Seizure of Fort William & Mary at Newcastle
Acting on Paul Revere's warning the day prior, four hundred New Hampshire patriots, led by John Langdon, moved preemptively to capture the arms that the British had planned to seize. A prominent New Hampshire paper at the time said the capture was both “prudent” and “proper.” They also reminded their ...
Paul Revere’s First Ride: Warns the Citizens of New Hampshire that the British were Coming to Seize Firearms & Gunpowder
Paul Revere took his first ride (Months before his famous horseback ride into American history on April 18, 1775) on the icy Boston Post Road to warn the citizens of New Hampshire of a potential British troop landing with the express purpose that they were going to be seizing firearms, cannons ...
The Continental Association
On October 20, 1774, the First Continental Congress creates the Continental Association, which calls for a complete ban on all trade between America and Great Britain of all goods, wares or merchandise. The creation of the association was in response to the Coercive Acts—or “Intolerable Acts” as they were known ...
The First Prayer of Congress on September 7, 1774
The first session of the Continental Congress opened the beginning of September in the year 1774 with prayer in Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia. Threatened by the most powerful monarch in the world, Britain’s King George III, America’s founding fathers heard Rev. Jacob Duché begin by reading Psalm 35, the Anglican Book ...
The First Official Act of Congress: A Call to Prayer!
The first official act of Congress was a call to prayer that the Rev. Mr. Duché be desired to open the Congress tomorrow morning with prayers, at the Carpenter's Hall, at 9 o'clock." When the Congress met, Mr. Cushing made a motion that it should be opened with Prayer. It was ...
The First Continental Congress Secretly Meets in Philadelphia to Discuss British Tyranny
On September 5, 1774, every colony but Georgia sent representatives to what is now called the First Continental Congress. They met in secret because they did not want the British to know that the colonies were uniting. At first there were 44 delegates who met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia ...
The First United American Republic is Established by 12 Colonies (Georgia joined in 1775)
The First United American Republic is founded: United Colonies of North America: 13 British Colonies United in Congress was founded by 12 colonies on September 5th, 1774 (Georgia joined in 1775) and governed through a British Colonial Continental Congress. Peyton Randolph and George Washington served, respectively, as the Republic's first President and Commander-in-Chief. The United Colonies Continental ...
British General and Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Gage, Directs Redcoats to Begin Warrantless Searches for Arms and Ammunition
Governor Thomas Gage, British general over Massachusetts, directed the Redcoats to begin warrant-less searches for arms and ammunition. According to the Boston Gazette, of all General Gage’s offenses, “what most irritated the People” was “seizing their Arms and Ammunition". (Source) ...
The Powder Alarm
In the months following the Tea Party, the British Government imposed a series of acts on the colonies including the Massachusetts Governments Act. This legislation was described as, "an act for the better regulating the governments of the province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England". This act had a devastating ...
Quote: “When an Army is Sent to Enforce Laws, it is Always an Evidence that… they are Oppressive”
A South Carolina newspaper essay, reprinted in Virginia, urged that any law that had to be enforced by the military was necessarily illegitimate: When an Army is sent to enforce Laws, it is always an Evidence that either the Law makers are conscious that they had no clear and indisputable ...
