Whippets in Love--Shakespeare

The Racing Dog -- New York Tribune July 10, 1904

Go to this address to view the PDF of the page of the newspaper: http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/lccn/sn83030214/1904-07-10/ed-1/seq-50

American War for Independence from Britain

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1776 Jul 4 United States Declaration of Independence

1776 Aug 27 Battle of Long Island

1776 Sep 15 British Occupation of New York

1776 Sep 15 Landing At Kip's Bay

1776 Sep 16 Battle of Harlem Heights

1776 Oct 11 Battle of Valcour Island

1776 Oct 18 Battle of Pell's Point

1776 Oct 28 Battle Of White Plains

1776 Nov 10 to 1776 Nov 29 Battle Of Fort Cumberland

1776 Nov 16 Battle of Fort Washington

1776 Nov 19 Battle Of Fort Lee

1776 Dec 14 Ambush of Geary

1776 Dec 23 to 1776 Dec 26 Battle of Iron Works Hill

1776 Dec 26 Battle of Trenton

1776 Dec 26 Washington Crosses the Delaware

1777 Forage War

1777 to 1778 Philadelphia Campaign

1777 Jan 2 Battle Of The Assunpink Creek

1777 Jan 3 Battle of Princeton

1777 Jan 20 Battle Of Millstone

1777 Apr 13 Battle Of Bound Brook

1777 Apr 27 Battle of Ridgefield

1777 May 17 Battle Of Thomas Creek

1777 May 23 Meigs Raid

1777 Jun 14 to 1777 Oct 17 Saratoga Campaign

1777 Jun 26 Battle Of Short Hills

1777 Jul 2 to 1777 Jul 6 Battle of Ticonderoga

1777 Jul 7 Battle Of Hubbardton

1777 Jul 8 Battle Of Fort Anne

1777 Aug 2 to 1777 Aug 22 Siege Of Fort Stanwix

1777 Aug 6 Battle of Oriskany

1777 Aug 16 Battle of Bennington

1777 Aug 22 Battle Of Staten Island

1777 Sep 11 Battle of Brandywine

1777 Sep 16 Battle of the Clouds

1777 Sep 19 Battle of Saratoga

1777 Sep 21 Battle of Paoli

1777 Oct 4 Battle of Germantown

1777 Oct 6 Battle Of Forts Clinton And Montgomery

1777 Oct 22 Battle of Red Bank

1777 Nov 25 Battle Of Gloucester

1777 Dec 5 to 1777 Dec 8 Battle of White Marsh

1777 Dec 11 Battle Of Matson's Ford

1777 Dec 19 to 1778 Jun 19 1778 France declares war on Britain in support of the American colonies

1778 to 1782 Naval Operations In The American Revolutionary War

1778 Mar 18 Battle Of Quinton's Bridge

1778 Apr 19 Frederica Naval Action

1778 Apr 24 North Channel Naval Duel

1778 May 1 Battle Of Crooked Billet

1778 May 20 Battle of Barren Hill

1778 May 25 Battle Of Freetown

1778 May 30 Battle of Cobleskill

1778 Jun 28 Battle of Monmouth

1778 Jun 30 Battle of Alligator Bridge

1778 Jul to 1779 Feb Illinois campaign

1778 Jul 3 Battle Of Wyoming
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1778 Jul 24 to 1779 Aug 12 Penobscot Expedition

1778 Jul 27 Battle Of Ushant

1778 Aug 21 to 1778 Oct 19 Siege Of Pondicherry

1778 Aug 29 Battle Of Rhode Island

1778 Sep 7 to 1778 Sep 18 Siege of Boonesborough

1778 Sep 17 Attack on German Flatts

1778 Sep 27 Baylor Massacre

1778 Oct Little Egg Harbor Massacre

1778 Oct 15 Battle of Chestnut Neck

1778 Nov 11 Cherry Valley Massacre

1778 Dec 15 Battle of St. Lucia

1778 Dec 29 Capture Of Savannah

1779 Feb 3 Battle Of Beaufort

1779 Feb 14 Battle of Kettle Creek

1779 Feb 25 George Rogers Clark Accepts Henry Hamilton's Surrender Of Fort

Sackville At Vincennes, Indiana

1779 Mar 3 Battle of Brier Creek

1779 Jun 20 Battle of Stono Ferry

1779 Jun 24 to 1783 Feb 7 Great Siege of Gibraltar

1779 Jul 6 Battle of Grenada

1779 Jul 16 Battle of Stony Point

1779 Jul 19 to 1779 Jul 22 Battle of Minisink

1779 Jul 24 to 1779 Aug 12 Penobscot Expedition

1779 Aug 19 Battle of Paulus Hook

1779 Sep 13 Boyd and Parker Ambush

1779 Sep 16 to 1779 Oct 18 Siege of Savannah

1779 Sep 23 Battle Of Flamborough Head

1779 Oct 16 to 1779 Nov 29 Battle Of San Fernando De Omoa

1779 Sep 16 to 1779 Oct 18 Siege of Savannah


1781 May 22 to 1781 Jun 19 Siege Of Ninety-Six

1781 Jun 26 Battle of Spencer's Ordinary

1781 Jul Francisco's Fight

1781 Jul 6 Battle of Green Spring
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1781 Aug 19 to 1782 Feb 5 Invasion of Minorca

1781 Aug 24 Lochry's Defeat

1781 Sep 5 Battle of the Chesapeake

1781 Sep 6 Battle of Fort Griswold

1781 Sep 6 Battle Of Groton Heights

1781 Sep 8 Battle of Eutaw Springs

1781 Sep 13 Battle Of Lindley's Mill

1781 Sep 28 to 1781 Oct 19 Battle of Yorktown

1781 Oct 21 to 1781 Nov 11 Siege of Negapatam

1781 Oct 25 Battle Of Johnstown

1781 Dec 12 Battle Of Ushant

1782 Jan 11 Capture of Trincomalee

1782 Jan 25 to 1782 Jan 26 Battle of St. Kitts

1782 Feb 17 Battle Of Sadras

1782 Mar 16 Battle of Roatán

1782 Mar 20 Lord North Resigns as British Prime Minister

1782 Apr 9 to 1782 Apr 12 Battle of the Saintes

1782 Apr 12 Battle Of Providien

1782 Jul 6 Battle Of Negapatam

1782 Jul 11 British Evacuate Savannah, GA

1782 Aug 8 Battle Of Piqua

1782 Aug 19 Battle of Blue Licks

1782 Aug 25 to 1782 Sep 3 Battle of Trincomalee

1782 Aug 26 Battle Of The Combahee River

1782 Oct 20 Battle of Cape Spartel

1782 Nov 30 Preliminary Articles of Peace Signed

1783 Apr 15 Congress Ratifies Peace With Great Britain

1783 Apr 15 Revolutionary War Ends

1783 Jun 20 Battle Of Cuddalore

1783 Sep 3 Treaty of Paris

1783 Nov 25 British Evacuate New York

1783 Dec 23 Washington Resigns as Commander

1784 May 12 Treaty Of Paris Ratification Documents Are Exchanged

1787 Sep 17 U.S. Constitution Ratified

1791 Dec 15 United States Bill Of Rights Is Ratified
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Revolution Rising - Second Quarting Act - June 2, 1774

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A second Quartering Act (citation 14 Geo. III c. 54) was passed on June 2, 1774, as part of a group of laws that came to be known as the Intolerable Acts. The acts were designed to restore imperial control over the American colonies. While several of the acts dealt specifically with the Province of Massachusetts Bay, the new Quartering Act applied to all of the colonies.

In the previous act, the colonies had been required to provide housing for soldiers, but colonial legislatures had been uncooperative in doing so. The new Quartering Act similarly allowed a governor to house soldiers in other buildings if suitable quarters were not provided, but it did not have the provision in the previous act that soldiers be provided with provisions.

While many sources claim that the Quartering Act of 1774 allowed troops to be billeted in occupied private homes, this is a myth. The act only permitted troops to be quartered in unoccupied buildings. "It did not, as generations of American school children were taught, permit the housing of troops in private homes." The freedom from having soldiers quartered in private homes was a liberty guaranteed since 1628 by the Petition of Right. Although many colonists found the Quartering Act objectionable, it generated the least protest of the Intolerable Acts.

This act expired on March 24, 1776.
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Revolution Rising - Massachusetts Government Act - May 20, 1774

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When Massachusetts was first chartered, a council of inhabitants was formed, the 28 members of which were to be chosen annually by the people of the colony. This bit of democratic representation was unique among the many colonies, and it was a right the people took seriously and enjoyed, given the level of patronage and corruption evident when such councilors were appointed. However, the level of independence the council eventually felt at liberty to exercise was not to the liking of the colonial power, especially as the people in America began to exert muscle on trade and political issue. The Massachusetts Government Act was passed, on May 20, 1774, to reign in this independence.

The Act abolished the popularly elected council members, and replaced them with a 12 to 36 member council appointed by the King. The Act also forbade any meeting of the people of a town, unless at an annual meeting held in either March or May, unless specifically authorized by the governor.

The Act also required constables in each town to make lists of all persons 21 to 70 years of age for the purpose of making jury lists, and that if the constable needed assistance in making this list, that tax records could be consulted. The lists were then sent to the county sheriff to make a jury pool. Additional lists of those who had served would be made, and no one would be required to serve more than once each three years. The Act further details special juries, when they can be called, and who the cost of the trial would fall upon.

The Massachusetts Government Act is one of the Intolerable Acts that lead to dissent in the American colonies and to the creation of the Declaration of Rights and Grievances in 1774.
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Revolution Rising - Administration of Justice Act - May 20, 1774

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Worried by the courts that convened in America and in Massachusetts in particular, and their bias toward the colonists over their British governors, on May 20, 1774, the Parliament passed the Administration of Justice Act. It provided that the governor of Massachusetts had the authority to remove any trial proceeding to another colony or to Great Britain; that witnesses could be compelled to travel to the trial; and that in any case, bail was required even in capital cases if the defendant contended that the crime of which they were accused was committed while acting in an official capacity, such as the suppression of riots.

The act purports to induce public servants to perform their duties by removing fear of prosecution, a principle that extends to the United States, where any public servants are immune from prosecution for certain acts; however, the provision that the trial would be removed to Great Britain made it impossible to try persons who deserved to be tried; the compelling of witnesses to travel to Great Britain further made trial impossible (even though the Act did provide for the expenses of the witnesses to be paid). These provisions lead the colonists to rename the act the Murder Act, reflecting their fears that insurrections would be put down with deadly force.

The Administration of Justice Act is one of the Intolerable Acts that lead to dissent in the American colonies and to the creation of the Declaration of Rights and Grievances in 1774. It is also known as the Impartial Administration of Justice Act.

The other Intolerable Acts are the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Quartering Act, and the Quebec Act.
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Revolution Rising - Boston Port Act - March 31,1774

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On this day in 1774, British Parliament passes the Boston Port Act, closing the port of Boston and demanding that the city’s residents pay for the nearly $1 million worth (in today’s money) of tea dumped into Boston Harbor during the “Boston Tea Party” of December 16, 1773.

The Boston Port Act was the first and easiest to enforce of four acts that together were known as the Coercive Acts. The other three were a new Quartering Act, the Administration of Justice Act and the Massachusetts Government Act.

As part of the Crown’s attempt to intimidate Boston’s increasingly unruly residents, King George III appointed General Thomas Gage, who commanded the British army in North America, as the new governor of Massachusetts. Gage became governor in May 1774, before the Massachusetts Government Act revoked the colony’s 1691 charter and curtailed the powers of the traditional town meeting and colonial council. These moves made it clear to Bostonians that the crown intended to impose martial law.

In June, Gage easily sealed the ports of Boston and Charlestown using the formidable British navy, leaving merchants terrified of impending economic disaster. Many merchants wanted to simply pay for the tea and disband the Boston Committee of Correspondence, which had served to organize anti-British protests. The merchants’ attempt at convincing their neighbors to assuage the British failed. A town meeting called to discuss the matter voted them down by a substantial margin.

The Boston Port Act is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (citation 14 Geo. III. c. 19) which became law on March 30, 1774, and is one of the measures (variously called the Intolerable Acts, the Punitive Acts or the Coercive Acts) that were designed to secure Great Britain's jurisdictions over her American dominions.

A response to the Boston Tea Party, it outlawed the use of the Port of Boston (by setting up a barricade/blockade) for "landing and discharging, loading or shipping, of goods, wares, and merchandise" until such time as restitution was made to the King's treasury (for customs duty lost) and to the East India Company for damages suffered. In other words, it closed Boston Port to all ships, no matter what business the ship had. Colonists objected that the Port Act punished all of Boston rather than just the individuals who had destroyed the tea, and that they were being punished without having been given an opportunity to testify in their own defence.

As Boston Port was a major source of supplies for the citizens of Massachusetts, sympathetic colonies as far away as South Carolina sent relief supplies to the settlers of Massachusetts Bay. This was the first step in the unification of the thirteen colonies. The First Continental Congress was convened in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, to coordinate a colonial response to the Port Act and the other Coercive Acts.
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Revolution Rising - The Boston Tea Party - December 16. 1773

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Victory in the French and Indian War was costly for the British. At the war's conclusion in 1763, King George III and his government looked to taxing the American colonies as a way of recouping their war costs. They were also looking for ways to reestablish control over the colonial governments that had become increasingly independent while the Crown was distracted by the war. Royal ineptitude compounded the problem. A series of actions including the Stamp Act (1765), the Townsend Acts (1767) and the Boston Massacre (1770) agitated the colonists, straining relations with the mother country. But it was the Crown's attempt to tax tea that spurred the colonists to action and laid the groundwork for the American Revolution.

On Tuesday last the body of the people of this and all the adjacent towns, and others from the distance of twenty miles, assembled at the old south meeting-house, to inquire the reason of the delay in sending the ship Dartmouth, with the East-India Tea back to London; and having found that the owner had not taken the necessary steps for that purpose, they enjoin'd him at his peril to demand of the collector of the customs a clearance for the ship, and appointed a committee of ten to see it perform'd; after which they adjourn'd to the Thursday following ten o'clock. They then met and being inform'd by Mr. Rotch, that a clearance was refus'd him, they enjoye'd him immediately to enter a protest and apply to the governor for a pass port by the castle, and adjourn'd again till three o'clock for the same day. At which time they again met and after waiting till near sunset Mr. Rotch came in and inform'd them that he had accordingly enter'd his protest and waited on the governor for a pass, but his excellency told him he could not consistent with his duty grant it until his vessel was qualified. The people finding all their efforts to preserve the property of the East India company and return it safely to London, frustrated by the sea consignees, the collector of the customs and the governor of the province, DISSOLVED their meeting.--But, BEHOLD what followed! A number of brave & resolute men, determined to do all in their power to save their country from the ruin which their enemies had plotted, in less than four hours, emptied every chest of tea on board the three ships commanded by the captains Hall, Bruce, and Coffin, amounting to 342 chests, into the sea!! without the least damage done to the ships or any other property. The matters and owners are well pleas'd that their ships are thus clear'd; and the people are almost universally congratulating each other on this happy event.

The Boston Tea Party was an act of direct action protest by the American colonists against the British Government in which they destroyed many crates of tea belonging to the British East India Company and dumped it into the Boston Harbor. The incident, which took place on December 16, 1773, was a major catalyst of the American Revolution and remains an iconic event of American history.
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Revolution Rising - The Tea Act - May 10, 1773

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The Tea Act, passed by Parliament on May 10, 1773, would launch the final spark to the revolutionary movement in Boston. The act was not intended to raise revenue in the American colonies, and in fact imposed no new taxes. It was designed to prop up the East India Company which was floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea. This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price. The Townshend Duties were still in place, however, and the radical leaders in America found reason to believe that this act was a maneuver to buy popular support for the taxes already in force. The direct sale of tea, via British agents, would also have undercut the business of local merchants.

Colonists in Philadelphia and New York turned the tea ships back to Britain. In Charleston the cargo was left to rot on the docks. In Boston the Royal Governor was stubborn & held the ships in port, where the colonists would not allow them to unload. Cargoes of tea filled the harbor, and the British ship's crews were stalled in Boston looking for work and often finding trouble. This situation lead to the Boston Tea Party.

Before the Act, smugglers imported 900,000 pounds of cheap foreign tea a year. The quality of the smuggled tea did not match the quality of the dutiable East Indian Tea of which the Americans bought 562,000 pounds per year. Some colonists claimed the tea-tax had been removed because the British wanted to dissuade them from boycotting British goods - which may well be at least partially true. However, some colonists went further, and pronounced the tea "unfavorable". Although the British tea was more appealing in taste, some Patriots encouraged the consumption of smuggled tea. All this however did little to damage the British tea trade.

Before the Boston Tea Party occurred, the colonies did not agree with the decision to impose the Tea Act. In New York and Philadelphia, they sent the British ships with the tea on board back to Britain. In Charleston, the colonists left the tea on the docks to rot. The Royal Governor in Boston was determined to the leave the ships in port, even though the colonists refused to take the tea off the boat. The colonies did this to demonstrate their anger towards the Tea Act.

The smugglers meanwhile were still smarting from the loss of their illicit income. Eventually, this led to the Boston Tea Party where American colonists, believed by some to be the Sons of Liberty, by others to be self-interested smugglers, dressed up as Mohawk Natives and threw 342 crates of tea from the East India Company ships Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver into Boston Harbor.

The Tea Act of 1773 provided for the following:

Tea was allowed to be shipped in East India Company ships directly from India to the American colonies, thus avoiding a tax if the commodity were first sent to England as required by previous legislation
* A duty of three pence per pound was to be collected on tea delivered to America; this tax was considerably less than the previous one
* The tea was to be marketed in America by special consignees selected by the East India Company.

Many in England thought this law would be warmly greeted in America, because it allowed the colonists to resume their tea-drinking habit at a cost lower than ever before. Ships laden with more than 500,000 pounds of tea set off for the colonies in September 1773.

The optimists in Britain were disappointed by the American reaction. Ordinarily conservative shippers and shopkeepers were directly impacted by the new law and were vocal in their opposition. Previously, American ships brought much of the tea from England, but that trade was now reserved for the East India Company. The shop owners objected to the new practice of using only selected merchants to sell the tea; many would be excluded from this trade in favor of a new monopoly.

Opposition developed to the arriving tea shipments in Boston and other colonial ports. The Tea Act actually revived the flagging careers of agitators like Samuel Adams, who had been frustrated in recent years by the relative calm in the relationship with the mother country. The radicals found allies in the formerly conservative business community.
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Revolution Rising - The Gaspee Affair - June 9, 1772

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On June 9, the Gaspee attempted to stop and search the Hannah, a small trader from Newport bound for Providence. The captain of the Hannah, Benjamin Lindsey, refused to comply even after warning shots were fired from the Gaspee. Lindsey lured Dudingston into an area off Namquid point, an area which Lindsey knew to be very shallow at low tide. By two o'clock, the Gaspee had run aground and the Hannah raced away. Upon arrival in Providence, Lindsey informed John Brown of his experiences. Brown saw this as an opportunity for revenge and called upon his loyal sea captain, Abraham Whipple, to muster a crew. Within a few hours, the sixty men shoved off from Fenner's Warf to make the six mile journey to where the Gaspee was stranded.

The dark moonless evening kept the longboats out of sight until they were within 60 to 100 yards of the ship. This was important because each man knew that if they were detected, the eight large guns of the Gaspee would tear them to shreds. By the time the Gaspee's sentinel raised the alarm, the ship was surrounded. John Brown, describing himself as the Sheriff of Kent County, called for the surrender of the Gaspee and Lieutenant Dudingston. In response, Dudingston ordered the crew to fire upon anyone who attempted to board the ship. Shortly thereafter, the Rhode Islanders rushed the decks of the Gaspee and, in the melee, Dudingston was struck by a musket ball in the arm and fell to the deck. The remainder of the crew, most of whom were asleep below deck, were overcome by the raiding party and Dudingston was forced to surrender. The captured crew was bound, placed into the longboats, and placed on shore in the Pawtuxet area. The leaders then removed most of the documents aboard the Gaspee and ordered the ship to be burned. Little did they realize that the flames that reached into the night sky were, in reality, lighting the way to the forthcoming American Revolution.

The following day, the towns of Providence, Bristol, and Newport were abuzz with the events of the previous evening. Many people saw the flames and heard the explosions. Yet, when the investigation of the Gaspee affair was opened on June 10, 1772 until its closure a year later, not one individual claimed to know any detail surrounding those involved or the course of action. It was not until after the Americans had succeeded in obtaining their independence that the stories were told and written.
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Revolution Rising - The Boston Massacre - March 5, 1770

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American opposition to the British authorities kept steadily rising as assemblies were dissolved, the houses of citizens searched, and troops distributed in increasing numbers among the centers of discontent. Merchants again agreed not to import British goods, the Sons of Liberty renewed their agitation, and women set about the patronage of home products still more loyally.

On the night of March 5, 1770, a crowd on the streets of Boston began to jostle and tease some British regulars stationed in the town. Things went from bad to worse until some " boys and young fellows " began to throw snowballs and stones. Then the exasperated soldiers fired into the crowd, killing five- and wounding half a dozen more. The day after the " massacre," a mass meeting was held in the town and Samuel Adams was sent to demand the withdrawal of the soldiers. The governor hesitated and tried to compromise. Finding Adams relentless, the governor yielded and ordered the regulars away.
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Revolution Rising - Boston Non-Importation Agreement - August 1, 1768

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Colonial resistance to British control took many forms, perhaps the most effective was the general success of the non-importation agreements. Such agreements appeared as early as 1766. They had a chilling effect on the British Merchants who traded with the colonies. The Stamp Act was repealed, eventually, based on appeals from Merchants who lost money shipping goods to a land that would not receive them. Not incidentally, the customs offices in the colonies could not collect taxes on goods that were either not allowed ashore at all, or were never sold. Non-importation agreements reached ultimate effect in response to the Townshend Revenue Act, when in 1768 Boston passed an act. Every port city and nearly every region would soon adopt acts like this one. Finally, in 1774, the first Continental Congress of the colonies would pass The Association, a colony-wide prohibition against any trade with Great Britain.

When new taxes were levied in the Townshend Revenue Act of 1767, Whig colonists again responded with protests and boycotts. Merchants organized a non-importation agreement, and many colonists pledged to abstain from drinking British tea, with activists in New England promoting alternatives, such as domestic Labrador tea. Smuggling continued apace, especially in New York and Philadelphia, where tea smuggling had always been more extensive than in Boston. Dutied British tea continued to be imported into Boston, however, especially by Richard Clarke and the sons of Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson, until pressure from Massachusetts Whigs compelled them abide by the non-importation agreement.

Parliament finally responded to the protests by repealing the Townshend taxes in 1770, except for the tea duty, which Prime Minister Lord North kept to assert "the right of taxing the Americans". This partial repeal of the taxes was enough to bring an end to the non-importation movement by October 1770. From 1771 to 1773, British tea was once again imported into the colonies in significant amounts, with merchants paying the Townshend duty of three pence per pound. Boston was the largest colonial importer of legal tea; smugglers still dominated the market in New York and Philadelphia.
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Revolution Rising - The Townshend Revenue Act - June 29, 1767

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Taxes on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea were applied with the design of raising £40,000 a year for the administration of the colonies. The result was the resurrection of colonial hostilities created by the Stamp Act.
Reaction assumed revolutionary proportions in Boston, in the summer of 1768, when customs officials impounded a sloop owned by John Hancock, for violations of the trade regulations. Crowds mobbed the customs office, forcing the officials to retire to a British Warship in the Harbor. Troops from England and Nova Scotia marched in to occupy Boston on October 1, 1768. Bostonians offered no resistance. Rather they changed their tactics. They established non-importation agreements that quickly spread throughout the colonies. British trade soon dried up and the powerful merchants of Britain once again interceded on behalf of the colonies.

The first of the Townshend Acts, sometimes simply known as the Townshend Act, was the Revenue Act of 1767. This act represented the Chatham ministry's new approach for generating tax revenue in the American colonies after the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766. The British government had gotten the impression that because the colonists had objected to the Stamp Act on the grounds that it was a direct (or "internal") tax, colonists would therefore accept indirect (or "external") taxes, such as taxes on imports. With this in mind, Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, devised a plan that placed new duties on paper, paint, glass, and tea that were imported into the colonies. These were items that were not produced in North America and that the colonists were only allowed to buy from Great Britain.

The British government's belief that the colonists would accept "external" taxes resulted from a misunderstanding of the colonial objection to the Stamp Act. The colonists' objection to "internal" taxes did not mean that they would accept "external" taxes; the colonial position was that any tax laid by Parliament for the purpose of raising revenue was unconstitutional. "Townshend's mistaken belief that Americans regarded internal taxes as unconstitutional and external taxes constitutional", wrote historian John Phillip Reid, "was of vital importance in the history of events leading to the Revolution." The Townshend Revenue Act received the royal assent on 29 June 1767. There was little opposition expressed in Parliament at the time. "Never could a fateful measure have had a more quiet passage", wrote historian Peter Thomas.

The Revenue Act was passed in conjunction with the Indemnity Act of 1767, which was intended to make the tea of the British East India Company more competitive with smuggled Dutch tea. The Indemnity Act repealed taxes on tea imported to England, allowing it to be re-exported more cheaply to the colonies. This tax cut in England would be

The first of the Townshend Acts, sometimes simply known as the Townshend Act, was the Revenue Act of 1767. This act represented the Chatham ministry's new approach for generating tax revenue in the American colonies after the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766. The British government had gotten the impression that because the colonists had objected to the Stamp Act on the grounds that it was a direct (or "internal") tax, colonists would therefore accept indirect (or "external") taxes, such as taxes on imports. With this in mind, Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, devised a plan that placed new duties on paper, paint, glass, and tea that were imported into the colonies. These were items that were not produced in North America and that the colonists were only allowed to buy from Great Britain.

The British government's belief that the colonists would accept "external" taxes resulted from a misunderstanding of the colonial objection to the Stamp Act. The colonists' objection to "internal" taxes did not mean that they would accept "external" taxes; the colonial position was that any tax laid by Parliament for the purpose of raising revenue was unconstitutional. "Townshend's mistaken belief that Americans regarded internal taxes as unconstitutional and external taxes constitutional", wrote historian John Phillip Reid, "was of vital importance in the history of events leading to the Revolution." The Townshend Revenue Act received the royal assent on 29 June 1767. There was little opposition expressed in Parliament at the time. "Never could a fateful measure have had a more quiet passage", wrote historian Peter Thomas.

The Revenue Act was passed in conjunction with the Indemnity Act of 1767, which was intended to make the tea of the British East India Company more competitive with smuggled Dutch tea. The Indemnity Act repealed taxes on tea imported to England, allowing it to be re-exported more cheaply to the colonies. This tax cut in England would be partially offset by the new Revenue Act taxes on tea in the colonies. The Revenue Act also reaffirmed the legality of writs of assistance, or general search warrants, which gave customs officials broad powers to search houses and businesses for smuggled goods.

The original stated purpose of the Townshend duties was to raise a revenue to help pay the cost of maintaining an army in North America. Townshend changed the purpose of the tax plan, however, and instead decided to use the revenue to pay the salaries of some colonial governors and judges. Previously, the colonial assemblies had paid these salaries, but Parliament hoped to take the "power of the purse" away from the colonies. According to historian John C. Miller, "Townshend ingeniously sought to take money from Americans by means of parliamentary taxation and to employ it against their liberties by making colonial governors and judges independent of the assemblies."

Some members of Parliament objected because Townshend's plan was expected to generate only ₤40,000 in yearly revenue, but he explained that once the precedent for taxing the colonists had been firmly established, the program could gradually be expanded until the colonies paid for themselves. According to historian Peter Thomas, Townshend's "aims were political rather than financial."
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Revolution Rising - The Declaratory Act - March 18, 1766

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AN ACT for the better securing the dependency of his Majesty's dominions in America upon the crown and parliament of Great Britain.

WHEREAS several of the houses of representatives in his Majesty's colonies and plantations in America, have of late, against law, claimed to themselves, or to the general assemblies of the same, the sole and exclusive right of imposing duties and taxes upon his Majesty's subjects in the said colonies and plantations; and have, in pursuance of such claim, passed certain votes, resolutions, and orders, derogatory to the legislative authority of parliament, and inconsistent with the dependency of the said colonies and plantations upon the crown of Great Britain: ... be it declared ...,

That the said colonies and plantations in America have been, are, and of right ought to be. subordinate unto, and dependent upon the imperial crown and parliament of Great Britain; and that the King's majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons of Great Britain, in parliament assembled, had, hash, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever.

II. And be it further declared ..., That all resolutions, votes, orders, and proceedings, in any of the said colonies or plantations, whereby the power and authority of the parliament of Great Britain, to make laws and statutes as aforesaid, is denied, or drawn into question, are, and are hereby declared to be, utterly null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever.
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Revolution Rising - The Quartering Act - March 24, 1765

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In March 1765, Parliament passed the Quartering Act to address the practical concerns of such a troop deployment. Under the terms of this legislation, each colonial assembly was directed to provide for the basic needs of soldiers stationed within its borders. Specified items included bedding, cooking utensils, firewood, beer or cider and candles. This law was expanded in 1766 and required the assemblies to billet soldiers in taverns and unoccupied houses.

Arrival of new British Soldiers British motivations for enforcing the Quartering Act were mixed. Some officials were legitimately concerned about protecting the colonies from attack and viewed this law as a logical means to do so. Also part of the calculation, however, was a desire to cut costs. If the colonies were to be protected, why should they not pay for the soldiers? In particular, the British ministry was faced with the prospect of bringing home the French and Indian War veterans and providing them with pay and pensions. If those soldiers could be kept in service in America, the colonies would pay for them and spare a tax-weary English public from additional burdens.
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Revolution Rising - The Stamp Act - February 17, 1765

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On February 6th, 1765 George Grenville rose in Parliament to offer the fifty-five resolutions of his Stamp Bill. A motion was offered to first read petitions from the Virginia colony and others was denied. The bill was passed on February 17, approved by the Lords on March 8th, and two weeks later ordered in effect by the King. The Stamp Act was Parliament's first serious attempt to assert governmental authority over the colonies. Great Britain was faced with a massive national debt following the Seven Years War. That debt had grown from £72,289,673 in 1755 to £129,586,789 in 1764. English citizens in Britain were taxed at a rate that created a serious threat of revolt.
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Revolution Rising - The Currency Act - September 1, 1764

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On September 1, 1764, Parliament passed the Currency Act, effectively assuming control of the colonial currency system. The act prohibited the issue of any new bills and the reissue of existing currency. Parliament favored a "hard currency" system based on the pound sterling, but was not inclined to regulate the colonial bills. Rather, they simply abolished them. The colonies protested vehemently against this. They suffered a trade deficit with Great Britain to begin with and argued that the shortage of hard capital would further exacerbate the situation. Another provision of the Currency Act established what amounted to a "superior" Vice-admiralty court, at the call of Navel [sic] commanders who wished to assure that persons suspected of smuggling or other violations of the customs laws would receive a hearing favorable to the British, and not the colonial, interests.
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Revolution Rising - The Sugar Act - April 5, 1764

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The Revenue Act of 1764, also known as the Sugar Act, was the first tax on the American colonies imposed by the British Parliament. Its purpose was to raise revenue through the colonial customs service and to give customs agents more power and latitude with respect to executing seizures and enforcing customs law. That the Act came from an external body rather than a colonial legislature alarmed a handful of colonial leaders in Boston who held that the Act violated their “British privileges.” Their principle complaint was against taxation without representation. Just as important, however, were the Act’s profound implications for the colonial judicial system, for the Revenue Act of 1764 allowed British officers to try colonists who violated the new duties at a new Vice-Admiralty court in Halifax, Nova Scotia, thus depriving the colonists of their right to trial by a jury of their peers.
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Timeline 1790-1800

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1790

A Census Act is passed by Congress. The first census indicates a total population of nearly 4 million persons in the U.S. and western territories. African Americans make up 19 percent of the population, with 90 percent living in the South. For white Americans, the average age is under 16. Most white families are large, with an average of eight children born. The white population will double every 22 years.

The largest American city is Philadelphia, with 42,000 persons, followed by New York (33,000) Boston (18,000) Charleston (16,000) and Baltimore (13,000). The majority of Americans are involved in agricultural pursuits, with little industrial activity occurring at this time.

Petition to Congress by Mary Katherine Goddard, January 29, 1790, to retain her position as the 1st postmistress in America. Her appeals to Congress & to George Washington failed. See entry on Mary Katherine Goddard in this blog.

 George Washington replies to Moses Seixas's letter on behalf of the Newport Hebrew Congregation using the off-quoted phrase that the USA government "gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance"

First American cotton mill.

Mother Bernardina Matthews establishes a Carmelite convent near Port Tobacco, Maryland, the first community of Roman Catholic nuns established in one of the original 13 states. (The Ursuline convent established in New Orleans in 1727 was still in French territory.)

Judith Sargent Murray writes "On the Equality of the Sexes"

A second great revival movement sweeps northeast America, inspired by the earlier example of Jonathan Edwards

George Washington and the Congress chose the Potomac as the navigable river on which the new US capital city will be sited.

Benjamin Franklin dies in Philadelphia at age 84. His funeral four days later draws over 20,000 mourners.

Sarah Wentworth Morton (1759-1846) writes Ouabi; or, The Virtues of Nature. An Indian tale by Philenia, a lady of Boston. Boston: I. Thomas and E.T. Andrews, 1790. The Boston writer known as the American Sappho treats a love triangle between an Illinois chief, his wife, and a European aristocrat. The narrative poem is notable for its researched representation of Indian life. It would be set to music by Hans Graham in 1793 and would inspire Louis James Bacon's play The American Indian (1795).

Mercy Otis Warren writes Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous, Boston: I. Thomas. and E.T. Andrews, [1790]. This is the first work printed under her own name. Warren produces verse tragedies & other poems extolling republican virtues & confirming women as moral authorities.

1791

The first ten amendments to the Constitution protecting individual rights are ratified. They are called the Bill of Rights.

First Bank of the United States is founded in Philadelphia under Alexander Hamilton and is granted a 20-year charter. Its charter is not renewed in 1811.

Susanna Haswell Rowson writes Mentoria; or, The Young Lady's Friend, a collection of letters, stories, and an essay wtih topics ranging from charity & the pitfalls of social ambition to obedience & moral conduct.

Anne Bailey rode to present-day Lewisburg to obtain ammunition for settlers at Fort Lee at present-day Charleston, which was being attacked by Native Americans. (More recent studies suggest this incident may never have occurred.) Source: Conley and Doherty, West Virginia History, 148-149.


An Indian raid on an American military camp beside the Maumee river leaves more than 600 US soldiers dead.

Slave insurrection in the French colony of St. Domingue begins the bloody process of founding the nation of Haiti, the first independent black country in the Americas. Refugees flee to America, many coming to Philadelphia, the largest & most cosmopolitan city in America with the largest northern free black community. Philadelphia has many supporters for Toussaint L'Overture.

Mary Kinnan was captured & her husband & daughter were killed by Shawnee Indians along the Tygart Valley River in Randolph County. Kinnan lived with her captors for 3 years. Source: Conley and Doherty, West Virginia History, 142.


1792

The cornerstone of the White House in at Washington City in The District of Columbia is laid.

Bunker Gay, A Genuine and Correct Account of the Captivity, Sufferings, and Deliverance of Mrs. Jemima Howe (captivity narrative).

The first political parties, Hamilton's Federalists and Jefferson's Republicans, emerge in the USA.

1793

The US Congress passes Fugitive Slave Laws, enabling southern slave owners to reclaim escaped slaves in northern states.

Hannah Slater receives the first U.S. patent granted to a woman, for a type of cotton thread. Her invention helps her husband build a successful textile business.

Eli Whitney (1765–1825) produces the cotton gin, which speeds the process of separating the cotton fibers from the seeds.

George Washington lays the cornerstone for the Congress building on Capitol Hill.

Suzanne Vaillande appears in The Bird Catcher, in New York, the first ballet presented in the U.S. She was also probably the first woman to work as a choreographer & set designer in the United States.

An epidemic of yellow fever kills 4,044 at Philadelphia. Believed by many to have been brought to the city by refugees from Santo Domingo The fever strikes nearly all of the 24,000 inhabitants who do not flee, and it kills 1 in every 6. Physican Benjamin Rush, 47, works round the clock to bleed more than 100 patients per day; he recruits free blacks who have not fled the city, training them to bleed & purge patients. The epidemic does not abate until autumn, when cold weather kills the mosquitoes.

Massachusetts repeals its Puritanical anti-theater laws after a fight led by Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton & her husband, Perez.


Anonymous: The Hapless Orphan; or, Innocent Victim of Revenge. Boston: Printed at the Appollo Press by Belknap and Hall, 1793. By an American Lady. This sentimental didactic novel concerns a self-centered Philadelphia girl whose attachment to another's fiancé leads to the hero's suicide & a vendetta by her rival.

Ann Eliza Bleecker (Schuyler) (1752-1783) is published in The Posthumous Works of Ann Eliza Bleecker. New York: T. and J. Swords, 1793. This collection of letters, poems, and prose published by Bleecker's daughter (the writer Margaretta Faugères (1771-1801), details life on the front lines of the American Revolution and the death of Bleecker's daughter Abella. As a poet, fiction writer, & correspondent, Bleecker provides firsthand accounts of women's life during the Revolution.

1794

Whiskey Rebellion breaks out in western Pennsylvania among farmers who oppose the collection of the tax on liquor & stills. George Washington uses military force to assert government authority on rebels in Pennsylvania refusing to pay a federal tax on whiskey.

Congress enacts the federal Slave Trade Act of 1794 prohibiting American vessels to transport slaves to any foreign country from outfitting in American ports.

Jay's Treaty provides for withdrawal of British forces from the Northwest Territory by 1 June 1796 in exchange for payments of war debts to British citizens. It is ratified on 24 June 1795.

Columbianum, first American art society, founded by Charles Willson Peale, Philadelphia

Anne Kemble Hatton (c. 1757-c. 1796) writes Tammany; or, The Indian Chief. The earliest drama about American Indians; the title character rescues his beloved from Spanish kidnappers.

The first independent black churches in America (St. Thomas African Episcopal Church and Bethel Church) established in Philadelphia by Absalom Jones & Richard Allen, respectively, as an act of self-determination & a protest against segregation.

Susanna Haswell Rowson writes Slaves in Algiers; or, A Struggle for Freedom. Philadelphia: Printed for the author by Wrigley and Berriman, 1794. The first play by a woman successfully produced in America & Rowson's only drama surviving in complete form utilizes the Barbary pirates' raids on American ships to demonstrate tyranny. The author would also perform in this play & in her subsequent dramas, including The Female Patriot (1795), The Volunteers (1795), & Americans in England (1797).

Susanna Haswell Rowson writes Mrs. Charlotte, a Tale of Truth. [Philadelphia]: Mathew Carey, 1794. One of the first American bestsellers, this novel tells the story of an English girl seduced by a British officer, Montraville. Charlotte follows Montraville to New York, where he abandons her & she dies in childbirth. The supposedly true story exemplifies Rowson's argument for the importance of the education of young women. It had been published first in England in 1791. A sequel, Charlotte's Daughter, would be published in 1828. Also published by Rowson was, The Inquisitor; or, Invisible Rambler. 3 vols. Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1794.

Founding of the American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, a joining several state & regional antislavery societies into a national organization to promote abolition. Conference held in Philadelphia.

1795

Anne Parrish founds the House of Industry in Philadelphia, which provides employment to poor women. It is the first American charitable organization operated by women for women.

Two extra stars are added to the American flag for Vermont & Kentucky, two new states that have joined since the original union of thirteen.

Margaretta V. Bleecker Faugères (1771-1801) writes Belisarius: A Tragedy. Faugères's blank-verse tragedy is her major literary achievement, echoing Shakespeare's King Lear.

Susanna Haswell Rowson writes The Volunteers, a "musical entertainment" concerning the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. The score, with Rowson's lyrics set to music by Alexander Reinagle (1756-1809), is all that now survives of the play.

Susanna Haswell Rowson writes Trials of the Human Heart, 4 vols. Philadelphia: Printed for the author by Wrigley & Berriman and sold by M. Carey [and others], 1795. This novel describes 16 years of suffering by Meriel Howard. Rowson's first novel written in America wins an impressive list of subscribers, including Martha Washington, members of prominent Philadelphia families, and members of the New Theatre Company.

1796

George Washington's Farewell Address is published in Philadelphia's Daily American Advertiser. He warns against the divisiveness of a party system & permanent foreign alliances, and cautions against an overpowerful military establishment. He then retires to Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Amelia Simmons produces the first truly American cookbook American Cookery: The Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry, and Vegetables, and the Best Modes of Making Puff-Pastes, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custards, and Preserves, and All Kinds of Cakes From the Imperial Plumb to plain Cake, Adapted to this Country, and All Grades of Life. See this blog for more on Amelia Simmons.

The election brings in a Federalist president (John Adams) and a Republican vice-president (Thomas Jefferson)

1 June. Tennessee is admitted to the Union as a slave-holding state.

Susanna Haswell Rowson writes Americans in England, one of the first American works exploring the "international theme," Rowson's social comedy would be revised by the author as The Columbian Daughter in 1800.

1797

John Adams (1735–1826) becomes the second president of the United States.

A cast-iron plow is invented, but farmers fear it will poison the soil and refuse to use it.

18 October. Amid tensions between the US & France, French foreign minister Tallyrand's agents suggest a "loan," essentially a bribe, to bring the French to the bargaining table. Charles C. Pinckney, the American minister to France, refuses, saying, "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."
The USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") is launched as part of the new US navy.

Ann Eliza Bleecker’s work is published posthumously, The History of Maria Kittle. It is a captivity narrative set during the French & Indian War, is a fictionalized elaboration of the author's own experiences. It is thought to be the first American fictional account focusing on Native Americans, where horrific descriptions of an Indian attack & an earthquake are contrasted with tranquil rural scenes.

Hannah Webster Foster (1759-1840) writes The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton, an epistolary novel based on the alleged seduction of Foster's distant cousin, Elizabeth Whitman, by Pierpont Edwards, and her death in childbirth. Wildly popular, the novel would appear in numerous editions, with early editions attributed to "A Lady of Massachusetts."

Deborah Sampson (1760-1827) cooperates with Herman Mann in writing The Female Review; or, Life of Deborah Sampson, Dedham [Mass.}: Nathaniel and Benjamin Heaton, 1797. This is an account of Deborah Sampson, afterwards Mrs. Benjamin Gannett, who served as a soldier in the revolutionary war under the name of Robert Shirtliff. an embellished autobiography detailing Sampson's experiences in the American Revolution, in which she had dressed as a man & served in the Massachusetts militia & Continental army. Although she had lost her wartime diary, she told her tale to Herman Mann, who wrote & published it.


In the first black initiated petition to Congress, Philadelphia free blacks protest North Carolina laws re-enslaving blacks freed during the Revolution.

Sarah Wentworth Morton writes Beacon Hill: A Local Poem, Historic and Descriptive, Boston: Manning & Loring, 1797. This was poetical record of the American Revolution.

1798

Controversial Alien and Sedition Acts are passed by the US Congress as emergency measures in response to the perceived threat of war with France. The Alien and Sedition Acts give the president the power to imprison or deport foreigners believed to be dangerous to the United States and make it a crime to attack the government with "false, scandalous, or malicious" statements or writings. Thomas Jefferson later pardons all those convicted under the Sedition Act, many of whom were Democrat-Republicans.

Congress abolishes debtors' prisons.

Susanna Haswell Rowson writes Reuben and Rachel; or, Tales of Old Times, Boston: Manning and Loring, for D. West, 1798. This romantic novel surveys the history of Western civilization & attempts to interest young women toward history.

Hannah Webster Foster writes The Boarding School; or, Lessons of a Preceptress to Her Pupils, Boston: I. Thomas and E.T. Andrews, 1798. This is a collection of moral & domestic lectures, including her advocacy of female education & criticism of sexual double standards.

Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820) writes The Gleaner, Boston: I. Thomas and E.T. Andrews, 1798. This is a collection of essays on history, guidelines for women's conduct, discussion of education and politics, & poems. Originally published under the guise of male authorship to maintain an impartial readership, the essays attempt to prove the capability of women writers.

1799

George Washington, aged sixty-seven, dies after a brief illness at his home in Virginia.

American born Helena Wells (c. 1760-c. 1809) writes The Stepmother. The story of an independent woman who manages her own finances & property after the death of her husband; it includes detailed descriptions of the conduct of a sensible woman. The daughter of a Loyalist bookseller & publisher, Wells was a novelist & educator who operated, with her sister, a boarding school for girls in London & worked as a governess.

Hannah Adams (1755-1831) writes A Summary History of New England, Dedham [Mass.]: Printed for the author, by H. Mann and J.H. Adams. This is an account of events from the sailing of the Mayflower to the establishment of the Constitution, based on primary sources from state archives & newspapers. Adams conducted much of her research in bookshops, because she could not afford to purchase books.

1800

The census estimated the population of the United States at 3,929,214.

The United States reports a birth rate of 7.04 children per woman, one of the highest in the world.

The congress founds a new national library in Washington named The Library of Congress.

US president John Adams moves into the newly completed White House, named for its light grey limestone.

Republican Thomas Jefferson and Federalist Aaron Burr tie votes in the Electoral College in the presidential election. The US House of Representatives votes for Jefferson as president.

According to George Washington's vision, Washington City in the District of Columbia becomes the capital of the United States, a new city located at the junction of the Potomac & Anacostia rivers. Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant (1754–1825) designs a plan modeled on Versailles with grand public parks & spacious avenues radiating out from on a domed Capitol.

Off the coast of Cuba, the U.S. naval vessel Ganges captures two American vessels, carrying 134 enslaved Africans, for violating the 1794 Slave Trade Act & brings them to Philadelphia for adjudication in federal court by Judge Richard Peters. Peters turns the custody of the Africans over to the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, which attempts to assimilate the Africans into Pennsylvania using the indenture system with many local Quakers serving as sponsors.

American born Helena Wells writes Constantia Neville; or, The West Indian, a novel about education promoting Christianity in arguments with deists & Unitarians and includes an attack on English author and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.

Absalom Jones & other Philadelphia blacks petition Congress against the slave trade & against the fugitive slave act of 1793.

Sarah Sayward Barrell Keating Wood (1759-1855) writes Julia and the Illuminated Baron, a gothic story of an intrepid young woman who resists an atheistic baron during the French Revolution.

Burt, Daniel S , editor. The Chronology of American Literature: America's Literary Achievements from the Colonial Era to Modern Times. Houghton Mifflin Internet. History Matters. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/

Timeline 1780-1789

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178012 May. After 40 days of siege, General Benjamin Lincoln surrenders Charles Town (Charleston), South Carolina, to the British forces commanded by General Henry Lincoln.

2 October. After being captured with Benedict Arnold's plans for the surrender of West Point, the headquarters of the Continental army, British spy Major John Andre is hanged. Having escaped on 25 September after hearing of Andre's capture, Arnold later becomes a brigadier general in the British army.

Delaware makes it illegal to enslave imported Africans.

Pennsylvania passes an Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery - on March 1

A freedom clause in the Massachusetts constitution is interpreted as an abolishment of slavery.

Massachusetts enfranchises all men, but not women, regardless of race.
178117 January. At the battle of Cowpens, South Carolina, General Daniel Morgan defeats the British forces of Colonel Banastre Tarleton, an important victory for the Americans.

Articles of Confederation : March 1, 1781

10 June. Reinforced by troops under General Anthony Wayne, American forces under the Marquis de Lafayette help to fend off raids by Benedict Arnold and Cornwallis in Virginia.

6 September. Benedict Arnold and his troops attack and destroy parts of New London, Connecticut.

28 September After French Admiral de Grasse defeats the British fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves and gains control of Chesapeake Bay, the siege of Yorktown begins as 9,000 American and 7,000 French troops under General George Washington and Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, converge on the city.

General Cornwallis signs the surrender papers on October 19, thus ending the last major battle of the Revolutionary War. Articles of Capitulation; October 18, 1781
The Bank of North America is established by the Continental Congress to lend money to the fledgling Revolutionary government

Jury Decides in Favor of "Mum Bett" Freeman, August 22, 1781
Ann Lee leads her Shaker colleagues in a missionary tour of New England lasting two years

Slaves in Williamsburg, Virginia, rebel and burn several buildings

1782Deborah Sampson, disguised as a man, enlists in the 4th Massachusetts Regiment as Robert Shurtleff. She is one of many women who fight in the American Revolution. Letter by Paul Revere in support of a military pension for Deborah Sampson Gannett.

Contract Between the King and the Thirteen United States of North America, signed at Versailles July 16, 1782
Mercy Otis Warren: "TO A YOUNG GENTLEMAN, RESIDING IN FRANCE." An instructional poem in which Warren offers advice to her son about avoiding the temptations young men from America may encounter when they are away from home.

1782-83Some 40,000 Loyalists flee from British America to the previously French colonies, in particular Nova Scotia

1783Treaty of Paris ends the Revolutionary War.

The Supreme Court of Massachusetts abolishes slavery in that state.

Letitia Cunningham, worried about the public debt, published in Philadelphia, THE CASE OF THE WHIGS WHO LOANED THEIR MONEY ON THE PUBLIC FAITH FAIRLY STATED. INCLUDING A MEMENTO FOR CONGRESS TO REVIEW THEIR ENGAGEMENTS, AND TO ESTABLISH THE HONOUR AND HONESTY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

1783-5Noah Webster's "BLUE-BACKED SPELLER" (A GRAMMATICAL INSTITUTE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE) helps to standardize spelling and to distinguish British from American English that eventually will sell more than 60 million copies.

1784Beginning of the China Trade, as the American Ship Empress of China, sailing from New York, arrives at Canton, China. The ship will return with exotic goods, including silks and tea, spurring large numbers of American merchants to enter the trade.

Hannah Adams (1755-1831) writes AN ALPHABETICAL COMPENDIUM OF THE VARIOUS SECTS. Boston: B. Edes and Sons, 1784. Adams, the first American woman to earn a living by writing, produces her most significant work, a reference to modern religions intended to "avoid giving the least preference of any denomination over another." Revised editions would appear in 1791, 1801, and 1817 as A DICTIONARY OF ALL RELIGIONS, and the work is an indispensable resource in registering the changes in religious views in America from 1784 to 1817.
Americanus, Ovid [pseud.]. LESSONS FOR LOVERS. TO WHICH IS ADDED THE THUNDERSTORM, A POEM. Supposed to be written by the late celebrated Miss A***, now Mrs. L***. Philadelphia: Robert Bell, 1784.

Treaty With the Six Nations : 1784.
Phillis Wheatley writes her final publication, "LIBERTY AND PEACE: A POEM." Wheatley had married John Peters, a free black Bostonian, in 1778. Their union was marked by constant financial difficulties, and after her husband was jailed for debt, Wheatley found herself without friends to help her. She supported herself and her family as a laundress in a boardinghouse that catered to blacks. This poem, her last attempt to regain public notice, was unsuccessful. Sick and overworked, Wheatley died on December 5.

1785
Martha Ballard begins her diary on January 1, 1785.
Congress relocates to New York City, temporary capital of the U.S.

Thomas Jefferson is appointed minister to France, replacing Benjamin Franklin.

Treaty With the Wyandot, etc.; January 21

Treaty With The Cherokee; November 28

Mercy Otis Warren writes SANS SOUCI, a biting satire of elite society in Boston after the Revolution. This social critique of fashion and manners uses many of Mercy Otis Warren's literary hallmarks, though she never claimed authorship.

1786
A Petition by Rachel Lovell Wells, 1786
Treaty With the Chocktaw; January 3

Treaty With the Chickasaw; January 10

Treaty With the Shawnee; January 31

Americans suffer from post-war economic depression including a shortage of currency, high taxes, nagging creditors, farm foreclosures and bankruptcies.

Congress adopts a decimal coinage system based on the Spanish milled dollar.

In Massachusetts, angry representatives from 50 towns meet to discuss money problems including the rising number of foreclosures, the high cost of lawsuits, heavy land and poll taxes, high salaries for state officials, and demands for new paper money as a means of credit. To prevent debtors from being tried and put in prison, ex-Revolutionary War Captain Daniel Shays, who is now a bankrupt farmer, leads an armed mob and prevents the Northampton Court from holding a session.

Susanna Haswell Rowson (c. 1762-1824) writes VICTORIA. Rowson's first novel is published by subscription. It is a tale of seduction, in which a woman is tricked into a sham marriage, becomes pregnant, is abandoned, and goes insane before dying.
Publication in London of An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African, by Thomas Clarkson. Quickly reprinted in the United States, it is the single most influential antislavery work of the late 18th century.

1787
The Federal Convention convenes in Philadelphia, although only seven states are represented. Several provisions of James Madison's Virginia Plan become part of the U. S. Constitution, including a bicameral legislature, a federal judiciary branch, and an executive branch. The Constitution is approved on 17 September and then is sent to the states for ratification. A large group of representatives from the newly independent colonies, including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, and others meet at the Philadelphia State House to discuss the future of the country and to draft a document reflecting Revolutionary ideals. This becomes the Constitutional Convention.

Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance which establishes formal procedures for transforming territories into states. It provides for the eventual establishment of three to five states in the area north of the Ohio River, to be considered equal with the original 13.

The Ordinance includes a Bill of Rights that guarantees freedom of religion, the right to trial by jury, public education and a ban on slavery in the Northwest. Quakers flocked to the new territory, believing their prayers had been answered.

Philadelphia free blacks establish the Free African Society in Philadelphia, the first independent black organization and a mutual aid society.

The ratified U.S. Constitution allows a male slave to count as three-fifths of a man in determining representation in the House of Representatives. The Constitution sets 1808 as the earliest date for the national government to ban the slave trade. No vote is given to women.
Mercy Warren to Catherine Macaulay, 28 September 1787
October 1787-May 1788. The Federalist Papers appear in New York newspapers under the pseudonym Publius. The letters are written by James Madison (1731-1836), Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), and John Jay (1745-1829).

Rhode Island outlaws the slave trade.

A pamphlet describing a public trial is published in Philadelphia, THE TRIAL OF ALICE CLIFTON, FOR THE MURDER OF HER BASTARD-CHILD, AT THE COURT OF OYER AND TERMINER AND GENERAL GAOL DELIVERY, HELD AT PHILADELPHIA, ON WEDNESDAY THE 18TH DAY OF APRIL, 1787.

1788The constitution of the United States is ratified by the states, but it is immediately agreed that amendments will be desirable

Hannah More (1745-1833) publishes in Philadelphia, SLAVERY, A POEM.
Jews are permitted to hold federal office.

Pennsylvania amends law to forbid removal of blacks from the state.

1789George Washington (1732–1799) is unanimously elected the first president of the United States on April 30. and is inaugurated on Wall Street in New York. He serves two consecutive four-year terms.

Gershom Mendes Seixas, prayer leader of New York's Jewish congregation, is invited to Washington's inaugural.

The first American novel, William Hill Brown's The Power of Sympathy, seeks "to expose the dangerous Consequences of Seduction and to set forth the advantages of female Education."
Alexander Hamilton becomes secretary of the treasury in the administration of George Washington, whose federalist views he shares

Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745-c. 1801): THE INTERESTING NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF OLAUDAH EQUIANO, OR GUSTAVUS VASSA, THE AFRICAN. This narrative is an autobiography about being forced from Africa as an adolescent into slavery. In one of the first slave narratives, Equiano transcends the inhumanity of bondage and writes an insightful narrative.

Mercy Warren. Letter signed, dated Plimouth [Massachusetts], 20 September 1789, to Catharine Macaulay
Georgetown University, the first Catholic college in the U.S., is founded by Father John Carroll.

The first inaugural ball occurs in honor of President Washington.

In France, the French Revolution begins with the fall of the Bastille in Paris, an event witnessed by the American ambassador, Thomas Jefferson.

The U.S. Army is established by Congress. Totaling 1000 men, it consists of one regiment of eight infantry companies and one battalion of four artillery companies.

Quakers reconcile with the American government by congratulating Washington on his election as president, at the same time reaffirming that they "can take no part in any warlike measures on any occasion or under any power"

Susanna Haswell Rowson writes "A TRIP TO PARNASSUS" criticizing in verse the contemporary stage. She also publishes POEMS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS AND THE INQUISITOR. In a loosely related collection of scenes from domestic life, Rowson expresses her opposition to the excessively contrived, idealized fiction of the day.
Treaty With the Wyandot, etc.; January 9

Treaty With the Six Nations; January 9

Susanna Haswell Rowson writes Mary; OR, THE TEST OF HONOUR. Rowson depicts a spirited heroine who demonstrates that her moral sense is superior to that of the wealthy aristocrat who refuses to let his son marry her.

See
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.
Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet. http://historymatters.gmu.edu


















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Timeline 1770-1779

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1770Population of the colonies is 2,210,000

Boston Massacre. British troops fire point blank into an unruly crowd in Boston, Massachusetts, killing five and injuring 6. Escaped slave, Crispus Attucks, is killed & is one of the first colonists to die in the war for independence. After the incident, the new Royal Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, at the insistence of Sam Adams, withdraws British troops out of Boston to nearby harbor islands. The captain of the British soldiers, Thomas Preston, is then arrested along with eight of his men & charged with murder.

27-year-old Thomas Jefferson begins constructing a mansion on a hilltop in Charlottesville, calling it Monticello ('little mountain')

The Townshend Acts are repealed by the British. All duties on imports into the colonies are eliminated except for tea. Also, the Quartering Act is not renewed.

Trial begins for the British soldiers arrested after the Boston Massacre. Colonial lawyers John Adams & Josiah Quincy successfully defend Captain Preston and six of his men, who are acquitted. Two other soldiers are found guilty of manslaughter, branded, then released.

Phillis Wheatley writes "An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of That Celebrated Divine, and Eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learned George Whitefield." Wheatley's moving tribute to the leading minister of the religious revivalist movement of the 1740s-1750s, known as the Great Awakening, earns her the attention of Boston's literary elite and establishes her as a literary prodigy.

Jane Fenn Hoskens (1694-c. 1750) writes The Life and Spiritual Sufferings of that Faithful Servant of Christ. Jane Hoskens is a public preacher among the Quakers. Like other traveling ministers, Hoskens believes her mission is to share the Quaker gospel with the largest possible audience, and she depends on other Quaker women for a female support network.

1772
British customs schooner, the Gaspee, runs aground off Rhode Island in Narragansett Bay. Colonists from Providence row out to the schooner & attack it, set the British crew ashore, then burn the ship. In September, a 500 pound reward is offered by the English Crown for the capture of those colonists, who would then be sent to England for trial. The announcement that they would be sent to England further upsets many American colonists.

A Boston town meeting assembles, called by Sam Adams. During the meeting, a 21 member committee of correspondence is appointed to communicate with other towns & colonies. A few weeks later, the town meeting endorses three radical proclamations asserting the rights of the colonies to self-rule.

James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw's writes the first autobiographical slave narrative.

Samson Occom (1732-1792) writes "A Sermon Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul, an Indian Who Was Executed at New Haven." The first publication in America by a Native American is a sermon warning of the evils of alcohol, based on an incident in which an Indian killed a white man while drunk. Occom also condemns racial intolerance, which he says corrupts the minds of both whites & Indians.

1773
About 8000 Bostonians gather to hear Sam Adams tell them Royal Governor Hutchinson has repeated his command not to allow the ships out of the harbor until the tea taxes are paid. That night, the Boston Tea Party occurs as 50 colonial activists disguise themselves as Mohawk Indians then board the ships & dump all 342 containers of tea into the harbor. These colonials are also angered by the East India Company's monopoly on the tea trade.

Virginia House of Burgesses appoints an eleven member committee of correspondence to communicate with the other colonies regarding common complaints against the British. Members of that committee include, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry & Richard Henry Lee. Virginia is followed a few months later by New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut & South Carolina.

Virginia Resolutions Establishing A Committee of Correspondence; March 12
Resolutions of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Agreeing to the Virginia Proposal; May 28

The Philadelphia Resolutions; October 16
Association of the Sons of Liberty in New York; December 15
Frontiersman Daniel Boone leaves his Yadkin River North Carolina home to begin exploring Kentucky & within the next 2 years, with a party of thirty men, Boone constructed a nearly 300 mile passage, aptly called the "Wilderness Road," through a natural gap in the Cumberland Mountains. Until the middle of the next century, almost 100,000 pioneers would migrate into the new territories of Kentucky, western Tennessee,

New England Yearly Meeting directs that Quakers owning slaves will be disowned.

The first separate black church in America is founded in South Carolina.

Bridget Richardson Fletcher (1726-1770) writes Hymns and Spiritual Songs. This posthumously published collection, presumed to be written by a Massachusetts woman, includes verses in uniform ballad stanzas that are suitable for singing but unimpressive as poetry. The book's editor condescendingly asks readers "to make allowances for the many inaccuracies of a female pen."
Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814) writes The Adulateur. The Boston poet, dramatist, and historian makes her most noted contribution as a writer of political satires in dramatic form. Published in the manner of all her plays--anonymously in newspapers or as broadsides & not meant to be performed--the drama attacks the colonial government & especially Thomas Hutchinson. To avoid libel & sedition laws, Warren writes anonymously & masks her targets with thinly veiled pseudonyms.
Slaves in Massachusetts unsuccessfully petition the government for their freedom.

Phillis Wheatley writes Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. After being freed by the Wheatley family in 1772, the poet takes a trip financed by her former owners to England, where she is celebrated by the nobility & in literary circles. Though she had not been able to secure a publisher for her work in America, a British publisher is eager to print this defining collection of her poems. It is the first published poetry collection by an African American. Included is "On Being Brought from Africa to America."

1774
Boston Port Act causes British forces to occupy the town & close the port. Great Britain : Parliament - The Boston Port Act : March 31, 1774

English Parliament passes the first of a series of Coercive Acts (called Intolerable Acts by Americans) in response to the rebellion in Massachusetts.

The Boston Port Act effectively shuts down all commercial shipping in Boston harbor, until Massachusetts pays the taxes owed on the tea dumped in the harbor & also reimburses the East India Company for the loss of the tea.

Bostonians at a town meeting call for a boycott of British imports in response to the Boston Port Bill. May 13, General Thomas Gage, commander of all British military forces in the colonies, arrives in Boston & replaces Hutchinson as Royal governor, putting Massachusetts under military rule. He is followed by the arrival of four regiments of British troops.

The English Parliament enacts the next series of Coercive Acts, which include the Massachusetts Regulating Act and the Government Act virtually ending any self-rule by the colonists there. Instead, the English Crown & the Royal governor assume political power formerly exercised by colonists. Also enacted; the Administration of Justice Act which protects royal officials in Massachusetts from being sued in colonial courts, & the Quebec Act establishing a centralized government in Canada controlled by the Crown and English Parliament. The Quebec Act greatly upsets American colonists by extending the southern boundary of Canada into territories claimed by Massachusetts, Connecticut & Virginia.

The English Parliament passes a new version of the 1765 Quartering Act requiring all of the American colonies to provide housing for British troops in occupied houses & taverns and in unoccupied buildings. In September, Massachusetts Governor Gage seizes that colony's arsenal of weapons at Charlestown.

Circular Letter of the Boston Committee of Correspondence; May 13

Proceedings of Farmington, Connecticut, on the Boston Port Act; May 19
Great Britain : Parliament - The Administration of Justice Act; May 20
Great Britain : Parliament - The Massachusetts Government Act; May 20

Letter from the New York Committee of Fifty-One to the Boston Committee of Correspondence; May 23

Letter from Lieutenant-Governor Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth; June 1
Great Britain : Parliament - The Quartering Act; June 2
Proceedings of the Inhabitants of Philadelphia; June 18
The Association of the Virginia Convention; August 1-6
Great Britain : Parliament - The Quebec Act: October 7

The First Continental Congress of fifty-five representatives (except from the colony of Georgia) meets in Philadelphia to discuss relations with Britain, the possibility of independence, & the hope of a peaceful solution. King George III scorns the thought of reconciliation & declares the colonies to be in a state of open rebellion. Attendees include George Washington, Patrick Henry, Sam Adams, & John Hancock.

Many Quakers feel great sympathy for the democratic, if not revolutionary, sentiments of their fellow colonists. They are constrained, however, because many view their stance on peace as extending to opposing revolution. Quakers at this time tend to believe that when one's conscience does not force one to oppose a government, one should be obedient to it. This extends not just to a refusal to serve in the militias but also to refusing to use the currency printed by the new American government. This leads their fellow Americans to view Quakers as British sympathizers.

Janet Schaw (c. 1735-c. 1801) keeps a journal as she travels which becomes Journal of a Lady of Quality; Being a Narrative of a Journey from Scotland to the West Indies, North Carolina, and Portugal, in the Years 1774 to 1776. Published in 1921, this collection of letters by the Scottish-born travel writer includes a travel account, diary, & literary opinions.

Mercy Otis Warren writes "The Squabble of the Sea Nymphs; or, The Sacrifice of the Tuscaroroes." The poem commemorates the Boston Tea Party while critiquing the role of the British and the colonial government.

Elizabeth Sampson Ashbridge’s work Some Account of the Fore-Part of the Life of Elizabeth Ashbridge is published. She had died in 1755. Written from 1746 to 1753, it is one of the most readable & interesting of the Quaker journals & among the earliest autobiographies by an American woman.

"The Peculiar Circumstances of the Times" a letter from Mercy Warren, dated 29 December 1774, to Catharine Macaulay. Warren described the impact of the closing of the port of Boston and of the Coercive Acts.

October 25: Fifty-one "patriotic ladies" gather in Edenton to announce in writing their boycott of East Indian tea as long as it is taxed by the British. This protest, known as the Edenton Tea Party, is one of the first political activities in this country staged by women.

Flora MacDonald, famous for saving the life of Bonnie Prince Charlie, arrives in Wilmington, North Carolina. After urging her fellow Highland Scots to fight for England & then suffering financial & personal loss during the Revolutionary War, she leaves the state in 1778.
Anonymous. A dialogue, between a southern delegate, and his spouse, on his return from the grand Continental congress…inscribed to the married ladies of America, by their most sincere, and affectionate friend, and servant, Mary V .V. [pseud.]. This is a Tory satire in verse which may or may not have been penned by a woman. [New York]: [James Rivington?], 1774.
Connecticut, Rhode Island, & Georgia prohibit the importation of slaves. And Virginia takes action against slave importation.

1775
New England Restraining Act is endorsed by King George III, requiring New England colonies to trade exclusively with England & also bans fishing in the North Atlantic.

The first shot of the American Revolution is fired in a skirmish between redcoats & militiamen at Lexington, on the road to Concord resulting in the Battles of Concord & Lexington, Seige of Boston, & Bunker Hill. Black minutemen participate in the fighting.

Resolutions of the Provincial Congress of Virginia; March 23
Patrick Henry - Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death Speech to the Virginia General Assembly; March 23
The Mecklenburgh Resolutions; May 20
The Charlotte Town, North Carolina Resolves; May 31

A Declaration by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North-America, Now Met in Congress at Philadelphia, Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking Up Arms.; July 6
Resolution of Secrecy Adopted by the Continental Congress, November 9

Delegates from the states reassemble in Philadelphia, with hostilities against the British already under way in Massachusetts & select George Washington as commander of the army

Francis Salvador, the first Jew to hold elective office in America, is elected to the South Carolina Provincial Congress.

Take the Money and Run: April/May 1775 -- Rachel Revere to Paul Revere
An American Post Office is established with Ben Franklin as Postmaster General.

The slave population in the colonies is nearly 500,000. In Virginia, the ratio of free colonists to slaves is nearly 1:1. In South Carolina it is approximately 1:2.

Georgia takes action against slave importation.

The first abolition society is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery (PAS) is the world's first antislavery society and the first Quaker anti-slavery society. Benjamin Franklin becomes Honorary President of the Society in 1787. Thomas Paine speaks out against slavery & joins the PAS with Benjamin Rush.

In July, George Washington announces a ban on the enlistment of free blacks & slaves in the colonial army. By the end of the year, he reverses the ban, ordering the Continental Army to accept the service of free blacks.

In November, Virginia Royal Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, issues a proclamation announcing that any slave fighting on the side of the British will be liberated.

The American Navy is established by Congress. The next day, Congress appoints a secret committee to seek help from European nations.

Anna Young Smith (1756-1780) writes "An Elegy to the Memory of the American Volunteers." The Philadelphia poet's only published poem is a tribute to the American heroes at Lexington and Concord.

The Group, as lately acted, and to be re-acted to the wonder of all superior intelligences, nigh head-quarters at Amboyne. Boston: Edes and Gill, 1775. Mercy Otis Warren writes The Group which criticizes the Massachusetts Government Act, one of the Intolerable Acts, which suspended the existing provincial government.
In Salem, Massachusettes, E. Russell publishes A Cry for Boston by a Young lady, who was late a resident in that unhappy town, An humble intercession for the distressed town of Boston, now almost deserted by its former rightful inhabitants, many of whom have fled, chusing to take refuge in the woods and caves, for the sake of liberty, rather than to live in splendor and affluence among slaves and tyrants; which place is at present under the government of a lawless British soldiery ... who, under the sanction of martial law, exercise every cruelty that can possibly be invented by the most uncultivated savages or fiercest barbarians, on the remaining miserable inhabitants, who are obliged to dwell there contrary to the faith of that perfidious arch-traitor and truce-breaking T. Gage…Now published by the earnest request of a great number of its late inhabitants.
1776
Ann Lee founds the Shaker settlement in America in the woods of Watervliet, Niskeyuna, New York.
British evacuate Boston.

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) drafts the Declaration of Independence which is adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4.

On 27 August, the colonial army suffers a serious defeat at the Battle of Long Island.
On 16 September, having already decided to remove the army from New York City, Washington repels the British forces of General Howe in the Battle of Harlem Heights.

On 21 September, fire spreads over New York, destroying from 300-1,000 buildings. Early in the morning of this day, Nathan Hale is captured by the British & executed as a spy the next day, September 22. According to an 1848 memoir by a friend, his last word were these: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
Abigail Adams' "Remember the Ladies" letter to John Adams, 31 March 1776. Massachusetts Historical Society. She declares that women, "will not hold ourselves bound by any laws which we have no voice."
In Common Sense Thomas Paine moved many to the cause of independence with his pamphlet. In a direct, simple style, he cried out against King George III & the monarchical form of government.

George Washington raises on Prospect Hill a new American flag, the British red ensign on a ground of thirteen stripes – one for each colony

Congress appoints Jefferson, Franklin & Silas Deane to negotiate treaties with European governments. Franklin & Deane then travel to France seeking financial & military aid.

In North Carolina, the Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers) denounces slavery & appoints a committee to aid Friends in emancipating their slaves. Forty slaves are freed, but the courts declare them still enslaved & resell them.

Jewish population: between 1,000 and 2,500 (.04-.10 percent of the total population.)

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers, forbids its members from holding slaves.

Delaware prohibits the importation of African slaves.

July 2: New Jersey gives "all inhabitants" of adult age with a net worth of 50 pounds the right to vote. Women property holders have the vote until 1807, when the state limited the vote to "free, white males."

Friends from New England, the south & rural areas overwhelmingly supported the colonists' cause with the stronghold of British sympathy in the Society being in Philadelphia & New York. Six members of the Religious Society of Friends are disowned for joining the British forces, whilst between four & five hundred are expelled from their meetings for participating in the American cause.

Phillis Wheatley writes "To His Excellency General Washington" celebrating George Washington upon his appointment as the head of the army.
1776-1781
Virginia General Assembly restricts the vote to adult white men.

1777The US Congress agrees the final version of the Articles of Confederation, defining the terms on which states join the Union. Under the Articles, Congress is the sole authority of the new national government.
Congress adopts a new flag for independent America – the stars & stripes.

Marquis de Lafayette, a 19 year old French aristocrat, arrives in Philadelphia & volunteers to serve without pay. Congress appoints him as a major general in the Continental Army. Lafayette will become one of Gen. Washington's most trusted aides.

Mary Katherine Goddard, the Baltimore printer publishes the first copy of the Declaration of Independence, including the names of all the signers.
Vermont is the first of the thirteen colonies to abolish slavery & enfranchise all adult males.

New York enfranchises all free propertied men regardless of color or prior servitude.

1778
On June 28, Mary McCauly (“Molly Pitcher”), wife of an American gunner, brings water to the troops at the Battle of Monmouth Court House. Legend claims that she takes her husband's place after he collapses.
Virginian Hannah Lee Corbin declares that widows should be allowed to vote & not be taxed without representation.
Ratification of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with France 1778
Ben Franklin is appointed to be the American diplomatic representative in France.

Frances Slocum, a 5 year old Quaker girl, is kidnapped from her home in Pennsylvania, by Native Americans. (See her story in this blog.)
John Adams is appointed by Congress to negotiate peace with England.

Treaty With the Delawares; September 17
Rhode Island forbids the removal of slaves from the state.

Virginia prohibits the importation of slaves.

Sarah Wister (1761-1804) writes a journal, which becomes one of the most valued looks into the daily life of a typical Quaker teenager of the period.Molly Gutridge (fl. 1778) who lived in Marblehead, Massachusetts, writes A New Touch on the Times. This poetic broadside describes three things about American life during the Revolutionary War: the absence of men & the hardships borne by women as a result; the economic troubles of life during war; and the faith that God had placed these hardships on Americans but will someday reward the new nation
1779
Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820) writes "On the Equality of the Sexes," a description of women's involvement in history & literature. The essay traces women's contributions to public events in the world just as the new American nation debates the limitations of women's sphere. Murray finishes her essay before Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) completes her Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792); Murray's account would be published in 1790.

See
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.
Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet. http://historymatters.gmu.edu













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