1.
American Revolution
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The British responded by imposing punitive laws on Massachusetts in 1774 known as the Coercive Acts, following which Patriots in the other colonies rallied behind Massachusetts. Tensions escalated to the outbreak of fighting between Patriot militia and British regulars at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the conflict then developed into a global war, during which the Patriots fought the British and Loyalists in what became known as the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress determined King George IIIs rule to be tyrannical and infringing the rights as Englishmen. The Patriot leadership professed the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject monarchy and aristocracy, Congress rejected British proposals requiring allegiance to the monarchy and abandonment of independence. The British were forced out of Boston in 1776, but then captured and they blockaded the ports and captured other cities for brief periods, but failed to defeat Washingtons forces. After a failed Patriot invasion of Canada, a British army was captured at the Battle of Saratoga in late 1777, a combined American–French force captured a second British army at Yorktown in 1781, effectively ending the war in the United States. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 formally ended the conflict, confirming the new nations complete separation from the British Empire. The United States took possession of all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, with the British retaining control of Canada. Among the significant results of the revolution was the creation of a new Constitution of the United States. Historians typically begin their histories of the American Revolution with the British victory in the French and Indian War in 1763, the lands west of Quebec and west of a line running along the crest of the Allegheny mountains became Indian territory, temporarily barred to settlement. For the prior history, see Thirteen Colonies, in 1764, Parliament passed the Currency Act to restrain the use of paper money which British merchants saw as a means to evade debt payments. Parliament also passed the Sugar Act, imposing customs duties on a number of articles, none did and Parliament passed the Stamp Act in March 1765 which imposed direct taxes on the colonies for the first time. All official documents, newspapers, almanacs, and pamphlets—even decks of playing cards—were required to have the stamps, the colonists did not object that the taxes were high, but because they had no representation in the Parliament. Benjamin Franklin testified in Parliament in 1766 that Americans already contributed heavily to the defense of the Empire, stationing a standing army in Great Britain during peacetime was politically unacceptable. London had to deal with 1,500 politically well-connected British officers who became redundant, in 1765, the Sons of Liberty formed. They used public demonstrations, boycott, violence, and threats of violence to ensure that the British tax laws were unenforceable, in Boston, the Sons of Liberty burned the records of the vice admiralty court and looted the home of chief justice Thomas Hutchinson. Several legislatures called for united action, and nine colonies sent delegates to the Stamp Act Congress in New York City in October 1765, moderates led by John Dickinson drew up a Declaration of Rights and Grievances stating that taxes passed without representation violated their rights as Englishmen. Colonists emphasized their determination by boycotting imports of British merchandise, the Parliament at Westminster saw itself as the supreme lawmaking authority throughout all British possessions and thus entitled to levy any tax without colonial approval
2.
Yankee Doodle
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Yankee Doodle is a well-known American song, the early versions of which date back to the Seven Years War and the American Revolution. It is often sung patriotically in the United States today and is the anthem of Connecticut. Its Roud Folk Song Index number is 4501, the melody is thought to be much older than both the lyrics and the subject, going back to folk songs of numerous peoples of Medieval Europe. The tune of Yankee Doodle is thought to be older than the words, and many peoples knew the melody, including those of England, France, Holland, Hungary. The earliest words of Yankee Doodle came from a Middle Dutch harvest song and it contained mostly nonsensical and out-of-place words, both in English and Dutch, Yanker, didel, doodle down, Diddle, dudel, lanther, Yanke viver, voover vown, Botermilk und tanther. Farm laborers in Holland at the time received as their wages as much buttermilk as they could drink, and a tenth of the grain. The term Doodle first appeared in English in the seventeenth century and is thought to be derived from the Low German dudel, meaning playing music badly or Dödel. The Macaroni wig was a fashion in the 1770s and became contemporary slang for foppishness. Dandies were men who placed particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, a self-made Dandy was a British middle-class man from the late 18th to early 19th century who impersonated an aristocratic lifestyle. They notably wore silk strip cloth, stuck feathers in their hats and this era was the height of dandyism in London, when men wore striped silks upon their return from the Grand Tour, along with a feather in the hat. The macaroni wig was an example of such dandyism, popular in England at the time. The term macaroni was used to describe a man who dressed and spoke in an outlandishly affected. The term pejoratively referred to a man who exceeded the bounds of fashion in terms of clothes, fastidious eating. In British conversation, the term Yankee Doodle Dandy implied unsophisticated misappropriation of high-class fashion, peter McNeil, professor of fashion studies, claims that the British were insinuating that the colonists were low-class men lacking masculinity, emphasizing that the American men were womanly. 1755 by British Army surgeon Dr. Richard Shuckburgh while campaigning in upper New York, the British troops sang it to make fun of their stereotype of the American soldier as a Yankee simpleton who thought that he was stylish if he simply stuck a feather in his cap. It was also popular among the Americans as a song of defiance, as per the American Library of Congress, the Americans added additional verses to the song, mocking the British troops and hailing the Commander of the Continental army George Washington. By 1881, Yankee doodle had turned from being an insult to being a song of national pride, one version of the Yankee Doodle lyrics is generally attributed to Dr. Shuckburgh. According to one story, Dr. Shuckburgh wrote the song after seeing the appearance of Colonial troops under Colonel Thomas Fitch, according to Etymology Online, The current version seems to have been written in 1776 by Edward Bangs, a Harvard sophomore who also was a Minuteman
3.
Archibald Willard
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Archibald MacNeal Willard was an American painter who was born and raised in Bedford, Ohio. He was the son of Samuel Willard, the pastor of Bedford Baptist Church, Willard joined the 86th Ohio Infantry in 1863 and fought in the American Civil War. During this time, he painted scenes from the war. Willard painted The Spirit of 76 about 1875 in Wellington, Ohio, Willard also painted three murals in the main hall of the Fayette County courthouse in Washington Court House, Ohio, The Spirit of Electricity, The Spirit of Telegraphy, and The Spirit of the Mail. Willard is buried in Wellington, Ohio at the Greenwood Cemetery and he is commemorated by a Willard Drive in his birthplace of Bedford and a Willard Avenue in nearby Garfield Heights named after him. Willards most famous work is The Spirit of 76, which was exhibited, the original is displayed in Abbot Hall, Marblehead, Massachusetts. Several later variations painted by Willard have been exhibited around the country, of note, he used his father, Samuel Willard, as the model for the middle character of the painting. Willard developed the painting from a sketch, which included three men dancing and singing and he also made several other works of art, including The Blue Girl, Pluck, and others not as recognized. In July 1939 the cover of Mickey Mouse Magazine featured a parody of the painting with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, the art was adapted by Disney in 1975 as part of the logo for America on Parade at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. It was the basis for the design of the float in the parade. In the 1963 World War II film The Great Escape, Hilts and they wake up the camp in the morning by playing of Yankee Doodle and are dressed similarly to the characters in the painting. Kurt Vonnegut referred to the painting in his novel Slaughterhouse Five, Billy is thus described, Billy was carrying his little coat as though it were a ladys muff. It was wrapped around and around his hands and he was the central clown in an unconscious travesty of that famous oil painting, The Spirit of 76. Ohio Historical Society Online The Spirit of 76 Museum
4.
Spirit of '76 (sentiment)
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The Spirit of 76 is a patriotic sentiment typified by the zeitgeist surrounding the American Revolution. It refers to the attitude of self-determination and individual liberty made manifest in the Declaration of Independence, the Spirit of 76 is a sentiment explored by Thomas Jefferson. The revolution begun by Americans on July 4,1776 would never end, Thomas Jewett wrote that at the time of the American Revolution, there was an intangible something that is known as the Spirit of 76. This spirit was personified by the beliefs and actions of that almost mythical group known as the Founding Fathers, in terms of domestic policy, he believed the states were sovereign and the federal government established by the Constitution was, as he put it, a foreign government. In an 1806 court case, a Philadelphia judge wrote in his opinion, the Spirit of 76 is a well-known painting by Ohio artist and northern Civil War veteran Archibald Willard. The painting, originally titled Yankee Doodle, was created in 1875 for the Centennial Exposition, the piece acquired the name Spirit of 76 while on tour in Boston. The painting was commissioned to be semi-humorous, though the death of Willards father. It depicts three soldiers of the American Revolutionary War, though one is wounded, the soldiers march on with spirit and determination. The painting is on display at Abbot Hall in Marblehead, Massachusetts, elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote of the spirit of 76 in reference to traveling to Philadelphia to celebrate the Centennial Exposition in 1876. Historian Mellen Chamberlain wrote that the spirit of 76 was embodied by Levi Preston, Chamberlain asked Preston, then 91 years old, Why did you go to the Concord Fight, the 19th of April,1775. My histories tell me that you men took up arms against intolerable oppressions, I never saw one of those stamps, and always understood that Governor Bernard put them all in Castle William. I am certain I never paid a penny for one of them, I never drank a drop of the stuff, the boys threw it all overboard. We read only the Bible, the Catechism, Watts Psalms and Hymns, young man, what we meant in going for those redcoats was this, we always had governed ourselves, and we always meant to. In an 1899 speech titled Liberty, Eugene V, debs remarked, Manifestly, the spirit of 76 still survives. The fires of liberty and noble aspirations are not yet extinguished, according to the Library of Congress, a 1915 postcard titled Did I Save My Country for This. Calls forth the spirit of 1776 to support womens rights—particularly the right to vote, while women march for suffrage rights, George Washington is shown exclaiming Did I save my country for this. L. Lloyd MacDonald wrote that in 1776, a group of thoughtful. Its embryo–a vibrant spirit of heart and mind known to many as the Spirit of 76, ira Moore delivered a speech at Oxford in 1822 titled American Independence
5.
American Revolutionary War
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From about 1765 the American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented a culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the authority which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On December 16,1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, these became known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees, British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec, on July 2,1776, the Continental Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe began a British counterattack, focussing on recapturing New York City, Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington captured a Hessian force at Trenton and drove the British out of New Jersey, in 1777 the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne to move south from Canada and to isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the British defeat in the Saratoga Campaign had drastic consequences. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage their former colonies in the South, British forces under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. British strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, in 1779 Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in December 1780, in 1781, after the British and their allies had suffered two decisive defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route, a joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781, Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, but the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand
6.
Thirteen Colonies
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The Thirteen Colonies were a group of British colonies on the east coast of North America founded in the 17th and 18th centuries that declared independence in 1776 and formed the United States. The Thirteen Colonies had very similar political, constitutional, and legal systems and they were part of Britains possessions in the New World, which also included colonies in present-day Canada and the Caribbean, as well as East and West Florida. However, the Thirteen Colonies had a degree of self-government and active local elections. In the 1750s, the colonies began collaborating with each other instead of dealing directly with Britain, Colonial decisions were subject to approval by the governor and the home government. There were also substantial populations of African slaves in some of the colonies, especially Virginia, the Carolinas, the names of the colonies were chosen by the founders and proprietors, subject to royal approval, and given in the founding charters. Nine of the thirteen chose to include in their names the term Province of, later residents tended to drop the ambiguous terminology, as in the map shown in the article Province of New Jersey, which is labeled simply East Jersey and West Jersey. In July 1776, they formed a new nation called the United States of America, the new nation achieved that goal by winning the American Revolutionary War with the aid of France, the Netherlands, and Spain. The American flag features thirteen horizontal stripes which represent these original thirteen colonies, besides these thirteen colonies, Britain had another dozen in the New World. Those in the British West Indies, Newfoundland, the Province of Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Bermuda, and East and West Florida remained loyal to the crown throughout the war. The British crown had recently acquired those lands, and many of the issues facing the Thirteen Colonies did not apply to them, especially in the case of Quebec. Contemporary documents usually list the thirteen colonies of British North America in geographical order, the consolidation collapsed after the Glorious Revolution of 1688–89, and the nine former colonies re-established their separate identities in 1689. Massachusetts Bay Colony Settled in 1630 by Puritans from England, the colonial charter was revoked in 1684, and a new charter was issued in 1691 establishing an enlarged Province of Massachusetts Bay. Province of Maine Settled in 1622, the Massachusetts Bay Colony claimed the Maine territory in the 1650s, then limited to present-day southernmost Maine. Parts of Maine east of the Kennebec River were also part of New York in the half of the 17th century. These areas were made part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the charter of 1691. Plymouth Colony Settled in 1620 by the Pilgrims, plymouth was merged into the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the charter of 1691. Saybrook Colony Founded in 1635 and merged with Connecticut Colony in 1644, New Haven Colony Settled in late 1637. New Netherland Extensive region centered about New Amsterdam at the tip of Manhattan Island
7.
United States Declaration of Independence
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Instead they formed a new nation—the United States of America. John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence, which was passed on July 2 with no opposing vote cast, a committee of five had already drafted the formal declaration, to be ready when Congress voted on independence. The term Declaration of Independence is not used in the document itself, John Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which Congress would edit to produce the final version. The next day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, but Independence Day is actually celebrated on July 4, the date that the Declaration of Independence was approved. After ratifying the text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms and it was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public. The source copy used for printing has been lost. Jeffersons original draft, complete with changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, the best known version of the Declaration, a signed copy that is popularly regarded as the official document, is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D. C. This engrossed copy was ordered by Congress on July 19, the sources and interpretation of the Declaration have been the subject of much scholarly inquiry. Having served its purpose in announcing independence, references to the text of the Declaration were few in the following years. Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his rhetoric, and his policies and this has been called one of the best-known sentences in the English language, containing the most potent and consequential words in American history. The passage came to represent a standard to which the United States should strive. Believe me, dear Sir, there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose, and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America. By the time that the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, relations had been deteriorating between the colonies and the mother country since 1763. Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase revenue from the colonies, such as the Stamp Act of 1765, Parliament believed that these acts were a legitimate means of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs to keep them in the British Empire. Many colonists, however, had developed a different conception of the empire, the colonies were not directly represented in Parliament, and colonists argued that Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them. This tax dispute was part of a divergence between British and American interpretations of the British Constitution and the extent of Parliaments authority in the colonies. In the colonies, however, the idea had developed that the British Constitution recognized certain fundamental rights that no government could violate, after the Townshend Acts, some essayists even began to question whether Parliament had any legitimate jurisdiction in the colonies at all
8.
Republicanism in the United States
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Republicanism is the guiding political philosophy of the United States. It has been a part of American civic thought since its founding. American republicanism was founded and first practiced by the Founding Fathers in the 18th century, for them, according to one team of historians, republicanism represented more than a particular form of government. It was a way of life, an ideology, an uncompromising commitment to liberty. Republicanism was based on Ancient Greco-Roman, Renaissance, and English models and it formed the basis for the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, as well as the Gettysburg Address. The term republicanism is derived from the republic, but the two words have different meanings. A republic is a form of government, republicanism refers to the values of the citizens in a republic, two major parties have used the term in their name – the Democratic-Republican party of Thomas Jefferson, and the current Republican Party, founded in 1854. The colonial intellectual and political leaders in the 1760s and 1770s closely read history to compare governments, the Revolutionists were especially concerned with the history of liberty in England and were primarily influenced by the country party. Country party relied heavily on the classical republicanism of Roman heritage, it celebrated the ideals of duty and it drew heavily on ancient Greek city-state and Roman republican examples. This approach produced a political ideology Americans called republicanism, which was widespread in America by 1775, Republicanism was the distinctive political consciousness of the entire Revolutionary generation. American republicanism was centered on limiting corruption and greed, Virtue was of the utmost importance for citizens and representatives. Revolutionaries took a lesson from ancient Rome, they knew it was necessary to avoid the luxury that had destroyed the Empire, a virtuous citizen was one who ignored monetary compensation and made a commitment to resist and eradicate corruption. The Republic was sacred, therefore, it is necessary to serve the state in a representative way, ignoring self-interest. Republicanism required the service of those who were willing to give up their own interests for a common good, virtuous citizens needed to be strong defenders of liberty and challenge the corruption and greed in government. The duty of the virtuous citizen became a foundation for the American Revolution, the commitment of most Americans to republican values and to their property rights helped bring about the American Revolution. The greatest threat to liberty was thought by many to be corruption – not just in London, the colonists associated it with luxury and, especially, inherited aristocracy, which they condemned. Historian Thomas Kidd argues that during the Revolution Christians linked their religion to republicanism and he states, With the onset of the revolutionary crisis, a major conceptual shift convinced Americans across the theological spectrum that God was raising up America for some special purpose. Kidd further argues that new blend of Christian and republican ideology led religious traditionalists to embrace wholesale the concept of republican virtue, as virtuous republicans, citizens had a growing moral obligation to eradicate the corruption they saw in the monarchy
9.
Thomas Jefferson
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Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Previously, he was elected the second Vice President of the United States, Jefferson was primarily of English ancestry, born and educated in colonial Virginia. He graduated from the College of William & Mary and briefly practiced law and he became the United States Minister to France in May 1785, and subsequently the nations first Secretary of State in 1790–1793 under President George Washington. Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party during the formation of the First Party System, as President, Jefferson pursued the nations shipping and trade interests against Barbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies. He also organized the Louisiana Purchase, almost doubling the countrys territory, as a result of peace negotiations with France, his administration reduced military forces. Jeffersons second term was beset with difficulties at home, including the trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr, American foreign trade was diminished when Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act of 1807, responding to British threats to U. S. shipping. In 1803, Jefferson began a process of Indian tribe removal to the newly organized Louisiana Territory. Jefferson mastered many disciplines, which ranged from surveying and mathematics to horticulture and he was a proven architect in the classical tradition. Jeffersons keen interest in religion and philosophy earned him the presidency of the American Philosophical Society and he shunned organized religion, but was influenced by both Christianity and deism. He was well versed in linguistics and spoke several languages and he founded the University of Virginia after retiring from public office. He was a letter writer and corresponded with many prominent and important people throughout his adult life. His only full-length book is Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson owned several plantations which were worked by hundreds of slaves. Most historians now believe that, after the death of his wife in 1782, he had a relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and fathered at least one of her children. Various modern scholars are more critical of Jeffersons private life, pointing out the discrepancy between his ownership of slaves and his political principles, for example. Presidential scholars, however, consistently rank Jefferson among the greatest presidents, Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13,1743, at the family home in Shadwell in the Colony of Virginia, the third of ten children. He was of English and possibly Welsh descent and was born a British subject and his father Peter Jefferson was a planter and surveyor who died when Jefferson was fourteen, his mother was Jane Randolph. Peter Jefferson moved his family to Tuckahoe Plantation in 1745 upon the death of a friend who had named him guardian of his children, the Jeffersons returned to Shadwell in 1752, where Peter died in 1757, his estate was divided between his sons Thomas and Randolph. Thomas inherited approximately 5,000 acres of land, including Monticello and he assumed full authority over his property at age 21
10.
John Adams
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John Adams was an American patriot who served as the second President of the United States and the first Vice President. He was a lawyer, diplomat, statesman, political theorist, and, as a Founding Father and he was also a dedicated diarist and correspondent, particularly with his wife and closest advisor Abigail. He collaborated with his cousin, revolutionary leader Samuel Adams, Adams was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, where he played a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence. He assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776, as a diplomat in Europe, he helped negotiate the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and acquired vital governmental loans from Amsterdam bankers. Adams was the author of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780 which influenced American political theory. Adamss credentials as a revolutionary secured for him two terms as President George Washingtons vice president and also his own election in 1796 as the second president. In his single term as president, he encountered fierce criticism from the Jeffersonian Republicans, as well as the dominant faction in his own Federalist Party, led by his rival Alexander Hamilton. Adams signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, and built up the army, the major accomplishment of his presidency was a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the face of Hamiltons opposition. Due to his strong posture on defense, Adams is often called the father of the American Navy and he was the first U. S. president to reside in the executive mansion, now known as the White House. In 1800, Adams lost re-election to Thomas Jefferson and retired to Massachusetts and he eventually resumed his friendship with Jefferson upon the latters own retirement by initiating a correspondence which lasted fourteen years. He and his wife established a family of politicians, diplomats, Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States. He died on the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Modern historians in the aggregate have favorably ranked his administration, John Adams was born on October 30,1735 to John Adams Sr. and Susanna Boylston. He had two brothers, Peter and Elihu. Adams birthplace was then in Braintree, Massachusetts, and is preserved at Adams National Historical Park, Adams mother was from a leading medical family of present-day Brookline, Massachusetts. His father was a Congregationalist deacon, a farmer, a cordwainer, the Deacon also served as a selectman and supervised the building of schools and roads. Adams often praised his father and recalled their close relationship, though raised in modest surroundings, Adams felt an acute responsibility to live up to his familys heritage of reverence. Journalist Richard Brookhiser wrote that Adams Puritan ancestors believed they lived in the Bible, England under the Stuarts was Egypt, they were Israel fleeing
11.
Thomas Paine
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Thomas Paine was an English-American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era rhetoric of human rights. He has been called a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession, virtually every rebel read his powerful pamphlet Common Sense, proportionally the all-time best-selling American title, which crystallized the rebellious demand for independence from Great Britain. His The American Crisis was a pamphlet series. Common Sense was so influential that John Adams said, Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, Paine lived in France for most of the 1790s, becoming deeply involved in the French Revolution. He wrote Rights of Man, in part a defense of the French Revolution against its critics and his attacks on Anglo-Irish conservative writer Edmund Burke led to a trial and conviction in absentia in 1792 for the crime of seditious libel. In 1792, despite not being able to speak French, he was elected to the French National Convention, the Girondists regarded him as an ally. Consequently, the Montagnards, especially Robespierre, regarded him as an enemy, in December 1793, he was arrested and was taken to Luxembourg Prison in Paris. While in prison, he continued to work on The Age of Reason, future President James Monroe used his diplomatic connections to get Paine released in November 1794. He also published the pamphlet Agrarian Justice, discussing the origins of property, in 1802, he returned to the U. S. where he died on June 8,1809. Only six people attended his funeral as he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity, Paine was born on January 29,1736, the son of Joseph Pain and Frances, in Thetford, Norfolk, England. Joseph was a Quaker and Frances an Anglican, born Thomas Pain, despite claims that he changed his family name upon his emigration to America in 1774, he was using Paine in 1769, while still in Lewes, Sussex. He attended Thetford Grammar School, at a time there was no compulsory education. At the age of 13, he was apprenticed to his stay-maker father, Paine researchers contend his fathers occupation has been widely misinterpreted to mean that he made the stays in ladies corsets, which likely was an insult later invented by his political foes. Actually, the father and apprentice son made the thick rope stays used on sailing ships, Thetford historically had maintained a brisk trade with the downriver, then major, port town of Kings Lynn. A connection to shipping and the sea explains why, in adolescence, Thomas enlisted and briefly served as a privateer. There, he became a master stay-maker, establishing a shop in Sandwich, on September 27,1759, Thomas Paine married Mary Lambert. Mary became pregnant, and, after they moved to Margate, she went into labor, in which she
12.
Loyalist (American Revolution)
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The Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or Kings Men and they were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution. Prominent Loyalists repeatedly assured the British government that many thousands of loyalists would spring to arms, the British government acted in expectation of that, especially in the southern campaigns in 1780-81. In practice, the number of loyalists in military service was far lower than expected, across the new United States, Patriots watched suspected Loyalists very closely, and would not tolerate any organized Loyalist opposition. Many outspoken or militarily active loyalists were forced to flee, especially to their stronghold of New York City, when their cause was defeated, about 15% of the Loyalists fled to other parts of the British Empire, to Britain itself, or to what is now Canada. The southern colonists moved mostly to Florida, which had remained loyal to the Crown, northern Loyalists largely migrated to Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. They called themselves United Empire Loyalists, most were compensated with Canadian land or British cash distributed through formal claims procedures. Exiled Loyalists received £3 million or about 37% of their losses from the British government, Loyalists who stayed in the U. S. were generally able to retain their property and become American citizens. Historians have estimated that between 15 and 20 percent of the 2.0 million whites in the colonies in 1775 were Loyalists, the American Revolution was a civil war based on who would rule in the Thirteen Colonies. Families were often divided as war forced colonists to choose sides in a conflict that remained for many years uncertain, colonists, especially recent arrivals, often felt themselves to be both American and British, subjects of the King, still owing a loyalty to the mother country. Many, like Maryland lawyer Daniel Dulaney, opposed taxation without representation, in one of his many pamphlets, Dulaney wrote, There may be a time when redress may not be obtained. Till then, I shall recommend a legal, orderly, most hoped for a peaceful reconciliation, and were forced by the Patriots who took control nearly everywhere in 1775-76 to choose sides. Likely the earliest formal meeting, and use of the term Loyalist, at the meeting, held at the suggestion of General Thomas Gage, these Loyalists formed a society called The Loyalist Associators Desiring the Unity of the Empire. They felt that rebellion against the Crown—the legitimate government—was morally wrong and they were alienated when the Patriots resorted to violence, such as burning houses and tarring and feathering. They wanted to take a road position and were angry when forced by the Patriots to declare their opposition. They had a sentimental attachment to Britain. They were procrastinators who realized that independence was bound to come someday and they were cautious and afraid that chaos and mob rule would result. Some were pessimists who lacked the confidence in the future displayed by the Patriots, others recalled the dreadful experiences of many Jacobite rebels after the failure of the last Jacobite rebellion as recently as 1745 who often lost their lands when the Hanoverian government won
13.
Alexander Hamilton
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Alexander Hamilton was an American statesman and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was the author of the economic policies of the George Washington administration. He took the lead in the funding of the debts by the Federal government, as well as the establishment of a national bank, a system of tariffs. His vision included a central government led by a vigorous executive branch. This was challenged by Virginia agrarians Thomas Jefferson and James Madison who formed a rival party and they favored strong states based in rural America and protected by state militias as opposed to a strong national army and navy. They denounced Hamilton as too friendly toward Britain and toward monarchy in general, Hamilton was born out of wedlock in Charlestown, to a married mother of British and French Huguenot ancestry and a Scottish father. His father, James A. Hamilton, was the son of laird Alexander Hamilton of Grange. Orphaned as a child by his mothers death and his fathers abandonment, Hamilton was taken in by an older cousin and he was recognized for his intelligence and talent, and sponsored by a group of wealthy local men to travel to New York City to pursue his education. Hamilton attended Kings College, choosing to stay in the Thirteen Colonies to seek his fortune, discontinuing his studies before graduating when the college closed its doors during British occupation of the city, Hamilton played a major role in the American Revolutionary War. At the start of the war in 1775, he joined a militia company, in early 1776, he raised a provincial artillery company, to which he was appointed captain. He soon became the aide to General Washington, the American forces commander-in-chief. Hamilton was dispatched by Washington on numerous missions to convey plans to his generals, after the war, Hamilton was elected as a representative to the Congress of the Confederation from New York. He resigned to practice law, and founded the Bank of New York, Hamilton was among those dissatisfied with the weak national government. He led the Annapolis Convention, which successfully influenced Congress to issue a call for the Philadelphia Convention in order to create a new constitution, Hamilton became the leading cabinet member in the new government under President Washington. These programs were funded primarily by a tariff on imports, to overcome localism, Hamilton mobilized a nationwide network of friends of the government, especially bankers and businessmen, which became the Federalist Party. A major issue in the emergence of the American two-party system was the Jay Treaty and it established friendly trade relations with Britain, to the chagrin of France and the supporters of the French Revolution. Hamilton played a role in the Federalist party, which dominated national. In 1795, he returned to the practice of law in New York and he tried to control the policies of President Adams
14.
George Mason
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George Mason was a Virginia planter and politician, and a delegate to the U. S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of three delegates who refused to sign the constitution, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason principally authored, served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights, of which he has been deemed the father. Mason was born in 1725, most likely in what is now Fairfax County and his father died when he was young, and his mother managed the family estates until he came of age. He married in 1750, built Gunston Hall, and lived the life of a squire, supervising his lands, family. He briefly served in the House of Burgesses and involved himself in community affairs, Mason prepared the first draft of the Declaration of Rights in 1776, and his words formed much of the text adopted by the final Revolutionary Virginia Convention. He also wrote a constitution for the state, Thomas Jefferson and others sought to have the convention adopt their ideas, Mason was named one of his states delegates to the Constitutional Convention and traveled to Philadelphia, his only lengthy trip outside Virginia. Many clauses in the document bear his stamp, as he was active in the convention for months before deciding that he could not sign it, long obscure, Mason is now recognized for his contributions to the United States, and to Virginia. George Masons great-grandfather, George Mason I, had been a Cavalier, militarily defeated in the English Civil War and he had been born in 1629 at Pershore, in the English county of Worcestershire. His son, George Mason II, was the first to move to what in 1742 became Fairfax County, George Mason III served in the House of Burgesses and, like his father, was county lieutenant. George Mason IVs mother, Ann Thomson Mason, was the daughter of a former Attorney General of Virginia who had immigrated from London and was of a Yorkshire family. The Masons lived in a colonial Virginia that had few roads, as most commerce was carried on Chesapeake Bay or along the waters of its tributaries, such as the Potomac, most settlement took place near the rivers, through which planters could trade with the world. Thus, colonial Virginia initially developed few towns, since estates were largely self-sufficient, even the capital, Williamsburg, saw little activity when the legislature was not in session. Local politics was dominated by large landowners like the Masons, the Virginia economy rose and fell with tobacco, the main crop, which was raised mostly for export to Britain. Into this world was born George Mason, fourth of that name and he may have been born at his fathers plantation on Dogues Neck, but this is uncertain as his parents also lived on their lands across the Potomac in Maryland. On March 5,1735, George Mason III died when his boat capsized crossing the Potomac. His widow Ann would raise their son George and two siblings as co-guardian with lawyer John Mercer. She selected property at Chopawamsic Creek as her house and there lived with her children. In 1736, George began his education with a Mr. Williams, georges studies began at his mothers house, but the following year, he was boarded out to a Mrs. Simpson in Maryland, with Williams continuing as teacher through 1739
15.
Alexander McDougall
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Alexander McDougall was an American seaman, merchant, a Sons of Liberty leader from New York City before and during the American Revolution, and a military leader during the Revolutionary War. He served as a general in the Continental Army. After the war, he was the president of the first bank in the state of New York, McDougall was born on the Isle of Islay, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland in the summer of 1732. He was one of the five children of Ranald and Elizabeth McDougall, in 1738 the family emigrated to New York as part of a party led by a Scottish Army veteran, Captain Lachlan Campbell. Ranald withdrew and found work on a farm on the island of Manhattan. The family prospered and young Alexander began his career as a delivery boy for milk in New York. In around 1745, when he was fourteen, Alexander signed on as a merchant seaman and he worked on a number of vessels, and then in 1751 he went trip to Great Britain. During this trip, a stop to the Island of Islay was made and he stayed only a few months, but married a cousin, Nancy McDougall, and brought her back to New York. He continued a seagoing merchant career, becoming a part-owner and operator of several small cargo sloops that worked coastal trade routes, after the onset of the French and Indian War in 1756, McDougall became commissioned by the crown as a merchant privateer. During the war, McDougall commanded two ships, the Tyger, an 8 gun sloop, and the Barrington, a 12 gun sloop, an able captain as well as a knowledgeable merchant, he made a modest fortune in captured ships and the sale of their cargo. In 1763 McDougall gave up the seafaring life, the war had ended, his wife Nancy died, as did his father. He was left with responsibility for his three children and his mother, so he converted his seagoing assets and with the small fortune he had accumulated during the war, invested in land and became a merchant and importer. By 1767 he had his affairs in good order and he owned land in Albany County and as far away as North Carolina. He remarried, this time to Hannah Bostwick, the daughter of his landlady, though their increasing wealth earned them recognition, it did not earn them acceptance into the traditional society in New York City. Longstanding members of society such as the Livingstons and the De Lanceys looked down on him as crude. When revolutionary fervor grew with resistance to the Stamp Act, McDougall became active in the Sons of Liberty, difficulties in the city and colony were increased by the Quartering Act, which required the colonists to provide housing and support to the British troops. The Province of New York assembly had refused to pass appropriations for their housing in 1767 and 1768, then, the new assembly of 1769 approved money for the quartering of British troops. On December 16,1769 McDougall wrote and printed a broadside, To the Betrayed Inhabitants
16.
John Hancock
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John Hancock was an American merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first, before the American Revolution, Hancock was one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies, having inherited a profitable mercantile business from his uncle. Hancock began his career in Boston as a protégé of Samuel Adams. As tensions between colonists and Great Britain increased in the 1760s, Hancock used his wealth to support the colonial cause and he became very popular in Massachusetts, especially after British officials seized his sloop Liberty in 1768 and charged him with smuggling. Although the charges against Hancock were eventually dropped, he has often described as a smuggler in historical accounts. Hancock was one of Bostons leaders during the crisis led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. He served more than two years in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and as president of Congress, was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence, Hancock returned to Massachusetts and was elected governor of the Commonwealth, serving in that role for most of his remaining years. He used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution in 1788, according to the Gregorian calendar, John Hancock was born on January 23,1737, according to the Julian calendar then in use, the date was January 12,1736. He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in a part of town eventually became the separate city of Quincy. He was the son of the Reverend John Hancock of Braintree and Mary Hawke Thaxter, as a child, Hancock became a casual acquaintance of young John Adams, whom the Reverend Hancock had baptized in 1735. The Hancocks lived a life, and owned one slave to help with household work. After Hancocks father died in 1744, John was sent to live with his uncle and aunt, Thomas Hancock, Thomas Hancock was the proprietor of a firm known as the House of Hancock, which imported manufactured goods from Britain and exported rum, whale oil, and fish. Thomas Hancocks highly successful business made him one of Bostons richest and he and Lydia, along with several servants and slaves, lived in Hancock Manor on Beacon Hill. The couple, who did not have any children of their own, after graduating from the Boston Latin School in 1750, Hancock enrolled in Harvard College and received a bachelors degree in 1754. Upon graduation, he began to work for his uncle, just as the French, Thomas Hancock had close relations with the royal governors of Massachusetts and secured profitable government contracts during the war. John Hancock learned much about his uncles business during these years and was trained for eventual partnership in the firm, Hancock worked hard, but he also enjoyed playing the role of a wealthy aristocrat and developed a fondness for expensive clothes. From 1760 to 1761, Hancock lived in England while building relationships with customers and suppliers, upon returning to Boston, Hancock gradually took over the House of Hancock as his uncles health failed, becoming a full partner in January 1763. He became a member of the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew in October 1762, which connected him with many of Bostons most influential citizens
17.
Daniel Shays
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Daniel Shays was born in 1747 in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, the son of two Irish immigrants, Patrick and Margaret Shays. Daniel was the second of six siblings, Margaret, James, Roger, Phebe and he spent his early years as a landless farm laborer. In 1772, he married Abigail Gilbert, with whom he settled in Brookfield, Daniel and Abigail Shays had 6 children, Daniel born 31 Jan 1773 in Shutesbury, MA and possibly Lucy, Hannah, Susan, Gilbert and Polly. Shays joined the militia during the American Revolution. He rose to the rank of captain in the 5th Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Army by 1777 and he was involved in the Boston campaign, and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He also fought in the Battle of Lexington and the Battle of Saratoga and he was wounded during the war and resigned from the military, unpaid, in 1780. Upon returning home, he discovered he was summoned to court for unpaid debts, in 1780, Shays was presented with an ornamental sword by General Lafayette, in honor of his military service. Shays later sold the sword for a few dollars to pay off his act which was frowned upon by his peers. After returning from the war, Daniel Shays was alarmed to discover many of his fellow veterans. The petitions and proposals often included a request to issue paper currency, such inflationary issues would depreciate the currency, making it possible to meet obligations made at high values with lower-valued paper. The merchants, among them James Bowdoin, were opposed, because they were generally lenders who stood to lose by such proposals, as a result, these proposals were repeatedly rejected. Governor John Hancock, accused by some of anticipating trouble, abruptly resigned in early 1785, when Bowdoin was elected governor that year, matters became more severe. Even comparatively conservative commentators like John Adams observed that these levies were heavier than the People could bear, protests in the rural Massachusetts turned into direct action in August 1786, after the state legislature adjourned without considering the many petitions that had been sent to Boston. On August 29 a well-organized force of protestors, Shays among them, marched on Northampton, the leaders of this and later forces proclaimed that they were seeking relief from the burdensome judicial processes that were depriving the people of their land and possessions. They called themselves Regulators, a reference to the Regulator movement of North Carolina that sought to corrupt practices in the late 1760s. On September 2 Governor Bowdoin issued a proclamation denouncing such mob action, when the court in Worcester was shut down by similar action on September 5, the county militia refused to turn out, much to Bowdoins amazement. Shays, who had participated in the Northampton action, began to take an active leadership role in the uprising in November. On September 19, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts indicted eleven leaders of the rebellion as disorderly, riotous, and seditious persons
18.
Crispus Attucks
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Crispus Attucks was the first person killed in the Boston massacre, in Boston, Massachusetts, and is widely considered to be the first American casualty in the American Revolutionary War. Aside from the event of his death, along with Samuel Gray and James Caldwell and he was probably a Native American slave or freeman, merchant seaman and dockworker of Wampanoag and African descent. Some circumstantial evidence suggests that his father may have been Prince Yonger, an African-born slave and his mother, Nanny Peterattucks, despite the lack of clarity, Attucks became an icon of the anti-slavery movement in the mid-19th century. He was held up as the first martyr of the American Revolution, in the 1850s, as the abolitionist movement gained momentum in Boston, supporters lauded Attucks as an African American who played a heroic role in the history of the United States. Historians disagree on whether Crispus Attucks was a man or an escaped slave. Because of his heritage, his story is also significant for Native Americans. Attucks appears to have born in Framingham, Massachusetts. While nothing is known with certainty about Attuckss family, some speculate that his father married a woman who originated from the Natick Tribe. Framingham had a population of black inhabitants from at least 1716. Attucks was almost certainly of mixed African and Native American parentage and many assume he was descended from John Attuck of Massachusetts, in 1750 William Brown, a slave-owner in Framingham, advertised for the return of a runaway slave named Crispas. In the advertisement, Brown describes what Attucks looked like and was wearing when he was last seen and he also said that a reward of 10 pounds would be given to whoever found and returned Attucks to him. Attuckss status at the time of the massacre as either a black or a runaway slave has been a matter of debate for historians. What is known is that Attucks became a sailor and he spent much of the remainder of his life at sea or working around the docks along the Atlantic seaboard, many historians also believe that he went by the alias Michael Johnson in order to avoid being caught. He may only have been temporarily in Boston in early 1770, radical Whigs had coordinated waterfront mobs against the authorities. The presence of troops, instead of reducing tensions, served to inflame them. After dusk on March 5,1770, a crowd of colonists confronted a sentry who had chastised a boy for complaining that an officer did not pay a barber bill, both townspeople and a company of British soldiers of the 29th Regiment of Foot gathered. The colonists threw snowballs and debris at the soldiers, Attucks and a group of men with Attucks approached the Old State House armed with clubs. A soldier was struck with a piece of wood, an act some witnesses claimed was done by Attucks, other witnesses stated that Attucks was leaning upon a stick when the soldiers opened fire
19.
James Armistead Lafayette
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James Armistead Lafayette was an African American slave who served the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War under the Marquis de Lafayette. As a double agent, he was responsible for reporting the activities of Benedict Arnold – after he had defected to the British – and he fed them false information, while disclosing very accurate and detailed accounts to the Americans. Armistead, an African-American slave, was owned by William Armistead of Virginia, most sources indicate that James Armistead was born in 1748 in New Kent County, Virginia, although others put his birth around 1760 in Elizabeth City, Virginia. In 1781, after getting his masters consent, Armistead volunteered to join the army under Lafayette and he utilized him as a spy, posing as a runaway slave. He joined the camp of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, the turncoat who was leading some British forces in the area, pretending to be a spy for them allowed Armistead to gain Arnolds confidence to the extent that Arnold used him to guide British troops through local roads. The ex-slave, who renamed himself James Armistead Lafayette in the generals honor. After Arnold departed north in the spring of 1781, James went to the camp of Lord Charles Cornwallis and he moved frequently between British camps, where the officers would speak openly about their strategies in front of him. Armistead documented this information in written reports, which he delivered to other American spies. In this way, he relayed much information about the Britishs plans for troop deployment, the intelligence reports from his espionage were instrumental in helping defeat the British during the Battle of Yorktown. In 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette returned to the United States at the invitation of President James Monroe and he made a tour of all 24 states, in which he was met by huge crowds and everywhere feted as a hero. While in Virginia, where he visited Washingtons grave and gave a speech to the House of Delegates, he abruptly had his carriage stop when he saw Armistead in the crowd, at around this time, he also wrote a testimonial on Armisteads behalf. Although Virginia passed an act in 1782 allowing for the freedom of any slave by his or her owner. This was because a 1783 law specifically at freed slaves whose owners had used them as substitutes for service in exchange for their liberty. This was not the case for Armistead due to being a spy, on January 9,1787, the Assembly granted the petition. At that time, he chose to add Lafayette to his name to honor the general, Armistead continued to live in New Kent County with his new wife, one son, and several other children. He became a farmer and at one point owned three slaves. In 1818, he applied to the legislature for financial aid, he was granted $60 for present relief. Armistead died on August 9,1830 in Baltimore, Maryland
20.
Continental Army
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The Continental Army was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Congress on June 14,1775, the Continental Army was supplemented by local militias and troops that remained under control of the individual states or were otherwise independent. General George Washington was the commander-in-chief of the army throughout the war, most of the Continental Army was disbanded in 1783 after the Treaty of Paris ended the war. The 1st and 2nd Regiments went on to form the nucleus of the Legion of the United States in 1792 under General Anthony Wayne and this became the foundation of the United States Army in 1796. The Continental Army consisted of soldiers from all 13 colonies, and after 1776, when the American Revolutionary War began at the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19,1775, the colonial revolutionaries did not have an army. As tensions with Great Britain increased in the leading to the war. Training of militiamen increased after the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774, colonists such as Richard Henry Lee proposed forming a national militia force, but the First Continental Congress rejected the idea. On April 23,1775, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress authorized the raising of an army consisting of 26 company regiments. New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut soon raised similar, on July 18,1775, the Congress requested all colonies form militia companies from all able bodied effective men, between sixteen and fifty years of age. It was not uncommon for men younger than sixteen to enlist as most colonies had no requirement of consent for those under twenty-one. Four major-generals and eight brigadier-generals were appointed by the Second Continental Congress in the course of a few days, after Pomeroy did not accept, John Thomas was appointed in his place. As the Continental Congress increasingly adopted the responsibilities and posture of a legislature for a sovereign state, as a result, the army went through several distinct phases, characterized by official dissolution and reorganization of units. Soldiers in the Continental Army were citizens who had volunteered to serve in the army, early in the war the enlistment periods were short, as the Continental Congress feared the possibility of the Continental Army evolving into a permanent army. The army never numbered more than 17,000 men, turnover proved a constant problem, particularly in the winter of 1776–77, and longer enlistments were approved. Major General Philip Schuylers ten regiments in New York were sent to invade Canada, the Continental Army of 1776, reorganized after the initial enlistment period of the soldiers in the 1775 army had expired. Despite attempts to broaden the recruiting base beyond New England, the 1776 army remained skewed toward the Northeast both in terms of its composition and of its geographical focus. This army consisted of 36 regiments, most standardized to a battalion of 768 men strong and formed into eight companies. Enlistment terms extended to three years or to the length of the war to avoid the crises that depleted forces
21.
Black operation
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A black operation is a covert operation by a government, a government agency, or a military organization. This can include activities by private companies or groups, key features of a black operation are that it is secret and it is not attributable to the organization carrying it out. Such operations are known to have carried out by the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency, Mossad, MI6, COMANF, DGFI, RAW, MSS, KGB. Black may be used as a term for any government activity that is hidden or secret. CIA Director General Michael Hayden explained why he released the documents, saying that they provided a glimpse of a different time
22.
William Barton (soldier)
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William Barton was an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War who retired with the rank of colonel. He later served as adjutant general of the Rhode Island militia, Barton was born in Warren, Rhode Island on May 26,1748. He worked as a hatter in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1771, he married Rhoda Carver. In 1775, he enlisted in the Continental Army as a corporal and he fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill. On August 2,1775 he was appointed the adjutant of Richmonds Rhode Island Regiment and he was promoted to captain on November 1,1775. In late June and early July 1777, as a major in the Rhode Island state troops, he planned and led a raid on British headquarters, capturing Major General Richard Prescott. The guards were surprised, the door of Prescotts room was broken in, and the general was hurried away half dressed and taken to Warwick Point, for this exploit, the Continental Congress gave Barton a sword and passed a resolution honoring his service. He was gravely wounded in the thigh while trying to rally American militia to attack the guard of a British raidng party that burned parts of Bristol and Warren, Rhode Island. He never fully recovered from injury, but did return in June 1779 to lead a company of light infantry operating in boats in Narragansett Bay. He served until the end of the war, in 1783 Barton became an original member of the Rhode Island Society of the Cincinnati. When Rhode Island ratified the United States Constitution in 1790, Barton was sent to New York to notify George Washington and he helped to found the town of Barton, Vermont. Subsequently, Barton was successfully sued in court for selling the land to two different parties. He refused to pay this debt, for this he was ultimately confined to the debtors prison in Danville for 14 years, starting at the age of sixty-four. At the age of seventy-seven, he was released at the initiative of the visiting Marquis de Lafayette, Barton died on October 22,1831, at the age of eighty-three. He is buried in the North Burial Ground in Providence, Rhode Island, fort Barton in Rhode Island was named after William Barton. It is now a park owned by the town of Tiverton, fort Barton Elementary School is also in Tiverton, Rhode Island. Kidnapping the Enemy, The Special Operations to Capture Generals Charles Lee and this book has as one of its main focuses Bartons capture of General Prescott and Bartons life after the war, including the story of his spending 14 years in a Vermont debtors prison. Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, rare Book Shop Publishing Company,1914
23.
Whigs (British political party)
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The Whigs were a political faction and then a political party in the parliaments of England, Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and 1850s, they contested power with their rivals, the Whigs origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute monarchy. The Whigs played a role in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and were the standing enemies of the Stuart kings and pretenders. The Whigs took full control of the government in 1715, and remained dominant until King George III, coming to the throne in 1760. The Whig Supremacy was enabled by the Hanoverian succession of George I in 1714, the Whigs thoroughly purged the Tories from all major positions in government, the army, the Church of England, the legal profession, and local offices. The Partys hold on power was so strong and durable, historians call the period from roughly 1714 to 1783 the age of the Whig Oligarchy. The first great leader of the Whigs was Robert Walpole, who maintained control of the government through the period 1721–1742, his protégé was Henry Pelham, who led from 1743 to 1754. Both parties were founded on rich politicians, more than on votes, there were elections to the House of Commons. The Whig Party slowly evolved during the 18th century, later on, the Whigs drew support from the emerging industrial interests and wealthy merchants, while the Tories drew support from the landed interests and the royal family. The term Whig was originally short for whiggamor, a term meaning cattle driver used to describe western Scots who came to Leith for corn. In the reign of Charles I the term was used during Wars of the Three Kingdoms to refer derisively to a faction of the Scottish Covenanters who called themselves the Kirk Party. It was then applied to Scottish Presbyterian rebels who were against the Kings Episcopalian order in Scotland, Whig was a term of abuse applied to those who wanted to exclude James on the grounds that he was a Roman Catholic. The fervent Tory Samuel Johnson often joked that the first Whig was the Devil, the Whigs, under Lord Shaftesburys leadership, wished to exclude the Duke of York from the throne due to his Catholicism, his favouring of monarchical absolutism and his connections to France. They believed the Duke, if allowed to inherit the throne, would endanger the Protestant religion, liberty, the first Exclusion Bill was supported by a substantial majority on its second reading in May 1679. In response, King Charles prorogued Parliament and then dissolved it and this new parliament did not meet for thirteen months, because Charles wanted to give passions a chance to die down. When it met in October 1680, an Exclusion Bill was introduced and passed in the Commons without major resistance, Charles dissolved Parliament in January 1681, but the Whigs did not suffer serious losses in the ensuing election. The next Parliament first met in March, at Oxford, but Charles dissolved it only after a few days, when he made an appeal to the country against the Whigs, and determined to rule without Parliament. In February, Charles had made a deal with the French King Louis XIV, without Parliament, the Whigs gradually crumbled, mainly due to the Rye House Plot
24.
Samuel Johnson
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Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and is described by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history. He is also the subject of perhaps the most famous biography in English literature, born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Johnson attended Pembroke College, Oxford for just over a year, before his lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London, where he began to write for The Gentlemans Magazine and his early works include the biography Life of Mr Richard Savage, the poems London and The Vanity of Human Wishes, and the play Irene. After nine years of work, Johnsons A Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755 and it had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship. This work brought Johnson popularity and success, until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later, Johnsons was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary. His later works included essays, an annotated edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he travelled to Scotland. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Johnson was a tall and robust man. His odd gestures and tics were disconcerting to some on first meeting him, after a series of illnesses, he died on the evening of 13 December 1784, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Born on 18 September 1709, to Michael Johnson, a bookseller and he did not cry and, with doubts surrounding the newborns health, his aunt exclaimed that she would not have picked such a poor creature up in the street. Since it was feared that the baby die, the vicar of St Marys was summoned to perform a baptism. Two godfathers were chosen, Samuel Swynfen, a physician and graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Richard Wakefield, a lawyer, coroner, Johnsons health improved and he was put to wet-nurse with Joan Marklew. He soon contracted scrofula, known at time as the Kings Evil because it was thought royalty could cure it. Sir John Floyer, former physician to King Charles II, recommended that the young Johnson should receive the royal touch, however, the ritual was ineffective, and an operation was performed that left him with permanent scars across his face and body. Johnson demonstrated signs of intelligence as a child, and his parents, to his later disgust. His education began at the age of three, and was provided by his mother, who had him memorise and recite passages from the Book of Common Prayer. When Samuel turned four, he was sent to a nearby school, a year later, Johnson went to Lichfield Grammar School, where he excelled in Latin. During this time, Johnson started to exhibit the tics that would influence how people viewed him in his years
25.
Tory
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A Tory holds a political philosophy based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved throughout history. The Tory ethos has been summed up with the phrase God, King, Tories generally advocate monarchism, are usually of a high church Anglican religious heritage, and are opposed to the liberalism of the Whig faction. In Britain, the Tory political faction originated with the Cavaliers during the English Civil War and this political philosophy remains prominent in the politics of the United Kingdom, and also appears in parts of the Commonwealth realms, particularly in Canada. It also had exponents in other parts of the former British Empire, under the Corn Laws a majority of Tories supported protectionist agrarianism with tariffs being imposed at the time for higher food prices, self-sufficiency, and enhanced wages in rural employment. There were two Tory ministries after James II came to the throne, the first led by the Earl of Rochester, a significant faction took part in the ousting of James II with the Whigs to defend the Church of England and definitive protestantism. Although only a minority of Tories gave their adhesion to the Jacobite risings, after the advent of the Prime Ministerial system under the Whig Robert Walpole, Lord Butes premiership in the reign of George III marked a revival. Edmund Burke and William Pitt the Younger led the way in this, interventionism and strong armed forces were to prove a hallmark of Toryism under subsequent Prime Ministers. Due to these Tories leading the formation of the Conservative Party, members of that party are referred to as Tories. The word Tory derives from the Middle Irish word tóraidhe, modern Irish tóraí, outlaw, robber or brigand, from the Irish word tóir, meaning pursuit and it was originally used to refer to a Rapparee and later applied to Confederates or Cavaliers in arms. The term was originally a term of abuse, an Irish rebel. Towards the end of Charles IIs reign there was debate about whether or not his brother, James, Duke of York. Whigs, originally a reference to Scottish cattle-drivers, was the term directed at those who wanted to exclude James on the grounds that he was a Roman Catholic. Those who were not prepared to exclude James were labelled Abhorrers, the suffix -ism was quickly added to both Whig and Tory to make Whiggism and Toryism, meaning the principles and methods of each faction. Historically, the term Tory has been applied in ways to loyalists of the British monarchy. During the Exclusion Crisis, the word Tory was applied in Kingdom of England as a nickname to the opponents of the bill, the word Tory had connotations of Papist and outlaw derived from its previous use in Ireland. Since 1832, the term Tory is commonly used to refer to the Conservative Party, the term Tory or Loyalist was used in the American Revolution for those who remained loyal to the British Crown. Since early in the 18th century, Tory had described those upholding the right of the King over Parliament, during the war of independence, particularly after the Declaration of Independence in 1776 this use was extended to cover anyone who remained loyal to the British Crown. About 80% of the Loyalists remained in the United States after the war, the 60,000 or so Loyalists who settled in Quebec, the Bahamas, or returned to Great Britain after the American War of Independence are known as United Empire Loyalists
26.
Traditionalist conservatism
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Some traditionalists have embraced the labels reactionary and counterrevolutionary, defying the stigma that has attached to these terms since the Enlightenment. Traditionalism developed throughout the 18th-century Europe, in the middle of the 20th century it started to organize itself in earnest as an intellectual and political force. This more modern expression of traditionalist conservatism began among a group of U. S, belief in natural law and transcendent moral order lay the foundation for traditionalist conservative thought. Reason and Divine Revelation inform natural law and the truths of faith. It is through these universal truths of faith that man orders himself, mankind organized society on the basis of these universal truths of faith. The traditionalist holds axiomatic the belief that religion precedes civilization, most traditionalist conservatives embrace High Church Christianity. Not all traditionalists, however, are High Church Christians, Other traditionalists whose faith traditions are notable include Caleb Stegall, who is an evangelical Protestant. Many conservative mainline Protestants are also traditionalist conservatives, including some of writers for Touchstone Magazine, many traditionalists are Jewish, such as the late Will Herberg, Irving Louis Horowitz, Mordecai Roshwald, and Paul Gottfried. As the name suggests, traditionalists believe that tradition and custom guide man, each generation inherits the experience and culture of its ancestors and through convention and precedence man is able to pass it down to his descendants. To paraphrase Edmund Burke, often regarded as the father of conservatism, The individual is foolish. Traditionalist conservatives believe that society is essentially hierarchical. Hierarchy allows for the preservation of the whole community simultaneously, instead of protecting one part at the expense of the others, while most traditionalist conservatives are cosmopolitan and many live in urban centers, the countryside and the values of rural life are prized highly. The principles of agrarianism are central to an understanding of rural life. Traditionalists defend classical Western civilization, and value an education informed by the texts of the Hebraic, Greek, Roman, similarly, traditionalists are classicists who revere high culture in all of its manifestations. Unlike nationalists, who esteem the role of the State or nation over the local or regional community, Traditionalist conservatives think that loyalty to a locality or region is more central than any commitment to a larger political entity. Traditionalists also welcome the value of subsidiarity and the intimacy of ones community, nationalism, alternately, leads to jingoism and views the state as abstract from the local community and family structure rather than as an outgrowth of these local realities. Traditionalist conservatism began with the thought of Anglo-Irish Whig statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke, whose principles were rooted in moral natural law. Burke believed in prescriptive rights and that those rights were God-given and he also defended what he referred to as ordered liberty
27.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
28.
United Empire Loyalist
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They settled in what was initially Quebec and modern-day Ontario, where they received land grants of 200 acres per person, and in Nova Scotia. Their arrival marked the beginning of a predominantly English-speaking population in the future Canada west and east of the modern Quebec border. Following the end of the Revolution and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Land in Canada was sometimes allotted according to which Loyalist regiment a man had fought in. Nova Scotia received about 33,000 Loyalist refugees, Prince Edward Island 2,000, an unknown but substantial number were unable to establish themselves in British North America and eventually returned to the United States. Many in Canada continued to close ties with relatives in the United States. The arrival of the Loyalists after the Revolutionary War led to the division of Canada into the provinces of Upper Canada and they arrived and settled in groups by ethnicity and religion. E. Alluding to their great principle The Unity of the Empire, thousands of Iroquois and other pro-British Native Americans were expelled from New York and other states and resettled in Canada. The descendants of one group of Iroquois, led by Joseph Brant Thayendenegea, settled at Six Nations of the Grand River. Another smaller group of Iroquois led by Captain John Deserontyon Odeserundiye, the government settled numerous Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, but they faced discrimination and inadequate support. The government was slow to survey the land of Black Loyalists and awarded them smaller grants of poorer, when Great Britain set up the colony of Sierra Leone in Africa, some Black Loyalists emigrated there to flee the poverty and racism they had encountered for the promise of self-government. The Black Loyalists established Freetown in Sierra Leone, numerous Loyalists were forced to abandon substantial amounts of property in the United States. Restoration or compensation for this lost property was an issue during the negotiation of the Jay Treaty in 1795. Negotiations settled on the concept of the United States negotiators advising the U. S. Congress to provide restitution. For the British, this concept carried significant legal weight, far more than it did to the Americans, slave-owning Loyalists from across the former Thirteen Colonies brought their slaves with them as the practice was also legal in Canada. About 2,000 slaves arrived in British North America, Some 500 in Upper Canada, some 300 in Lower Canada and 1,200 in the Maritime colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The presence and condition of slaves in the Maritimes would become an issue, because of their larger number. In due course many would be freed, and returned to Africa together with existing freedmen to re-settle yet again in the designated freedmen colony of Sierra Leone, meanwhile, an imperial law in 1790 assured prospective immigrants to Canada that their slaves would remain their property. From 1793, the trade in, but not possession of, trading was abolished across the British Empire in 1807 and possession abolished Empire-wide by 1834
29.
Sons of Liberty
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The Sons of Liberty was an organization that was created in the Thirteen American Colonies. The secret society was formed to protect the rights of the colonists and they played a major role in most colonies in battling the Stamp Act in 1765. The group officially disbanded after the Stamp Act was repealed, however, the name was applied to other local separatist groups during the years preceding the American Revolution. In the popular imagination, the Sons of Liberty was an underground organization with recognized members and leaders. More likely, the name was a term for any men resisting new Crown taxes. The well-known label allowed organizers to issue summons to a Liberty Tree, Liberty Pole. Furthermore, a unifying name helped to promote efforts against Parliament. Their motto became No taxation without representation, in 1765, the British government needed money to afford the 10,000 officers and soldiers living in the colonies, and intended that the colonists living there should contribute. This became commonly known as No Taxation without Representation, Parliament insisted on its right to rule the colonies despite the fact that the colonists had no representative in Parliament. The most incendiary tax was the Stamp Act of 1765, which caused a firestorm of opposition through legislative resolutions, public demonstrations, threats, the organization spread hour by hour, after independent starts in several different colonies. In August 1765, the group was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, by November 6, a committee was set up in New York to correspond with other colonies. In December, an alliance was formed between groups in New York and Connecticut, january bore witness to a correspondence link between Boston and New York City, and by March, Providence had initiated connections with New York, New Hampshire, and Newport, Rhode Island. March also marked the emergence of Sons of Liberty organizations in New Jersey, Maryland, in Boston, another example of violence could be found in their treatment of local stamp distributor Andrew Oliver. They burned his effigy in the streets, when he did not resign, they escalated to burning down his office building. Even after he resigned, they almost destroyed the house of his close associate Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson. It is believed that the Sons of Liberty did this to excite the lower classes and their actions made many of the stamp distributors resign in fear. Early in the American Revolution, the former Sons of Liberty generally joined more formal groups, the Sons of Liberty popularized the use of tar and feathering to punish and humiliate offending government officials starting in 1767. This method was also, used against British Loyalists, during the American Revolution and this punishment had long been used by sailors to punish their mates
30.
Founding Fathers of the United States
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Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin were members of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay were authors of the The Federalist Papers, Jay, Adams and Franklin negotiated the Treaty of Paris that would end the American Revolutionary War. Washington was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army and was President of the Constitutional Convention, according to the CIA, Washington, Jay and Franklin helped define the powers of the Executive Branch All held additional important roles in the early government of the United States. The term Founding Fathers is sometimes used to refer to the Signers of the version of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Of the 55 Framers, only 39 were signers of the Constitution, a further subset of Founding Founders includes those who signed the Continental Association or the Articles of Confederation. The phrase Founding Fathers is a twentieth century appellation and was first coined by Warren G. Harding in 1916, the First Continental Congress met briefly in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1774 and consisted of fifty-six delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies that became the United States of America. On the list of attendees was George Washington, who would soon be out of military retirement to command the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Also in attendance was Patrick Henry, and John Adams, who were elected by their respective colonial assemblies, other notable delegates included Samuel Adams from Massachusetts, John Dickinson from Pennsylvania and New Yorks John Jay. This congress in addition to formulating appeals to the British crown, when the Second Continental Congress came together on May 10,1775, it was, in effect, a reconvening of the First Congress. Many of the same 56 delegates who attended the first meeting participated in the second, notable new arrivals included Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, John Hancock of Massachusetts, and John Witherspoon of New Jersey. Hancock was elected Congress President two weeks into the session when Peyton Randolph was summoned back to Virginia to preside over the House of Burgesses, Thomas Jefferson replaced Randolph in the Virginia congressional delegation. The second Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, Witherspoon was the only active clergyman to sign the Declaration. He also signed the Articles of Confederation and attended the New Jersey convention that ratified the Federal Constitution, the newly founded country of the United States had to create a new government to replace the British Parliament. The Americans adopted the Articles of Confederation, a declaration that established a government which was made up of a one-house legislature. Its ratification by all thirteen colonies gave the second Congress a new name, the Congress of the Confederation, later, the Constitutional Convention took place during the summer of 1787, in Philadelphia. The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the Convention, the result of the Convention was the United States Constitution. The Founding Fathers represented a cross-section of 18th-century American leadership, almost all of them were well-educated men of means who were leaders in their communities. Many were also prominent in national affairs, virtually every one had taken part in the American Revolution, at least 29 had served in the Continental Army, most of them in positions of command
31.
Spanish Florida
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Spanish Florida refers to the Spanish territory of La Florida, which was the first major European land claim and attempted settlement in North America during the European Age of Discovery. La Florida formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Spains claim to this vast area was based on several wide-ranging expeditions mounted during the 16th century. However, Spain never exercised control over La Florida much beyond several settlements and forts which were predominantly located in present-day Florida. Spanish Florida was established in 1513, when Juan Ponce de León claimed peninsular Florida for Spain during the first official European expedition to North America, the presidio of St. Spanish control of the Florida peninsula was made possible by the collapse of native cultures during the 17th century. Several Native American groups had been long-established residents of Florida, during the mid-1700s, small bands of Creek and other Native American refugees began moving south into Spanish Florida after having been forced off their lands by English settlements and raids. They were later joined by African-Americans fleeing slavery in nearby colonies and these newcomers - plus perhaps a few surviving descendants of indigenous Florida peoples - eventually coalesced into a new Seminole culture. The extent of Spanish Florida began to shrink in the 1600s, between disease, poor management, and ill-timed hurricanes, several Spanish attempts to establish new settlements in La Florida ended in failure. The War of Jenkins Ear included a British attack on St. Augustine, at the conclusion of the war, the northern boundary of Spanish Florida was set near the current northern border of modern-day Florida. Great Britain temporarily gained control of Florida beginning in 1763 as a result of the Anglo-Spanish War, France sold Louisiana to the United States in 1803. The U. S. claimed that the transaction included West Florida, as with earlier American incursions into Florida, Spain protested this invasion but could not defend its territory, and instead opened diplomatic negotiations seeking a peaceful transfer of land. By the terms of the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, Spanish Florida ceased to exist in 1821, anonymous Portuguese sailors were likely the first Europeans to map the southeastern portion of the future United States. They kept their discoveries secret, however, and did not attempt to establish settlements or explore very far inland, in 1512 Juan Ponce de León, governor of Puerto Rico, received royal permission to search for land north of Cuba. On March 3,1513, his expedition departed from Punta Aguada, Puerto Rico, in late March, he spotted a small island but did not land. On April 2, Ponce de León spotted the east coast of the Florida peninsula and went ashore the next day at an exact location that has been lost to time. Assuming that he had found an island, he claimed the land for Spain and named it La Florida, because it was the season of Pascua Florida. After briefly exploring the area around their landing site, the returned to their ships and sailed south to map the coast. The expedition followed Floridas coastline all the way around the Florida Keys, popular legend has it that Ponce de León was searching for the Fountain of Youth when he discovered Florida. Ponce de León probably was not the first Spaniard to reach Florida, evidence suggests that Spanish raiders from the Caribbean had conducted small secret expeditions to Florida to capture Indian slaves
32.
West Indies
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Indigenous peoples were the first inhabitants of the West Indies. In 1492, Christopher Columbus became the first European to arrive at the islands, after the first of the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas, Europeans began to use the term West Indies to distinguish the region from the East Indies of South Asia and Southeast Asia. In the late century, French, English and Dutch merchants and privateers began their operations in the Caribbean Sea, attacking Spanish and Portuguese shipping. These African slaves wrought a demographic revolution, replacing or joining with either the indigenous Caribs or the European settlers who were there as indentured servants. The Dutch, allied with the Caribs of the Orinoco would eventually carry the struggles deep into South America, first along the Orinoco and these interconnected commercial and diplomatic relations made up the Western Caribbean Zone which was in place in the early eighteenth century. In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the United States for US$25 million in gold, the Danish West Indies became an insular area of the US, called the United States Virgin Islands. Between 1958 and 1962, the United Kingdom re-organised all their West Indies island territories into the West Indies Federation and they hoped that the Federation would coalesce into a single, independent nation. West Indian is the term used by the U. S. government to refer to people of the West Indies. Tulane University professor Rosanne Adderly says he phrase West Indies distinguished the territories encountered by Columbus, … The term West Indies was eventually used by all European nations to describe their own acquired territories in the Americas. Despite the collapse of the Federation … the West Indies continues to field a joint cricket team for international competition, the West Indies cricket team includes participants from Guyana, which is geographically located in South America. More than Slaves and Sugar, Recent Historiography of the Trans-imperial Caribbean, a Concise History of the Caribbean. Martin, Tony, Caribbean History, From Pre-colonial Origins to the Present
33.
French and Indian War
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The French and Indian War comprised the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years War of 1754–1763. At the start of the war, the French North American colonies had a population of roughly 60,000 European settlers, the outnumbered French particularly depended on the Indians. Following months of localised conflict, the nations declared war on each other in 1756. The name French and Indian War, used mainly in the United States, British and European historians use the term the Seven Years War, as do English speaking Canadians. French Canadians call it La guerre de la Conquête or the Fourth Intercolonial War, fighting took place primarily along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from Virginia in the south to Newfoundland in the north. It began with a dispute over control of the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, called the Forks of the Ohio, and the site of the French Fort Duquesne. The dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, in 1755, six colonial governors in North America met with General Edward Braddock, the newly arrived British Army commander, and planned a four-way attack on the French. None succeeded, and the effort by Braddock proved a disaster, he lost the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9,1755. In 1755, the British captured Fort Beauséjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia, orders for the deportation were given by William Shirley, Commander-in-Chief, North America, without direction from Great Britain. The Acadians, both captured in arms and those who had sworn the loyalty oath to His Britannic Majesty, were expelled. Native Americans were likewise driven off their land to make way for settlers from New England, after the disastrous 1757 British campaigns, the British government fell. France concentrated its forces against Prussia and its allies in the European theatre of the war, between 1758 and 1760, the British military launched a campaign to capture the Colony of Canada. They succeeded in capturing territory in surrounding colonies and ultimately the city of Quebec, though the British later lost the Battle of Sainte-Foy west of Quebec, the French ceded Canada in accordance with the Treaty of Paris. The outcome was one of the most significant developments in a century of Anglo-French conflict, France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi to Great Britain. It ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to its ally Spain, in compensation for Spains loss to Britain of Florida. Frances colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the conflict is known by multiple names. In British America, wars were often named after the sitting British monarch, such as King Williams War or Queen Annes War. As there had already been a King Georges War in the 1740s, British colonists named the war in King Georges reign after their opponents
34.
John Jay
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John Jay was an American statesman, Patriot, diplomat, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and first Chief Justice of the United States. Jay was born into a family of merchants and government officials in New York City. He became a lawyer and joined the New York Committee of Correspondence and he joined a conservative political faction that, fearing mob rule, sought to protect property rights and maintain the rule of law while resisting British rule. Jay served as the President of the Continental Congress, a position with little power. His major diplomatic achievement was to negotiate trade terms with Great Britain in the Jay Treaty in 1794. Jay, a proponent of strong, centralized government, worked to ratify the U. S, constitution in New York in 1788 by pseudonymously writing five of The Federalist Papers, along with the main authors Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. After the establishment of the U. S. government, Jay became the first Chief Justice of the United States, as a leader of the new Federalist Party, Jay was the Governor of the State of New York, where he became the states leading opponent of slavery. His first two attempts to end slavery in New York in 1777 and 1785 failed, but a third in 1799 succeeded, the 1799 Act, a gradual emancipation he signed into law, eventually granted all slaves in New York their freedom before his death in 1829. The Jays were a prominent merchant family in New York City, in 1685 the Edict of Nantes had been revoked, thereby abolishing the rights of Protestants and confiscating their property. Among those affected was Jays paternal grandfather, Augustus Jay and he moved from France to New York, where he built a successful merchant empire. Jays father, Peter Jay, born in New York City in 1704, became a trader in furs, wheat, timber. Johns mother was Mary Van Cortlandt, who had married Peter Jay in 1728 and they had ten children together, seven of whom survived into adulthood. Marys father, Jacobus Van Cortlandt, had born in New Amsterdam in 1658. Cortlandt served on the New York Assembly, was mayor of New York City. Two of his children married into the Jay family, Jay spent his childhood in Rye. He was educated there by his mother until he was eight years old, in 1756, after three years, he would return to homeschooling in Rye under the tutelage of his mother and George Murray. In 1760, Jay attended Kings College, during this time, Jay made many influential friends, including his closest, Robert Livingston—the son of a prominent New York aristocrat and Supreme Court justice. Jay took the political stand as his father, a staunch Whig
35.
John Dickinson
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When these failed, he reworked Thomas Jeffersons language and wrote the final draft of the 1775 Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms. Dickinson later served as President of the 1786 Annapolis Convention, which called for the Constitutional Convention of 1787, John Dickinson High School was opened/dedicated in 1963 as part of the public schools in northern Delaware. Dickinson was born at Croisadore, his familys plantation near the village of Trappe in Talbot County. There, with 400 acres on the banks of the Choptank River, Walter began a plantation, Croisadore, Walter also bought 800 acres on St. Jones Neck in what became Kent County, Delaware. Croisadore passed through Walters son, William, to his grandson, Samuel, each generation increased the landholdings, so that Samuel inherited 2,500 acres on five farms in three Maryland counties and over his lifetime increased that to 9,000 acres. He also bought the Kent County property from his cousin and expanded it to about 3,000 acres, there he began another plantation and called it Poplar Hall. These plantations were large, profitable agricultural enterprises worked by slave labor, Samuel Dickinson first married Judith Troth on April 11,1710. They had nine children, William, Walter, Samuel, Elizabeth, Henry, Elizabeth Betsy, Rebecca, the three eldest sons died of smallpox while in London seeking their education. Widowed, with two children, Henry and Betsy, Samuel married Mary Cadwalader in 1731. She was the daughter of Martha Jones and the prominent Quaker John Cadwalader who was grandfather of General John Cadwalader of Philadelphia. Their sons, John, Thomas, and Philemon were born in the few years. For three generations the Dickinson family had been members of the Third Haven Friends Meeting in Talbot County, but in 1739, John Dickinsons half-sister, Betsy, was married in an Anglican church to Charles Goldsborough in what was called a disorderly marriage by the Meeting. The couple would be the grandparents of Maryland governor Charles Goldsborough, leaving Croisadore to elder son Henry Dickinson, Samuel moved to Poplar Hall, where he had already taken a leading role in the community as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Kent County. The move also placed Mary nearer her Philadelphia relations, Poplar Hall was situated on a now-straightened bend of the St. Jones River. There was plenty of activity delivering the necessities, and shipping the products produced. Much of this product was wheat that along with wheat from the region, was milled into a superfine flour. Most people at this plantation were servants and slaves of the Dickinsons, Dickinson was educated at home, by his parents and by recent immigrants employed for that purpose. Among them was the Presbyterian minister Francis Alison, who later established New London Academy in Chester County, most important was his tutor, William Killen, who became a lifelong friend and who later became Delaware’s first Chief Justice and Chancellor
36.
Benjamin Franklin
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Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a polymath and a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman. As a scientist, he was a figure in the American Enlightenment. As an inventor, he is known for the rod, bifocals. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphias fire department and the University of Pennsylvania, Franklin earned the title of The First American for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation, in the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat. To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin the most accomplished American of his age, Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richards Almanack, which he authored under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, after 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the British policies. He pioneered and was first president of The Academy and College of Philadelphia which opened in 1751 and he organized and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a hero in America as an agent for several colonies when he spearheaded an effort in London to have the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts proved vital for the American Revolution in securing shipments of crucial munitions from France, during the Revolution, he became the first US Postmaster General. He was active in community affairs and colonial and state politics, from 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. He initially owned and dealt in slaves but, by the 1750s, he argued against slavery from an economic perspective, Franklins father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler, a soap-maker and a candle-maker. Josiah was born at Ecton, Northamptonshire, England on December 23,1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith-farmer, and Jane White. His mother, Abiah Folger, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on August 15,1667, to Peter Folger, a miller and schoolteacher, and his wife, Mary Morrill, Josiah Franklin had seventeen children with his two wives. He married his first wife, Anne Child, in about 1677 in Ecton and emigrated with her to Boston in 1683, after her death, Josiah was married to Abiah Folger on July 9,1689 in the Old South Meeting House by Samuel Willard. Benjamin, their child, was Josiah Franklins fifteenth child and tenth
37.
Richard Henry Lee
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Richard Henry Lee was an American statesman from Virginia best known for the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies independence from Great Britain. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation, and his resolution for independency of June 1776 led to the United States Declaration of Independence and he was a member of the Lee family, a historically influential family in Virginia politics. He was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia to Col. Thomas Lee and he was raised and came from a line of military officers, diplomats, and legislators. His father, Thomas Lee, was the governor of Virginia before his death in 1750, Lee spent most of his early life in Stratford, Virginia with his family at Stratford Hall. In 1748, at 16, Lee left Virginia for Yorkshire, England, to complete his education at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. Both of his parents died in 1750 and, in 1753, after touring Europe, in 1757, Lee was appointed justice of the peace in Westmoreland County. In 1758 he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, an early advocate of independence, Lee became one of the first to create Committees of Correspondence among the many independence-minded Americans in the various colonies. This resolution was signed by four brothers of George Washington as well as Gilbert Campbell, in August 1774, Lee was chosen as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Lee had returned to Virginia by the time Congress voted on and adopted the Declaration of Independence, Lee was elected the sixth President of Congress under the Articles of Confederation on November 30,1784, in the French Arms Tavern, Trenton, New Jersey. On January 11,1785, Congress convened in the old New York City Hall, although, he was not paid a salary for his office as president, his household expenses were paid by Congress in the amount of $12,203.13. Lees Congress was most active in 1785, passing numerous legislation and his most pressing issue, however, was to settle the states territorial disputes over the Northwest Territory. Throughout his term, Lee remained steadfast that the release of states’ territorial claims on the Northwest Territory would enable the government to fund itself with land sales. He believed that the urgency of this measure was paramount because borrowing more foreign money was no longer prudent, the sale of these vast federal lands, he concluded, was the nations only hope to pay off the war debt and adequately fund federal government. On May 3,1785, William Grayson of Virginia made a motion seconded by James Monroe to change “seven miles square” to “six miles square”, and the current US Survey system was born. The states relinquished their right to this test tract of land, and this either required troops to eject the Native Americans or capital to purchase their land fairly, insuring the peaceful sale and settlement. With the states no longer in control of the lands and no federal magistrates or troops to enforce the laws, Lees plan to fill the federal treasury with the proceeds of land sales failed, but the survey system developed under the Land Ordinance of 1785 is still used today. Anne died December 12,1768 at Chantille, Westmoreland Co, the couple had six children, four of whom survived infancy, Elizabeth Virginia Lee, who died in infancy. Thomas Lee, resided at Park Gate from 1790 to 1805, Col. Ludwell Lee, Esq. who married Flora Lee, daughter of Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee, Sr. Esq. and Elizabeth Steptoe, who married secondly, Philip Richard Fendall I
38.
Jonathan Shipley
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He was the son of a London stationer, his mothers family were owners of Twyford House, a large manor in Winchester, England. His brother, the portrait painter William Shipley, later originated the Society of Arts, jonathan grew up at Walbrook in the City of London and was educated at Reading School in Berkshire. He received his training at St Johns College, Oxford, from where he received a BA degree in 1735, an MA degree in 1738. He was ordained about 1738, and acted as tutor in the household of the 3rd Earl of Peterborough, in 1743, he became rector of Silchester and Sherborne St John in Hampshire, and prebendary of Winchester. Shipley was painted by Joshua Reynolds - two 1777 prints after the portrait, engraved by John Raphael Smith, are now in the National Portrait Gallery, on 8 September the same year he was translated to be Bishop of St Asaph. He was much concerned with politics, and joined the Whig party in opposition to the policy of George III towards the American colonies. He prepared a speech in protest of the measures, but was not given the opportunity to present it. Therefore, he had it published, but due to the feeling in England against the rebellious colonies. In the speech he pointed out that in the year 1772 and he stated, Money that is earned so dearly as this ought to be expended with great wisdom and economy. For these views, St. Asaph Street in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia, Shipley also maintained a strong friendship with the Philadelphia printer Benjamin Franklin, who stayed with Shipley in Winchester, and while there wrote much of his autobiography. In 1784, in a letter to Henry Laurens, Franklin called Shipley Americas constant friend, in 1779, Shipley was the only bishop to advocate the abolition of all laws against Protestant dissenters. Thomas Moules English Counties states that the chancel of St Marys Church, Twyford then contained a monument, with a bust. The church was rebuilt in the 19th century, and the monument survives In the present building. Jonathan Shipley married Anna Maria Mordaunt, daughter of Rev George Mordaunt and Elizabeth Doyley, jonathan Shipley at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
39.
William Paca
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William Paca was a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Maryland, and later Governor of Maryland and a United States federal judge. Paca was born in Abingdon, in what was then Baltimore County and he was the child of John Paca, a wealthy planter in the area, and his wife Elizabeth Smith. He was the son of the family, after his elder brother Aquila. He was also to receive a master of arts degree from the College in 1762, though this no further study, only that Paca request it. After graduating from college, Paca returned to Maryland, reading law in the capital of Annapolis under the tutelage of a local lawyer named Stephen Bordley. By 1761, he was licensed to practice law, and in 1764 was admitted to the provincial bar, having stayed in Annapolis to establish his practice. Professional success was mingled with personal success, as the year he had courted Mary Chew, the daughter of a prominent Maryland planter. They would go on to have three children, though only their son John Philemon survived into adulthood, among the other young lawyers in Annapolis at the time was Samuel Chase, who would become a close friend and political colleague of Paca. Together, Paca and Chase led local opposition to the British Stamp Act of 1765, Paca was elected to the Maryland legislature in 1771 and appointed to the Continental Congress in 1774. He was reelected, serving until 1779, when he became justice of the state of Maryland. In 1780, he was elected to serve as a judge on the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture. In 1782 he was elected governor of Maryland, formally nominated on February 8,1790, he was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 10,1790, and received his commission the same day, serving as such until his death. As the first Federal judge for the District Court of Maryland he rendered an opinion on the case of Betsey that would have far reaching consequences when it was overturned by the Supreme Court. Paca died in 1799 at his estate of Wye River in Queen Annes County, in Maryland, three elementary schools are named for him, one in Landover, one in Baltimore city and the other in his home town of Abingdon. A prominent street in Downtown Baltimore bears his name, as does a dormitory on the campus of St. Johns College in Annapolis as well as one on the campus of Towson University. Outside of Maryland, a Middle School in Mastic Beach, New York,155 in New York City are also named after him. In August 2008 the House was added as a new hall in Towson University. His Annapolis home, the House and Garden, was added to the National Register of Historic Places, Paca has been described as being of Italian ancestry
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James Madison
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James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the fourth President of the United States from 1809 to 1817. He is hailed as the Father of the Constitution for his role in drafting and promoting the United States Constitution. Madison inherited his plantation Montpelier in Virginia and therewith owned hundreds of slaves during his lifetime and he served as both a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and as a member of the Continental Congress prior to the Constitutional Convention. After the Convention, he one of the leaders in the movement to ratify the Constitution. His collaboration with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay produced The Federalist Papers, Madisons political views changed throughout his life. During deliberations on the Constitution, he favored a national government. In 1789, Madison became a leader in the new House of Representatives and he is noted for drafting the first ten amendments to the Constitution, and thus is known also as the Father of the Bill of Rights. He worked closely with President George Washington to organize the new federal government, breaking with Hamilton and the Federalist Party in 1791, he and Thomas Jefferson organized the Democratic-Republican Party. In response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, Jefferson and Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, as Jeffersons Secretary of State, Madison supervised the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the nations size. Madison succeeded Jefferson as president in 1809, was re-elected in 1813, after the failure of diplomatic protests and a trade embargo against the United Kingdom, he led the U. S. into the War of 1812. The war was a morass, as the United States had neither a strong army nor financial system. As a result, Madison afterward supported a national government and military, as well as the national bank. Madison has been ranked in the aggregate by historians as the ninth most successful president, James Madison, Jr. was born on March 16,1751, at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway, Virginia, to father James Madison, Sr. and mother Nelly Conway Madison. He grew up as the oldest of twelve children, Nelly and James Sr. had seven more boys and four girls. Three of James Jr. s brothers died as infants, including one who was stillborn, in the summer of 1775, his sister Elizabeth and his brother Reuben died from a dysentery epidemic that swept through Orange County because of contaminated water. His father, James Madison, Sr. was a planter who grew up on a plantation, then called Mount Pleasant. He later acquired more property and slaves, and with 5,000 acres, he became the largest landowner, James Jr. s mother, Nelly Conway Madison, was born at Port Conway, the daughter of a prominent planter and tobacco merchant. In these years, the colonies were becoming a slave society, in which slave labor powered the economy
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Samuel Adams
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Samuel Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a cousin to fellow Founding Father, President John Adams. Adams was born in Boston, brought up in a religious, a graduate of Harvard College, he was an unsuccessful businessman and tax collector before concentrating on politics. His 1768 Massachusetts Circular Letter calling for colonial non-cooperation prompted the occupation of Boston by British soldiers, continued resistance to British policy resulted in the 1773 Boston Tea Party and the coming of the American Revolution. Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774, at which time Adams attended the Continental Congress in Philadelphia which was convened to coordinate a colonial response, Adams returned to Massachusetts after the American Revolution, where he served in the state senate and was eventually elected governor. Samuel Adams later became a figure in American history. Accounts written in the 19th century praised him as someone who had been steering his fellow colonists towards independence long before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. This view gave way to negative assessments of Adams in the first half of the 20th century, both of these interpretations have been challenged by some modern scholars, who argue that these traditional depictions of Adams are myths contradicted by the historical record. Samuel Adams was born in Boston in the British colony of Massachusetts on September 16,1722, an Old Style date that is sometimes converted to the New Style date of September 27. Adams was one of children born to Samuel Adams, Sr. and Mary Adams in an age of high infant mortality. Adamss parents were devout Puritans and members of the Old South Congregational Church, the family lived on Purchase Street in Boston. Adams was proud of his Puritan heritage, and emphasized Puritan values in his political career, Samuel Adams, Sr. was a prosperous merchant and church deacon. Deacon Adams became a figure in Boston politics through an organization that became known as the Boston Caucus. The Boston Caucus helped shape the agenda of the Boston Town Meeting, Deacon Adams rose through the political ranks, becoming a justice of the peace, a selectman, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In the coming years, members of the party became known as Whigs or Patriots. The younger Samuel Adams attended Boston Latin School and then entered Harvard College in 1736 and his parents hoped that his schooling would prepare him for the ministry, but Adams gradually shifted his interest to politics. After graduating in 1740, Adams continued his studies, earning a degree in 1743. Adamss life was affected by his fathers involvement in a banking controversy
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Timothy Matlack
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Timothy Matlack was a brewer and beer bottler who emerged as a popular and powerful leader in the American Revolutionary War. Secretary of Pennsylvania during the war, and a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1780, he one of Pennsylvanias most provocative. Removed from office by his enemies at the end of the war. Matlack, who was known for his excellent penmanship, was chosen to write the original United States Declaration of Independence on vellum. Timothy Matlack was born in Haddonfield, New Jersey on May 28,1736, to Elizabeth Martha Burr Haines and Timothy Matlack and his grandparents were William Matlack and Mary Hancock, and Henry Burr and Elizabeth Hudson. His siblings were Sybil, Elizabeth, Titus, Seth, Josiah and his half siblings were Reuben and Mary Haines. His first cousin was the Quaker abolitionist John Woolman, in 1738, the family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Timothy attended Friends School. He likely studied under Anthony Benezet, in 1749 he was apprenticed to the prosperous Quaker merchant John Reynell. During his period of service Timothy was considered a candidate for the Quaker ministry. At the end of his term he married Ellen Yarnall, the daughter of the Quaker minister Mordecai Yarnall, the couple had five children, William, Mordecai, Sibyl, Catharine and Martha. In 1760 Matlack opened a mercantile he called the Case Knife, two years later he and Owen Biddle purchased the Pettys Run steel furnace in Trenton, New Jersey. In 1764, following the failure of his shop, Timothy was disowned by the Quakers. The Quakers complained that he had been “frequenting company in such a manner as to spend too much of his time from home. ”In 1768, by this time Timothy Matlack had set up a new business selling bottled beer. In 1769 he opened his own brewery, located near the State House, a horse racing enthusiast, in 1770 he pitted his gamecocks against those owned by the New York aristocrat James Delancey in an infamous main. In 1774 Matlack was hired by Charles Thomson, Secretary of the First Continental Congress, in May,1775, he became clerk to the Second Continental Congress and in June he composed George Washingtons commission as General and Commander-in-Chief of the army of the United Colonies. In October Congress elevated Matlack to Storekeeper of Military Supplies, by this time he was also a member of Philadelphias Committee of Inspection and Secretary of the Committee of Officers of the citys three militia battalions. By December he was serving as Secretary to Congresss Marine Committee, by January,1776, he was Commissary and Clerk-in-Chief of the Committee of Claims. That month Philadelphia added two more battalions to its militia brigade and Timothy Matlack was elected Colonel of the Fifth Battalion of Rifle Rangers, in February he was made an officer of the citys Committee of Inspection and added to a key policy-making subcommittee
