Francis Salvador was a man who is in the history books for two notable things: the day he was elected to public office, and the day he died in the Revolutionary War.
That doesn’t ordinarily make a person notable, but Salvador had the distinction of being the first person of his faith to achieve these two things.
And for our money, the place where it happened may also be notable.
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James Sewall Morsell was a lawyer and then a judge in Maryland and Washington DC for the better part of his career.
Perhaps most notable about his long tenure is that he handled freedom petitions for many Black Americans during the slavery era as the families’ representative, something that many other attorneys were not willing to do, especially in Maryland, which was a slave state during the war but occupied by Union forces for the duration.
When the Court to which he was assigned was abolished, he retired from practice and lived with his daughter and son-in-law in Prince Georges County. The town of Bowie, Maryland is named after that son-in-law’s family.
Happy 250th Birthday to James Sewall Morsell!
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Daniel Leonard was the son of a prominent family in the ironworks industry. He lived in Taunton, Massachusetts until shortly after he accepted a position working for the Royal Governor of the state, at which point he became unpopular enough that he was forced to move to Boston, which was under British occupation at the time.
It makes sense, then, that Leonard put pen to paper and wrote essays to be published in the Boston Gazette under the pen name “Massachusettensis.” (What doesn’t make sense, 250 years later, is why he chose such a peculiar name. At least, not to us.) He began writing these pieces in December 1774 but it was the one published on this day in 1775 that finally set John Adams to writing replies under a pen name of his own. This back-and-forth continued for about three months, until a major event escalated the tensions between the Crown and the Colonies to the point where the exchange of essays became moot.
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It’s Cake and Candles today for Brigadier General John Harrison, born this day in 1775 in Pennsylvania.
Harrison became a local official in his home county until the War of 1812, when he enlisted and his company was sent to defend Baltimore against the British in one of the war’s biggest victories for the American side.
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By all accounts, Ben Franklin was a charming guy. And while he has a reputation today for being the sort of ladies’ man who left behind lots of children with single moms, that wasn’t really the case (as you’ll discover in a future episode).
But part of his charm came from his diplomacy skills, which he knew how to use to the fullest. And part of those skills included learning what friends he could make who had a great deal of social capital he could use.
One such person was Lady Caroline Howe, who first met Franklin in 1774 as part of a shadow diplomacy tactic. Although this didn’t go far, Howe and Franklin maintained a relationship over the years and frequently visited one another for conversation and games of chess. (Ben Franklin was quite the avid chess player, often playing several times a week in multi-hour sessions.) Today’s episode discusses some of this, and their efforts to get together to play a match.
Guest voice in this episode: Serena Gaylord
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The impression that most people have of John Adams, it seems, comes from one of two places. It’s either William Daniels’ portrayal of him in the play and film 1776 (and we’re big fans of that particular bit of cinema), or it’s Paul Giamatti’s portrayal in the seven-part miniseries on cable TV. Both stories had their charms, and both took some liberties with the facts. (Oddly, both of them showed Benjamin Franklin being carried in to the Second Continental Congress, but that didn’t happen until the Constitutional Conventions eleven years later.) The bottom line is that Adams was a complex man and a very smart one who had the ability to see the bigger picture, as they say.
George Washington was also a well-rounded person, as you no doubt discovered in the January 1 episode. Early in 1775 Washington wore multiple hats. He was a delegate to the First Continental Congress, he was responsible for training militiamen in Virginia, and he was unofficially the Commander-in-Chief of the army, except there wasn’t one quite yet.
Today we’re looking at some correspondence from Adams to Washington, and we’ll learn in a future episode just how seriously Washington took his warnings.
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Daniel Dobbins was born this day in 1775. We’re pretty sure that’s the date; listen in and find out why.
Dobbins spent most of his time on the waters of Lake Erie. He—and most of the people in the Lower Peninsula of modern-day Michigan—didn’t even know that the War of 1812 was going on until he and his ship were captured by the British.
He managed to escape and an interesting coincidence saved his life. Eventually he became a Sailing Master in the US Navy and redesigned the gunboats so they’d handle better in the Great Lakes. After the war his career took some interesting turns that had literally nothing to do with him.
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Samuel Seabury was a prominent figure in the Protestant Episcopal Church on this side of the pond.
From a political standpoint, he was a Loyalist and spent some time writing pieces urging his followers not to seek independence from England.
One piece in particular, which he wrote using a pen name, lit a fire under a fellow by the name of Alexander Hamilton, who took the time to write a lengthy—35 page—reply, also under a pen name. This was just the beginning for the both of them.
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Thomas Flournoy was born this day in 1775, and while he therefore didn’t have a lot to do with the Revolutionary War, he did have an impact on the Florida Patriot War and on the War of 1812. Now, we’re pretty sure you’ve heard of the War of 1812 but we’re willing to bet that most folks don’t know about the Florida Patriot War.
To that end, listen in and learn about how the US first got its hooks into the Spanish territory in North America.
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The Philadelphia Packet was a weekly newspaper that had only been around for about four years by the start of 1775, so tensions between the Colonies and the Crown were already in place from the first issue.
But while publisher John Dunlap generally sided with the Americans, he did feel a responsibility to present both sides of the debate. And it was on this day in 1775 that Dunlap published an anonymous letter aimed at convincing people that reconciling with Britain was a better idea than pushing back against every decision made by the Crown.
Dunlap became famous later on for something else he printed…listen in and find out what it was.
