BREAKING 1776 NEWS: First British Report of America’s Declaration of Independence
After extensive archive and internet research, including a few email exchanges with the British Library, it is my conclusion that the first official British newspaper report of the actual July 4th Declaration was published in the August 10 to 13, 1776, London Chronicle. While the full printing of the Declaration appeared four days later in ...
The Death and Reinterment of Dr. Joseph Warren
As research for his forthcoming book 1775, Derek W. Beck uncovered photos of Dr. Joseph Warren’s skull, which support the idea that Warren was shot facing his enemy, at close range, during the Battle of Bunker Hill. As Beck summarizes: “Dr. Joseph Warren was shot in the face, looking at his assailant, and given the ...
Understanding the Colonial American Tea Trade
While reading Benjamin Carp’s terrific new book, Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party & The Making of America, I yearned for a supplemental reference guide to help me visualize the stages of the colonial American tea trade before and after the Tea Act of 1773. This past weekend, I reached out to @bencarp ...
First Draft of John Paul Jones’ Famous Naval Victory
The September 24 to 28, 1779 issue of the Edinburgh Advertiser gives readers a true first draft of history as it reports, perhaps for the first time anywhere, the famous naval victory by John Paul Jones in the Bonnehomme Richard over the HMS Serapis, known as the Battle of Flamborough Head. This newspaper report is ...
Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America
Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America, by Benjamin L. Carp, is hot off the presses and available for sale today at your local book store or from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Powell’s and Yale University Press. Some online book stores still show a publish date as October ...
President George Washington’s First Inaugural Speech
As a follow up to the previous post about the eyewitness account of George Washington’s 1789 inauguration, below are excerpts from the May 6, 1789 Massachusetts Centinel, which contains descriptions of the inauguration as well as the full text of Washington’s first inaugural speech, one of America’s 100 milestone documents.
Griswold’s Only Eyewitness Account of George Washington’s 1789 Inauguration
A lot has been written about George Washington’s 1789 inauguration and whether he actual said “So help me God” at the conclusion of his oath. John Bell of Boston 1775 has a great piece on the inauguration. And so does Ben Edwards of Teach History. In 1854, Rufus Wilmot Griswold first published The Republican Court; ...
The Irony of the Boston Massacre and the Townshend Act
The Wikipedia entry for The Townshend Acts says the acts were “met with resistance in the colonies, prompting the occupation of Boston by British troops in 1768, which eventually resulted in the Boston Massacre of 1770. Ironically, on the same day as the massacre in Boston, Parliament began to consider a motion to partially repeal ...
Calculating Today’s Value of the Tea Destroyed on December 16, 1773
The first episode of History Channel’s “America: The Story of Us” stated that the value of the tea dumped into the harbor during the Boston Tea Party was $1 million. That reminded me of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet from April 18, 1774, which published some interesting post-party items, including one about the value of the tea. ...
New Collection: The Battle of Lexington and Concord
The 235th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord is quickly approaching, so the unveiling of this collection is very timely. Below is the introduction to Rag Linen’s Battle of Lexington and Concord collection. “The New England militia were elaborately organized and actively led. On the morning of April 19, 1775, they stood against ...
Gen. George Washington’s Arrival in Cambridge: The Public and Private Exchanges
Last week, J.L. Bell wrote on his Boston 1775 blog about Gen. George Washington’s arrival in Cambridge to take command of the Continental Army. Washington was accompanied by Gen. Charles Lee, an experienced British officer who was bitter about not being appointed Commander in Chief and, according to Wikipedia, had nothing but the utmost disdain ...
