Independence 250

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

It's October 20, 1774. American Independence is 623 days away.

As the First Continental Congress draws to a close in Philadelphia, 53 out of the 56 members of the Congress put their signature on a document that represents the culmination of two months worth of intense deliberation and debates. The document they signed, known by history as the Articles of Association, would eventually be looked back upon 93 years later by Abraham Lincoln in his first Inaugural Address as the true moment that the America Union was first born.

This month's episode picks up where September left off, closing out the work of the First Continental Congress as the representatives worked to forge a path forward that could bind all the disparate elements of the American patriot movement together in common cause. In the process these men would lay the foundational work of what would eventually become the new American nation, but also create fissures that would isolate many who once called the American colonies home - the men and women who would become known as the American Loyalists.

Sources:

1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton

Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World by Maya Jasanoff

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

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

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

It's September 1st, 1774. American Independence is 672 days away.

While representatives from 12 of the 13 American colonies are about to convene in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress, urgent rumors have begun to spread across New England. Word has risen up that Boston is under attack, and before the next day is over, thousands of minutemen will take up their muskets and head off to fight in a war that might not have actually begun.

In our episode this month we'll split time between Philadelphia and New England, looking at how the dramatic events that came to be known as the Powder Alarm served as a dress rehearsal for the revolution that was soon to come. Over the course of a few days in early September two radically different groups of patriots, one the representatives of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia and the other made up of common farmers from across New England, demonstrated for the first time how much change might be possible with a truly united American cause.

Sources:

1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton

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

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

Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution by Natheniel Philbrick

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

John Adams by David McCullough

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

It's August 1st, 1774. American Independence is 703 days away.

In this month's episode we are going leave Boston and travel to the colony of Virginia, where members of the dissolved Virginia House of Burgesses have gathered in Williamsburg in defiance of their Royal Governor.

The convention was a chance for some of the most prominent political minds in the colony to express their own unique grievance against King George and his Government. But what the convention would become most famous for would be thrusting into the spotlight a man who wasn't actually in attendance – Thomas Jefferson.

In this episode we'll take a look at the writing that Jefferson sent ahead in his absence after he fell ill on the road to Williamsburg, a text that was eventually published as a pamphlet and titled A Summary View of the Rights of British America. It's a fascinating document, both inspiring and challenging in equal measure, that gives a unique window into the man, the colony, and the whole developing nation, as it walked ever forward down the road to revolution.

Sources:

Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty by John B. Boles

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

The King's Three Faces: The Rise & Fall of Royal America, 1688-1776 by Brendan McConville

The Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding by Eric Nelson

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

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

It's July 4th, 1774. American Independence is 731 Days away.

The first official episode in our series begins exactly two years before the American colonies will declare their independence from Great Britian. In the small New York village of Orangetown a group of concerned citizens gathered at the home of a local tavern keeper named Yoast Mabie.

These men gathered to express their opposition to the policies passed down by Parliament in the wake for the Boston tea party, but independence was still far from their minds. Instead, they were looking for a way towards moderation and reconciliation with the country that they still consider their homeland.

In this month's episode we'll take a look at how the British reaction to events in Boston had the opposite effect from what Parliament intended. Rather than crushing the sparks of rebellion, British policy drove many former moderates in the arms of the much more radical parts of the patriot cause. In the process, parliament created the perfect conditions for exactly what they feared most - an entire continent full of Bostons.

Key Sources:

1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's June 10th, 1688. American Independence is 32,165 days away.

Our series starts way back, almost 100 years before Independence way ever conceived of as an idea in the American colonies. In 1688 turmoil and religious tension set Englishmen on both sides of the Atlantic in conflict with their Royal Government, and unknowingly planted the seeds of conflict with the king that would eventually grow into the American Revolution.

This is the 1st of 3 prelude episodes setting the stage for our series.

Key Sources:

Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution by Peter Ackroyd

The King's Three Faces: The Rise & Fall of Royal America, 1688-1776 by Brendan McConville

The Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding by Eric Nelson

Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America's Founding Fathers by Michael Barone

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

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

It's September 22, 1761. American Independence is 5,399 days away.

For our final prelude episode, we are telling a breakup story. When King George III ascended to the throne of Great Britain, his reign began with a honeymoon period where he was adored by his subjects on both sides of the Atlantic. But as storm clouds gathered on the horizon, the relationship between the King and his subjects in America became increasingly strained, all leading to the eventual legacy of King George III as the King who lost an Empire.

This is our 3rd and final Prelude episode. Our first official episode covering the events of July 1774 will be released next week.

Sources:

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

The King's Three Faces: The Rise & Fall of Royal America, 1688-1776 by Brendan McConville

The Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding by Eric Nelson

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

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

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

It's July 3rd, 1754. American Independence is 8,037.

For our second prelude episode we take a look at the war that shaped the destiny of the American Colonies more than other conflict – the French and Indian War. What begins as a series of disasters for British and Colonial forces eventually turns into a triumphant victory, but one that came at a cost nobody could foresee.

This is the 2nd of 3 Prelude Episodes setting the stage for our series.

Key Sources:

The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War by Fred Anderson

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

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

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