Okay, so here’s the thing about Common Sense:

It’s not as though Thomas Paine came up with prose so extraordinarily clear that everyone suddenly smacked their foreheads and said, “My God! Independence! Of COURSE!”

In fact, many people thought Common Sense was crazy, and others considered it an incitement to the all-out war that everyone was trying to avoid. There were complaints that what Paine had written was dangerous, even violent.

But the pamphlet was heavily advertised, and Paine was involved in a very ugly, very public feud with his publisher Robert Bell. Those two things, combined with the accusations of scandalousness, meant that sales were going through the roof. And people weren’t just buying it, they were reading it.

And as time went on, the argument made by Paine became more and more palatable. And by the time July came around, Paine’s ideas largely stood up to reason.

P.S. One time years ago, when I lived in New York, I came home from work in a powerful rainstorm. When I entered the house, rather than track my wet feet throughout the house, I opened up my newspaper and dropped it on the floor, and I stepped lightly a few times on it. When my wife asked what I was doing, I told her, “These are the Times that dry men’s soles.”
I’ll let myself out, now.

The post It’s Just…You Know…–January 10, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Josiah Martin was the last Royal Governor of North Carolina, and while he spent the first few months of the job in New York, he probably wouldn’t have a reputation as an especially bad governor if he hadn’t been hampered so much by circumstances that were in place before he got the job.

There were money issues that his predecessor had left behind, and the rest of the government was plagued by internal squabbling that pretty much ensured nothing got done. It’s actually kind of amazing that there were any Loyalists left in North Carolina by the time 1776 rolled around.

But there were, and so Josiah Martin began to put together a nearly foolproof plan to get himself back in power.

Nearly.

P.S. You know you watched a lot of The West Wing when you hear the name “Josiah” and your mind immediately goes to “Bartlet.” Just sayin’.

The post A Plan Is Hatched–January 9, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Mike wasn’t kidding when he said that, had it not been for his part in the Revolution, John Burgoyne would be best known as a playwright. He wrote several plays, most of them quite successful. Interestingly enough, the play Mike cites today is not often listed among his oeuvre. So we get the feeling that “The Blockade to Boston” was more of a one-act, or a skit-level kind of show meant specifically for that day’s audience.

But he was a general during the Revolution, and he was actually a pretty good one, although for the longest time he got the blame for the British loss. (You may still think this is the case, but more recently historians have moved away from this.)

The post The Play’s The Thing–January 8, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

There are many letters between George Washington and Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull. Presumably something as simple as proximity to another leader was attractive to both of them, especially in an age where letters took several days to go a hundred miles.

We have to presume that the two men had very reliable people transporting these letters, given how much detail is in this one regarding Washington’s guesses about British troop movements and exactly what he was going to do about it. It’s certainly been the case before that correspondence has been intercepted by the British in the past, and the Postal Service hadn’t been up and running for very long by that point.

At any rate, Washington was correct in that the British were taking a hard look at New York City (still mostly just the southern tip of Manhattan, mind you) and the palisades along the Hudson River, which was still called the North River then. Where he was likely incorrect was in the timing of that move, which may have resulted in a little complacency.

The post Preparing To Defend New York–January 7, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

From a strategic standpoint, Charleston Bay was probably much more attractive to the British than Boston Harbor was. The northern harbor was more open to the sea, there were a bunch of small islands to navigate around, and the weather could get quite treacherous.

Meanwhile in South Carolina, there was a definite entry/exit point, there were fewer islands to deal with, and while it can still get cold in that area, the winters are still much milder.

But from a shipping standpoint, both cities were attractive and needed to be controlled, as far as the British were concerned.

It’s interesting, in retrospect, that the Patriots would attack the British ships as they departed the harbor area in Charleston, though. If nothing else, they more or less gave away the fact that Sullivan’s Island was fortified, which wasn’t necessarily common knowledge. And sure enough, there was an attack there by the British, which we’ll talk about in June. Stay tuned!

The post Retreat From Charleston–January 6, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

It’s fun to say that the New Hampshire Constitution was the first time that an American commonwealth constitution, and that several of the others quickly followed, as though a dam had broken.

But the fact is, the various colonies were putting together their own constitutions at the urging of the Second Continental Congress, and New Hampshire just happened to be the first.

That said, let’s not take away from them the fact that they managed to get it done with a great deal of efficiency, and I’m also impressed at the way they got the subsequent documents done. But you’ll have to listen to the episode to hear that.

Oh, yes: I promised you the recipe for Martha Washington’s cake she served for her Twelfth Night party. This comes from the New England Historical Society.

Take 40 eggs and divide the whites from the yolks and beat them to a froth. Then work four pounds of butter to a cream and put the whites of eggs to it a Spoon full at a time till it is well work’d. Then put 4 pounds of sugar finely powdered to it in the same manner then put in the Yolks of eggs and 5 pounds of flour and 5 pounds of fruit. 2 hours will bake it. Add to it half and ounce of mace and nutmeg half a pint of wine and some fresh brandy.

It was a big honkin’ cake.

Bon appetit!

The post The First State Constitution–January 5, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Although he held the title “Captain of Marines” at this point, Samuel Nicholas was the first officer commissioned to the Continental Marines (later the US Marine Corps), and by tradition is therefore considered to be the first Commandant of the Marines.

Hey, are YOU going to argue with the USMC? I didn’t think so. Not me, either.

Nicholas was commissioned on November 28, 1775, and almost immediately began setting up his recruitment operations in Philadelphia.

His first major mission, which began on this day in 1776, took him hundreds of miles from the action in America, but with good reason.

We’ll hear from Samuel Nicholas again in the future, as he was involved in at least one other important battle.

The post Marines On A Mission–January 4, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

It was called “A Plan of Accommodation,” and it had been in the works for most of the previous year before Lord Drummond tried to present it to the Second Continental Congress.

Taxation was the big ticket item originally, but they managed to work that out with a perpetual grant of a percentage of revenues of certain items. Once the Americans got past that, the negotiations moved quickly: Britain would modify many of its restrictions on the Colonies, and the Colonies would in turn observe certain trade rules and provide Britain with military support when needed.

All of this was under the table, though: the next step was to begin formal negotiations. Drummond wanted the Americans to send an official delegation, but the delegates pointed out that they were likely to be arrested if they went to England, so Drummond offered himself as a hostage.

It was all looking good until several pieces of bad news came in.

The post A Plan For Reconciliation–January 3, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The Mount Riga Iron Furnace isn’t an especially unique artifact on the east coast of the US. In fact, as someone who lives in Baltimore, I get to see one of them regularly when I visit my mother-in-law, who lives about a half-hour’s drive away in a more rural part of the state. Unfortunately, that one (the Northampton Furnace is in bad shape because of its location close to a modern-day reservoir, so it’s in the water a lot of the time.

But it got me curious enough to wonder what they did, and how they worked. In the oversimplified version, you layer the iron ore and limestone, along with the fuel, usually charcoal or coke, into a tall stack.

Once the fire is lit, air is pushed into the bottom and forced upward, creating superheated air which gets it to about 4000 degrees. The ore melts down and the limestone collects the impurities in the ore.

The limestone and impurities float to the top as slag, and the molten iron can be removed as pig iron. This is the raw material for making iron and (later on) steel.

(Steel did exist in the 18th century, but it would be nearly 100 years before Henry Bessemer came up with the mass production process that made the Industrial Revolution possible.)

Iron furnaces aren’t unique, but they’re not especially common either, so it was important in the Revolutionary Era to locate them and ensure that they were adequate for creating the raw materials for producing weapons.

The post A Furnace for Arms–January 2, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Happy New Year to you!

The burning of Norfolk was the follow-up to the Battle of Great Bridge and the Patriot occupation of that town. Colonel Howe probably overplayed his hand with this one, and the consequences were catastrophic for the town.

The Declaration of Independence is just a few months away, now, and (spoiler alert) the part you may be most anticipating doesn’t happen on July 4. But in the meantime, there’s lots and lots of extremely historic things for us to talk about in the run-up to the Declaration, and the immediate aftermath.

Running through 1775, one day at a time, has been a huge privilege for us, and we hope you’ll stay with us through 1776. This was a project that I’d been thinking about for a long time, longer than I’ve known my partner, Mike Messner. And when I suggested to him that we team up, he jumped on the idea immediately. He’s been instrumental in helping with the research, with brainstorming the ideas, and with keeping me committed to the idea of actually doing a podcast that runs every single day.

We put a couple of hours into researching, writing, recording, (sometimes re-writing and re-recording) and editing these episodes, and I hope the effort shows. Thank you so much for taking this ride with us, and here’s to the next year.

Have a wonderful 2026!

The post The Burning of Norfolk–January 1, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.