***SEASON FINALE***

It's June 17th, 1775. American Independence is 383 days away. After working through the night to build fortifications that can withstand the full weight of a British counterattack, a group of a few hundred patriot defenders atop the small rise known as Breed’s Hill look out through the morning light down to the Charles River below.

From their makeshift fortification, the men watched as twenty-eight boats crossed the river carrying red coat troops to the beach at the far end of the Charlestown peninsula. As the day drew to midafternoon, the size of the British force gathered against the small group of defenders had grown to nearly 2,000 men strong.

It was a force sent for only one purpose, to crush the upstart Patriot movement in one ringing hammer blow. The full might of the British Army had finally mobilized against the minutemen of Boston. But the battle to come would not only shock the entire world, it would change the course of the colonies and their path towards independence forever.

This episode is the second half of a two-part season finale telling dramatic conclusion to the fighting atop Breed’s Hill on June 17th and the reactions from both the British and American side over the following month that officially transitioned the small regional rebellion into a continent-wide revolution.

Sources:

Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution by Woody Holton

American Insurgents, American Patriots by T.H. Breen

The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts

The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy

Lexington and Concord: The Battle Heard Round the World By George C. Daughan

Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero by Christian Di Spigna

Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

Our Lives, Our Fortune, and Our Sacred Honor by Richard Beeman

American Revolutions by Alan Taylor

It's June 16th, 1775. American Independence is 384 days away. Under the cover of darkness a group of 1,000 Massachusetts provincial militiamen have marched across the Charlestown neck. In addition to the usual baggage of muskets and gunpowder, this small army of Patriots have brought with them unexpected supplies - dozens of shovels, pickaxes, small cages filled with rocks, and empty barrels.

Their mission is to use the four hours remaining until daylight to construct a makeshift fort that could act as a defense of the stretegic settlements of Charlestown and Cambridge to the south.

A few hours later at daybreak, when it became clear to see what fortifications had been hastily constructed by the band of Patriots in the night, the the full force of the British Army stationed in Boston would cross the water and march on the Patriot defenses.

This episode is the first half of a two-part season finale telling the lead up to the battle of Bunker Hill, and the fateful choices made by a few individuals that changed the battle and revolution forever.

Sources:

Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution by Woody Holton

American Insurgents, American Patriots by T.H. Breen

The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts

The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy

Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer

Lexington and Concord: The Battle Heard Round the World By George C. Daughan

Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero by Christian Di Spigna

Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

Those Turbulent Sons of Freedom: Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys and the American Revolution by Christopher S. Wren

It's May 10, 1775. American Independence is 421 days away.

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania sixty-five delegates have gathered to assemble into the political body known as the Second Continental Congress.

While many aspects of this body were unchanged from the congress that had met the previous fall, this Second Continental Congress had been thrust into the leadership of a divided continent already at war.

This time around every day was precious to the rebels across New England who had dared stand up to the might of the British. Hours spent in debate might be paid in blood, and delays could come at the price of lives. 

If America was going to survive the coming storm of war without tearing itself to pieces in the process, the colonies needed leadership. The question was if the sixty-five men gathered in Philadelphia would be up to the task of turning 13 divided colonies into These United States.

This month’s episode looks at the first choices made by the Continental Congress, as well as events and reactions spreading far outside of Philadelphia and begins to tackle the first monumental question born out of the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord – namely how does a single battle of a few hundred soldiers can turn into an all-out war that holds the fate of empires in the balance.

Sources:

Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution by Woody Holton

American Insurgents, American Patriots by T.H. Breen

The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts

The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy

Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer

Lexington and Concord: The Battle Heard Round the World By George C. Daughan

Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero by Christian Di Spigna

Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

***Corrected Version***

It’s April 19th 1775. American Independence is 441 days away.

On a clear Spring morning in the town of Lincoln, Massachusetts, which sat just to the west of the nearby town of Lexington, a local woman by the name of Mary Hartwell awoke to her small rural community facing something she never would have imagined only a few months earlier - the full-on invasion of her town by 700 British regulars.

Although she would live all the way to the age of 99, the long years would not diminish what Mary Hartwell witnessed over the next few hours, as the events of April 19th stuck with her the remainder of her life.

Eight Patriot minutemen already lay dying on the road, men who were leaving behind wives and children just Mary Hartwell. For the first time since the Boston massacre, colonial blood had been shed by British troops. It would soon be paid back to the British and more.

This episode we conclude the second half of the dramatic story of the battles of Lexington and Concord, which officially launched the start of the American Revolution.  In the episode we also ask the question that will set the stage for the second half of our story and the march to independence. 

Sources:

Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution by Woody Holton

American Insurgents, American Patriots by T.H. Breen

The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts

The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy

Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer

Lexington and Concord: The Battle Heard Round the World By George C. Daughan

Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero by Christian Di Spigna

Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

Its April 14th, 1775 American Independence is 447 days away. 

In the early morning hours a 20-gun British War ship called the HMS Nautilus appears in the waters outside of Boston. Its journey from England has taken an amazingly quick 33 days, and is all for the purpose of delivering a single document. 

The dispatch in question is taken by a young British Army Captain named Oliver DeLancey and delivered directly into the hands of General Thomas Gage.

Contained inside are the updated order from the Secretary of State Lord Dartmouth for how the General is to address the escalating crisis in Massachusetts. Dartmouth’s words will set events in motion over the next 5 days that will bring about some of the most iconic moments in American history – a pair of lanterns hanging from a church steeple. A rider streaking through the night on horseback calling out warnings to the towns he passes through, and finally after so much tension and anticipation, the battle that will become known for all time as the Shot Hear Around the World.

This month’s story is going to be split into a pair of episodes that cover less than a week of time, stretching from the moment  General Gage received his orders, through the final choices made on both sides, and finally the dramatic events of April 18th and 19th 1775, and the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Sources:

Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution by Woody Holton

American Insurgents, American Patriots by T.H. Breen

The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts

The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy

Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer

Lexington and Concord: The Battle Heard Round the World By George C. Daughan

Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero by Christian Di Spigna

Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

It's March 6th, 1775. American Independence is 486 days away.

On an unseasonably warm day in Boston that feels like an early dawn of spring, hundreds of citizens have crowded inside the Old South Meeting House, with thousands more gathering outside.

The crowd has come together to witness a set of orations to honor the anniversary and victims of the famous Boston Massacre, which happened five year and 1 day earlier.  Around 11:00 am, as the crowd waited in impatient silence for the memorial to begin, a carriage approaches carrying a man dressed in attire that sent the crowd instantly into murmurs.

Dressed in an elaborate and symbolic 20 foot long Roman republic style toga, Joseph Warren approached the pulpit at the front of the meeting house and began to deliver a speech that none in attendance would ever forget.

In our episode this month I am going to look at the strange days of limbo that were the days of March 1775. While war had not broken into the open yet, Patriot leaders in Boston like John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Joseph Warren all knew that fighting could come at any moment. All of the uncertainty and fear of looming future conflict created a situation of extreme tension around the colony of Boston, where it felt as if the sword might drop at any minute.

The mounting pressure of these last days before the dawn of war can be perfectly capture by a pair of speech very different but equally powerful delivered during the month. In Boston, Joseph Warren would capture the crowd’s attention with a call for holding onto peace while it lasted, while also not forgoing his willingness to defend American liberty by force if necessary. Meanwhile, in Virginia the young lawyer named Patrick Henry would deliver an even more famous address, one where he would lay out his own vision for the future and issue a call of defiance that would become an iconic part of American history.

Sources:

Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution by Woody Holton

American Insurgents, American Patriots by T.H. Breen

The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts

The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy

Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer

Patrick Henry: Champion of Liberty by Jon Kukla

Lexington and Concord: The Battle Heard Round the World By George C. Daughan

Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero by Christian Di Spigna

Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

It's February 9th, 1775. American Independence is 511 days away.

Back in London the new British Parliament has just passed their most definitive statement yet on the crisis in the Massachusetts Bay colony. After years of simmering resentment and escalating crisis, Parliament has removed all doubt about their view of the situation in America. Massachusetts is officially declared to be in a state of open rebellion.

In this episode I play the role of detective, looking at whole is to blame for the death of peace between Britian and America. My secret goal is to use this episode as a chance to recap everything that we’ve looked at in the show so far, but in a way that's hopefully a little more entertaining than a straight forward review of the first 10 episodes.

So, grab your pipe and join me by the fireplace, as we look at the case so far and try to determine who is guilty of the murder of peace in America.

It's December 8th, 1774. American Independence is 574 days away. 

In the town of Providence, Rhode Island a local newspaper called the Providence Gazette has just published news of an order given by King George III to his Privy Council back on October 19th.

The intention of the order was clear: the British King was cutting off all imports of gunpowder, arms, and ammunition to America. 

As news of this order quickly spread across the colonies. It set off a chain reaction of events that would cascade like a series of falling dominos over the next 5th months, all leading to the moment from which there would be no return, the exchange of gunfire between British Regulars and Patriot militia forces in Lexington, Massachusetts on April 19th, 1775 that marked the official start of the American Revolution.

Last week in our December episode I followed the choice of British leaders Lord North and Lord Dartmouth to use the winter break in parliament as a chance to engage in fascinating but ultimately doomed efforts at diplomacy, all while they failed to prepare the empire for the way that lay ahead. For this month’s story I’m returning to the colonies to cover some similar ground as last month, but from the American perspective. This will be sort of a double month episode, covering the events that stretch across the winter months of December 1774 and January 1775.

Sources:

1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton

Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution by Woody Holton

American Insurgents, American Patriots by T.H. Breen

The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts

The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy

Those Damned Rebels: The American Revolution As Seen Through British Eyes by Michael Pearson

An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America Paperback by Nick Bunker

The Howe Dynasty: The Untold Story of a Military Family and the Women Behind Britain's Wars for America Hardcover by Julie Flavell

It's December 25th, 1774. American Independence is 557 days away.

On Christmas Day in London, a man almost 70 years old and a woman nearly 20 years younger than him celebrate the holiday by sitting down to play a game of chess.

The woman is named Caroline Howe, and she is the sister of two of Britain's most famous politicians and military leaders, Richard and William Howe, while man across from Caroline happens to be none other than Benjamin Franklin.

The game the pair played, which was part of a series of contests that stretched across the month of December, had much more at stake than simple winning and losing. For weeks these games had been the cover for secret negotiations between Franklin and members of parliament hoping to bring reconciliation between the American Colonies and the mother country.

This month’s episode is focused on these secret chessboard negotiations, and how they fit into the wider story of British efforts led by Prime Minister Lord North to use the quiet winter months as an opportunity to seek an end to the rapidly escalating conflict, rather than choosing to prepare for looming war. But what came out of good intentions would instead cost Lord North and his nation dearly, as the British would pay a high price for the Prime Minister’s failure to face the reality of the storm ahead.

Sources:

1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton

Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution by Woody Holton

American Insurgents, American Patriots by T.H. Breen

The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts

The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy

Those Damned Rebels: The American Revolution As Seen Through British Eyes by Michael Pearson

An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America Paperback by Nick Bunker

The Howe Dynasty: The Untold Story of a Military Family and the Women Behind Britain's Wars for America Hardcover by Julie Flavell

It's November 5th 1774. American Independence is 607 days away. 

On the banks of the Ohio river, a weary but victorious group of Virginia Militia fighters have arrived back at a base camp set up weeks earlier called Fort Gower.

These colonial soldiers are on the road back home after securing a victory in a frontier war against the native tribes that had raged in the Ohio Territory since the previous May.

These men, who had seen months of battle and death in the Virginia woodlands, decided that they could not disperse for home without ddrafting a final statement on the meaning of their victory. In it they dared to call out to the mightiest empire on earth with a challenge - that the men of Virginia were ready for War.

This month’s episode is covering a bit of a wider timeline, focusing on the frontier war that raged in the Ohio country from early 1774 all the way through October, before culminating in the dramatic statement made by the militiamen at Fort Gower.

Sources:

1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton

American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 by Alan Taylor

American Insurgents, American Patriots by T.H. Breen

Dunmore's War: The Last Conflict of America's Colonial Era by Glenn F. Williams

American Leviathan: Empire, Nation, and Revolutionary Frontier by Patrick Griffin

The Battle of Point Pleasant: Its Relation to the American Revolution and to Tennessee by Elizabeth Meek Fels