250 and Counting

If you’re going to be in rebellion, you may as well do something rebellious. Thus was (presumably) the reasoning behind Ben Franklin putting forth a resolution that the Colonies would effectively ignore a ban on the importation of weapons and gunpowder to the Colonies. And while we’ve mentioned numerous times that the Congress doesn’t seem […]

The post July 15, 1775: Breakin’ the Law With Impunity appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Lord John Wilkes was an interesting person who was always willing to run against popular opinion if he felt strongly that he was in the right. In 1769 he fought for the right of his voters – rather than the House of Commons – to determine their representatives. In 1761 he got Parliament to concede the right of publishers […]

The post July 14, 1775: Support From An Odd Place appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The Speech to the Six Nations is one of those documents that pretty much answers what was going on with the Native Americans during the Revolution. Athough to be fair, it largely addresses what happened with the Native Americans in Upstate New York. But that area, being a border with Canada, was pretty important to […]

The post July 13, 1775: Speech to the Six Nations appeared first on 250 and Counting.

General Sir William Howe was already in Boston when his brother, Admiral Richard Howe, arrived. So, say what you will about Boston during the siege, but you can’t say there was a lack of no Howe. Hi-yooooooooooooooooo! I apologize. Richard’s biggest problem was that he was known to have been part of prior reconciliation efforts […]

The post July 12, 1775: Admiral Howe Comes to Town appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Oof, that’s a mouthful of title. Oh well, what’s done is done. As noted in today’s episode, James Warren was not related to Joseph Warren. On the other hand, he is related to Mercy Otis Warren, because he’s her husband. James and John Adams had a few ideas in common; the hard part was convincing […]

The post July 11, 1775: From John to James, and The Other Long Island appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Hey! We have a Navy now! Okay, it’s only one ship, but it’s a start. And to be clear, it’s Georgia’s navy, not the navy of the Continental forces. But we’re getting somewhere. And what’s more, on its first day it took on a British ship, with amazing results. Listen in and learn the story.

The post July 10, 1775: The Georgian Navy appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Day Four of this thing and I’m still sounding kinda sexy. Or not, I have no idea. A look through George Washington’s orders of each day gives us an interesting peek into his mind. This was a guy who definitely had his finger on the pulse of what was going on with his troops. But […]

The post July 9, 1775: Orders of the Day appeared first on 250 and Counting.

N.B. While it’s Mike recording today, I write this part and I’m still a little under the weather, so I’ll be brief again. It’s Cake and Candles today for William Davies, born in Savannah on this day in 1775. Davies enjoyed careers in both the legal and political fields, and appeared to do well in […]

The post July 8, 1775: Judge William Davies appeared first on 250 and Counting.

As you’ll hear today, I have a huge sinus infection and it took a lot of effort to get today’s episode recorded, so I hope you’ll excuse this part being rather brief. John and Abigail Adams was probably one of the best documented relationships of the Colonial Era, and it’s a ridiculously touching love story. […]

The post July 7, 1775 (no, really): Dear Abby appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Note: I realized belatedly that the episode that dropped yesterday was titled July 7, as was the audio file itself, but if you’ve listened, you know that it was in fact the July 5 file and what we’ve got here are a couple of typos that have mostly been fixed. My apologies for the error […]

The post July 6, 1775: The Declaration Before The Declaration appeared first on 250 and Counting.