A good lesson for today: Be bold! Just as our forefathers did in 1776, declare your independence from negativity, challenges and roadblocks that are holding you back from pursuing your Life, your Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness!
Here are a few quick facts I found via this website while searching the Revolutionary War
The Americans of 1776 had the highest standard of living and the lowest taxes in the Western World!
Farmers, lawyers and business owners in the Colonies were thriving, with some plantation owners and merchants making the equivalent of $500,000 a year. Times were good for many others too. The British wanted a slice of the cash flow and tried to tax the Colonists. They resisted violently, convinced that their prosperity and their liberty were at stake. Virginia’s Patrick Henry summed up their stance with his cry: “Give me liberty or give me death!”
There were two Boston tea parties!
Everyone knows how 50 or 60 “Sons of Liberty,” disguised as Mohawks, protested the 3 cents per pound British tax on tea by dumping chests of the popular drink into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773. Fewer know that the improper Bostonians repeated the performance on March 7, 1774. The two tea parties cost the British around $3 million in modern money.
Benjamin Franklin wrote the first Declaration of Independence!
In 1775, Franklin, disgusted with the arrogance of the British and appalled by the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, wrote a Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson was enthusiastic. But, he noted, many other delegates to the Continental Congress were “revolted at it.” It would take another year of bitter conflict to persuade the Congress to vote for the Declaration of Independence written by Jefferson — with some astute editorial suggestions by Franklin.
John Adams defended the British Soldiers after the Boston Massacre!
Captain Thomas Preston led some British Soldiers to aid another British Soldier who was having things thrown at him and was also hit several times with a board. After their arrival, the people continued to pelt the soldiers and finally shots were fired and the infamous “Boston Massacre” was over. Captain Thomas Preston and eight soldiers were charged with murder. Future President John Adams took up the defense of the soldiers. He, along with Joshua Quincy, was able to get all but two acquitted by a local jury. Those two were found guilty of manslaughter, but claimed benefit of clergy. This means that they were allowed to make penance instead of being executed. To insure that they never could use benefit of clergy again they were both branded on the thumbs.
History’s first submarine attack took place in New York Harbor in 1776!
The Connecticut inventor David Bushnell called his submarine the Turtle because it resembled two large tortoise shells of equal size joined together. The watertight hull was made of 6-inch-thick oak timbers coated with tar. On September 6, 1776, the Turtle targeted the HMS Eagle, flagship of the British fleet. The submarine was supposed to secure a cask of gunpowder to the hull of the Eagle and sneak away before it exploded. Unfortunately, the Turtle got entangled with the Eagle’s rudder bar, lost ballast and surfaced before the gunpowder could be planted.
Benedict Arnold was the best general in the Continental Army!
“Without Benedict Arnold in the first three years of the war,” says the historian George Neumann, “we would probably have lost the Revolution.” In 1775, the future traitor came within a whisker of conquering Canada. In 1776, he built a fleet and fought a bigger British fleet to a standstill on Lake Champlain. At Saratoga in 1777, his brilliant battlefield leadership forced the British army to surrender. The victory persuaded the French to join the war on the American side. Ironically, Arnold switched sides in 1780 partly because he disapproved of the French alliance.
By 1779, as many as one in seven Americans in Washington’s army was black!
At first Washington was hesitant about enlisting blacks. But when he heard they had fought well at Bunker Hill, he changed his mind. The all-black First Rhode Island Regiment — composed of 33 freedmen and 92 slaves who were promised freedom if they served until the end of the war — distinguished itself in the Battle of Newport. Later, they were all but wiped out in a British attack.
There were women in the Continental Army, even a few who saw combat!
Probably the best known is Mary Ludwig Hays, nicknamed “Molly Pitcher.” She replaced her wounded husband at his cannon during the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. Another wife of an artilleryman, Margaret Corbin, was badly wounded serving in her husband’s gun crew at the Battle of Harlem Heights in 1776. Thousands of other women served in Washington’s army as cooks and nurses.
George Washington was the best spymaster in American History!
He ran dozens of espionage rings in British-held New York and Philadelphia, and the man who supposedly could not tell a lie was a genius at disinformation. He constantly befuddled the British by leaking, through double agents, inflated reports on the strength of his army.
*NOTE: The Eagle photograph is not mine. I found it online at this this websitesearching for “eagles” There is a link you can download this image for your computer too
Did you know?
Without the Revolutionary War, there would be no “United” States. Prior to 1775, the U.S. consisted of thirteen British colonies that operated independently. Within the colonies lived some who wanted to break from British rule, Patriots, and those who wanted to remain under British rule, loyalists. In response to failed negotiations between the British and the Patriots lobbying for independence, British troops invaded the colonies in April of 1775, demanding the surrender of their guns and ammunition. The Patriots refused and, as a result, they fought the British in the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The British retreated in defeat. In June of 1775, however, the British “won” the bloodiest battle of all. Their victory came at a high price with over 1,000 British soldiers killed or wounded in the Battle of Bunker Hill. More importantly, it bolstered the belief that the Patriots could ultimately win their freedom.
- The Shot Heard ‘Round the World– An article detailing the Revolutionary War Battle at Lexington and Concord.
- The Battle of Bunker Hill– Details the bloodiest battle of the Revolutionary War.
- The American Revolution 1775– (video) Explains the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775.
The American Revolution was a fight to form a nation. Breaking free from Britain, a new form of government was established. Initially a democracy, it soon became apparent that “rule by the people” was not entirely practical. According to the CIA, the U.S. is a Constitutional Federal Republic, and the only one of its kind.
Meanwhile, the guerrilla warfare engaged in by the Patriots put British soldiers on uncomfortable ground. Unlike other “gentleman’s wars” of the time, the Patriot “soldiers” didn’t “line up.” Instead, the “Yankee scoundrels” fired from behind trees and stone walls.
- Of Rocks, Trees, Rifles, and Militia – The foolishness of “gentleman’s wars.”
- American Revolution Reinvents Guerrilla Warfare – Interview with author, Max Boot, on the history of guerrilla warfare and its use during the Revolutionary War.
- British & American Strategies in the Revolutionary War – Article discussing both British and Colonial fighting strategies.
After the initial battles in Massachusetts, the Patriots realized that in order to defeat the British they would need to unite. Doing so, Washington guessed that after fleeing to Nova Scotia, the Redcoats, as British soldiers were sometimes called, would return to New York. He was right. More than one-third of Revolutionary War battles took place on New York soil. Today, you can partake of the abundant history of fifteen of these sites throughout New York City, and many more throughout the State of New York.
