennial celebration. But few know that the […]
Read More
At sunrise on April 19, 1775, about 80 American townsmen in Lexington, Massachusetts, filed out of Buckman Tavern onto Lexington Green. They were commanded by French and Indian War veteran John Parker. Parker was restrained. His words were, “Stand your ground; don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let […]
Read More
Of course, Paul Revere was a hero as he rowed and rode to alarm the countryside around Boston: “The British are coming! The British are coming!” (“The Regulars are coming out,” the staid historians tell us were his actual words.) So too were the much neglected William Dawes and Samuel Prescott. We owe our independence and our liberty to their pluck and bravery. […]
Read More
It was March 30, 1775. King George III delivers another blow to the American colonies, formally endorsing the New England Restraining Act. This Act, a direct response to the Continental Association’s 1774 boycott of British goods, was designed to strangle the rebelling colonies into submission. By royal decree, New England’s trade was restricted solely to […]
Read More
On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry gave his “Give me liberty or give me death” speech at the Second Virginia Convention, in favor of a resolution that Virginia form a militia to oppose King George’s tyranny. Moderates at the convention were somewhat reluctant to go on record saying explicitly that George was a tyrant who must […]
Read More
On March 22, 1775, Edmund Burke delivered one of his great Parliamentary orations on Conciliation with America. Britain and America were rushing to war, and Burke pulled out the stops to make an extraordinary peroration for peace. Britain’s current policy was worse than unjust—it was doomed to fail. Peace must be achieved, argued Burke, by […]
Read More
Author’s Note: This excerpt is from my weekly “Top of Mind” email, which goes out to subscribers every Thursday. This particular edition was sent on September 19, 2024. It is crossposted here in observance of Presidents Day, honoring George Washington’s pivotal role in securing American independence. For more content like this and to receive the […]
Read More
On February 9, 1775, the Parliament of Great Britain declared Massachusetts in a state of rebellion. With cause: Massachusetts’ Provincial Congress had met without royal leave and was organizing and training a military force. Massachusetts’ disobedience could no longer be ignored. Now, Britain would arm itself for war. Orders sailed to Governor Thomas Gage in […]
Read More
America survived those crucial months because we had self-government as well as liberty. The Second Massachusetts Provincial Congress assembled on February 1, 1775. The Second Congress would select Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Thomas Cushing, and Robert Treat Paine to serve as delegates to the Continental Congress. It authorized a Committee of Safety—among other […]
Read More
Francis Salvador, who emigrated from England to South Carolina in 1773, was the first Jew to be elected to a South Carolina legislative assembly—in 1774 and 1775, his neighbors voted him into South Carolina’s First and Second Provincial Congresses, with happy disregard for the statutes that gave Jews no right to vote or hold office. […]
Read More
In New Hampshire, they call it “the shot not heard round the world.” On December 14, 1774, local patriots captured Fort McHenry in Portsmouth harbor. It’s probably—definitions and claims vary—the first open act of violent rebellion during the American Revolution. Patriots had been increasingly worried about control of scarce guns and powder since October when […]
Read More
On December 10, 1774, the First Massachusetts Provincial Congress adjourned. They had been in session since October 7. They were America’s first revolutionary legislature, and they handled their business quite well. You can read all about it in their Journals. It’s an old nostrum that America was able to achieve independence so easily because they’d […]
Read More
Thomas Paine arrived in America on November 30, 1774. He had to be carried ashore in Philadelphia half-dead from a shipboard fever. He left behind in England a life of poverty and failure, and he came to America with anger and resentment at the good and great who lived so well when he lived so […]
Read More
The trouble really begins when the fishermen and the fox hunters prepare to fight. The First Continental Congress had already met but hadn’t called for armed resistance. After all, they were still petitioning the king to withdraw the Intolerable Acts and were only calling for a boycott of British goods. But plenty of Americans had […]
Read More
On what was likely a crisp autumn day in Philadelphia in 1774—before muskets and Minutemen—the American colonies chose diplomacy. They sent a carefully crafted petition to King George III, born out of frustration and hope, as a final effort to mend a relationship that had been fraying for years. Their grievances? Numerous. Following the French […]
Read More
Sometimes, reform offers come too late. Joseph Galloway, speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, came to the First Continental Congress with a clever plan—the Plan of Union—to unite the British North American colonies in their own Parliament, subordinate to Great Britain’s Parliament. The American Parliament would vote on many matters, but Britain would have a veto. […]
Read More
The First Continent Congress was not known for taking radical measures. When it met in Philadelphia in the autumn of 1774, it first rejected the plan but was forwarded by Pennsylvania representative Joseph Galloway, Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly. Galloway favored a “solid political union” between the colonies and Britain as the best way to […]
Read More
The Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress was adopted on October 14, 1774. It’s important for all sorts of good reasons. The representatives of the colonies—except distant Georgia—came together for the first time to endorse a joint action. They invoked natural law to justify their rights as well as their rights as Englishmen—“the […]
Read More
As a country, in celebrating resistance, we have lost sight of the important difference between resistance and resolution. For example, even before Donald J. Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2017, plans were afoot to thwart his agenda. Those plans coalesced under the hashtag #Resistance, and included marches, demonstrations, plots for electors to ignore state election […]
Read More
The First Continental Congress convened on September 5, 1774, in Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia. It brought together delegates from twelve of the thirteen North American British colonies to discuss what they might do collectively in response to the “Intolerable Acts” passed by the Crown in May and June. The Congress was not a revolutionary act. Indeed, […]
Read More
For months, the Massachusetts Governor’s allies plotted to strip citizens of their arms. Legislators said they sought only to enhance public safety. But they labored as far from the public eye as possible. Then revealing, “debating,” and passing their legislation in the space of one day, they hurried it to the Governor for signature. The […]
Read More
Between August 25 and August 27, 1774, the First North Carolina Provincial Congress met in New Bern, North Carolina. There they passed resolutions that they would not import any goods from Britain, including slaves, until the Intolerable Acts were rescinded. They also selected delegates for the First Continental Congress, which would meet the next month. […]
Read More
In the first days of August 1774, the Association of the Virginia Convention met and promulgated a series of resolutions that would guide its delegates to the First Continental Congress. These endorsed the policy of embargo with Britain—including slaves—until the Intolerable Acts were rescinded. The resolutions also endorsed in advance actions that would be taken […]
Read More
Thomas Jefferson wrote A Summary View of the Rights of British America in 1774, basically the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. That’s how he got to the drafting Committee of Five for the Declaration in 1776. Fine job you did in 1774, Thomas; why don’t you write another version now? Back in 1774, […]
Read More