THOSE who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it. The event of yesterday was one of those kind of alarms which is just sufficient to rouse us to duty, without being of consequence enough to depress our fortitude. It is not a field of a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, and ...
In colonial America, Bibles had to be imported from Britain, as the British government strictly regulated the printing of religious materials. It was illegal to print Bibles in the English language without a license from the king. In 1589, Queen Elizabeth I had granted Christopher Barker the title of Royal Printer, with the exclusive “perpetual royal privilege” to print Bibles in England. His son, Robert Barker, ...
Sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington rode 40 miles through Putnam and Dutchess Counties waking up patriots to join the militia, led by her father, Colonel Henry Ludington, delivering the urgent warning that the British had burned Danbury, Connecticut, and were fast approaching. Born in New York in 1761, Ludington was the eldest of Henry and Abigail’s twelve children. In addition to working as a farmer, Ludington’s father was ...
Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, Saturday Evening 26 April 1777 I have been lately more remiss, than usual in Writing to you. There has been a great Dearth of News. Nothing from England, nothing from France, Spain, or any other Part of Europe, nothing from the West Indies. Nothing from Howe, and his Banditti, nothing from General Washington. There are various Conjectures that Lord How ...
George Washington faced a grim moment January 1, 1777. All enlistments for the Continental Army had expired on that date and all of the army, or at least what was left of it, was free to go home. This would not just cripple the Revolution, but probably end it. He gathered his troops together, the drum roll began, and the general asked all those willing to ...
So why were Washington and his bedraggled Continental Army trying to cross an ice-choked Delaware River on a cold winter’s night? It wasn’t just to get to the other side. Washington’s aim was to conduct a surprise attack upon a Hessian garrison of roughly 1,400 soldiers located in and around Trenton, New Jersey. Washington hoped that a quick victory at Trenton would bolster sagging morale in ...
The days of December 1776 were some of America’s darkest times. Thomas Paine epically captured the moment in “The American Crisis.” “These are the times that try men’s souls,” Paine wrote. “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, ...
Because of the distressing condition of the tattered but unbowed soldiers, the American Continental Congress called for a day of fasting and humiliation: Resolved, That it be recommended to all the United States, as soon as possible to appoint a day of solemn fasting and humiliation; to implore of Almighty God the forgiveness of the many sins prevailing among all ranks, and to beg the countenance ...
A similar story to that of the famous Molly Pitcher is that of Margaret Cochran Corbin, wife of artilleryman John Corbin. On Nov. 16, 1776, John Corbin, along with 2,800 Continental soldiers, defended Manhattan’s Fort Washington, which was being attacked by 9,000 Hessian mercenary troops. Margaret Corbin was bringing water to swab the cannon, when her husband was killed. She immediately took his place at the ...
On October 31, 1776, in his first speech before British Parliament since the leaders of the American Revolution came together to sign of the Declaration of Independence that summer, King George III acknowledges that all was not going well for Britain in the war with the United States. In his address, the king spoke about the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the revolutionary leaders who signed it, saying, “for daring and ...
