250 and Counting

Despite everything that had already happened, there was still a sizeable chunk of the Second Continental Congress who thought that some form of reconciliation with England was possible.

Under their logic, the fact that there had been fighting at Lexington and Concord should have provided King George with ample proof that his policies were unpopular, and maybe he could back off on them a little bit.

In retrospect, we can see that this was rather short-sighted, and that those people truly didn’t understand the motivations that the English leadership had for their actions. Plus, England had history on their side: someone’s acting up? Squash them like bugs and get them all back in line.

The post May 26, 1775: One More Attempt at Peace appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Sometimes it’s kind of tough to bring an image to life through an audio podcast, but we thought it was important enough that you needed to see it somehow.

It’s oftentimes hard for us to understand just how wild the Thirteen Colonies were back in the day. In 1775, New York City was roughly a square mile of the southern tip of Manhattan. Where today’s Wall Street is was literally a wall, keeping out anything to the north. That’s another 13 miles of island (roughly) to the north which might have some Europeans living there, but not many. So, to that end…

This is a map of modern-day Boston, with a neighborhood breakdown on it, per the city’s Office of Neighborhood Services:

And this is the full map from the cover artwork. They’re slightly rotated to one another (more likely, the 1775 map is pointed toward magnetic north than true north), but the heart of Boston, at center left, is essentially the tip of today’s South Boston. On the map above, the siege line is about where the word “South” is printed.

So it was pretty easy to set up a line of defense to keep the city isolated, especially since the city was surrounded by water on three sides. Supplies and people could get in and out by water, but the city itself was still cut off for anyone approaching by land.

The post May 25, 1775: Reinforcements Arrive From Britain appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Even though he was President of the Second Continental Congress when the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 (whoops…spoiler alert), it’s entirely possible that John Hancock would be just one more guy who signed the document, except for the fact that he signed his name so large.

His signature is so large and so well-known that you can say to someone “Give me your John Hancock” and they know exactly what you mean.

Sure, we know John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, because they became presidents of the US, and Ben Franklin was already a living legend. But how many others can you name?

See what we mean? Even if you’re a fan of 1776, you might only come up with a couple of others, and you’d still be trying to work out the name of the guy from the south with the white outfit on. And Richard Henry Lee doesn’t count because he didn’t sign the thing.

It’s just some late-night thinking on my part.

Addendum: for the next few nights I’m not in my usual recording space, so apologies in advance if you pick up some stray background noises.

The post May 24, 1775: Congress Elects Its President appeared first on 250 and Counting.

New Jersey has been pretty quiet since the Lexington and Concord fighting took place. But no more: today they came back…with a vengeance!

The post May 23, 1775: New Jersey Gets Into the Act appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Up until now, New Hampshire has been rather quiet when it came to resisting British rule. But today was the day that “Live Free or Die” was more than a motto for their license plates, which had yet to be invented.

New Hampshire already had militias, of course, but they had a much broader range of available men from whom to choose. In addition, they organized themselves into a tight fighting force quicker than anyone imagined they would.

The post May 22, 1775: New Hampshire Gets Into the Act appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Like so many people who lived in upstate New York in the Revolutionary era, David Woods was an immigrant from Ireland when he came over with his family in 1775.

New York was unusual compared to the other colonies in that the overwhelming percentage of the population was immigrants; as a result it became a bit of an enclave for people from the UK and the Netherlands, so Woods blended in well.

As a result, we believe that although he wasn’t a politician for very long, he did a solid job, which doesn’t always stand out from the bigger picture.

The post May 21, 1775: David Woods appeared first on 250 and Counting.

When the folks in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, heard about the events at Lexington and Concord a month earlier, they were quite incensed. So much so that they decided they were going to declare independence from Britain.

Maybe. Maybe not. Tune in as Mike explains the controversy.

The post May 20, 1775: The Mecklenburg Declaration appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Baltimore has a lot of historic pride in its street names. Nearly all of them can be traced back to an historic figure or event: Key Highway, named after Francis Scott Key. (Also the Key Bridge, but we’re all still sad about that.) Fort Avenue, leading to Fort McHenry. And while I’m at it, McHenry Street, about two miles from the fort. The town also has John Street, Eager Street and Howard Streets, all of them named after John Eager Howard. one of the earliest governors of the state.

During the revolution, a prominent family in the city of Baltimore was the Purviance Family, led by brothers Robert and Samuel Purviance. They were both well-known for their activities to support the Colonists’ side during the Revolution. Where are they memorialized?…Listen in and find out.

P.S. I do have theories about this but I’m hoping to explore those in a later episode.

The post May 19, 1775: From Sam Adams to Samuel Purviance appeared first on 250 and Counting.

People seem to have an inherent need to excuse their own unfortunate behaviors. One of the most common is to point to someone else breaking a rule and making it about them.

Or, in the case of most of the battles of the early American Revolution, the colonists seemed always to be the aggressor, making their actions strictly an act of self-preservation.

But what happens when you’ve captured all their horses? Tune in!

The post May 18, 1775: 18th Century Spin Doctors appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Is it just me or does Daniel LeRoy look a lot like actor Richard Kind?

Daniel LeRoy was born in upstate New York and started to put together a pretty good settlement, but an unfortunate choice on his part caused him to lose it all.

So he moved west and rebuilt his life and, by most accounts, it’s reasonable to say that he did rather well in the Michigan Territory, and in the State after that area became our nation’s 26th.

The post May 17, 1775: Daniel LeRoy appeared first on 250 and Counting.