Independence 250

Its June 7th, 1776. American Independence is 27 days away.

In front of the gathered members of the second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Richard Henry Lee has formally brought forth a set of resolutions that originated in his home colony of Virginia a month earlier. The resolution which Lee proposed that Congress adopt read as follows:

These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

After a long and winding journey, the debate and decision over the fate of American Independence has finally arrived.

Welcome to the final episode of Independence 250.

Sources:

Thirteen Clocks: How Race United the Colonies and Made the Declaration of Independence by Robert G Parkinson

Our Lives, Our Fortunes, and Our Sacred Honor by Richard M Beeman

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

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

American Insurgents, American Patriots by T.H. Breen

Major Problems in the Era of the American Revolution, 1760-1791 by Richard D. Brown

It's March 5th, 1776. American independence is 121 days away.

As the sun rises over the Boston harbor, where British warships float and thousands of red coat soldiers continue to occupy the town, the morning light begins to reveal a sight so impossible that the British commander General William Howe is left stunned.

Looking down from the hill above the harbor known as Dorchester Heights, a rise that had been all but barren when the sun set the night before, now somehow sits an entire new American fortification. Dozens of cannons and artillery pieces point down from the new fort, weapons that seemed to have materialized as if out of nowhere.

On a dramatic day that so happened to also mark the 5th anniversary since the Boston Massacre, Washington's Continental Army had managed to put the capstone on an epic journey that had begun almost a full year earlier with the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. And none of it would have been possible without the genius mind of an overweight Boston book seller named Henry Knox.

Our Penultimate episode of the show wraps up the 2 year long story in Boston with a tale of adventures, determination, and deciet that changes the whole direction of the Revolution.

It's January 10th, 1776. American Independence is 176 days away.

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the same city where the Second Continental Congress had been meeting since the previous summer, an anonymous pamphlet has begun circulating among the population of the city.

To say that this not exactly short, 20,000 word essay, was an immediate sensation would be an extreme understatement. Within 3 months an estimated 120,000 copies had been sold throughout the American colonies. By the end of the year nearly half a million had been sold. Tens of thousands more had been read to crowds in public gatherings

With each copy that circulated among the masses of the colonial population, an idea began to gain momentum, an idea would have been unthinkable even a year earlier - that the final solution to the war against Britain was not reconciliation but the total independence of the American colonies.

The document, destined to become perhaps the single most important piece of writing of the entire revolution outside of the only actual declaration of independence itself, had a simple but evocative title - Common Sense.

***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.