250 and Counting

Category: Connecticut History

  • August 30, 1775: Your Cows or Your Life

    Cover art for August 30, 1775: Replica HMS Rose under sail off Massachusetts in 1971 on her way from Newport to Boston, photo taken by the late General William Lanagan (USMC), not copyrighted. Via Wikimedia.

    The HMS Rose was a 20-gun ship of the Royal Navy, built in 1757. When hostilities broke out between the Colonies and the Crown, the Rose was tasked with preventing smuggling off the coast of Connecticut and (especially) Rhode Island.

    She spent the first few years of the Revolution in Narragansett Bay, in the Long Island Sound, in the Hudson River and down to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

    The Rose’s last action as a British naval ship was in Savannah, Georgia. She was no longer fit for battle not was she seaworthy, so she was scuttled in a channel of the Savannah River, essentially blocking it off and preventing other naval forces from reaching the city. This meant that Savannah remained in British hands until the war ended.

    In 1971 a replica was built (see the cover art), originally as a “dockside attraction.” Eventually she was purchased by Fox Studios and redressed for the film Master and Commander. Afterward she was renamed the Surprise and regained her status as a dockside attraction in San Diego, if you’re inclined to visit.

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  • April 28, 1775: Jonathan Trumbull Chooses a Side

    Cover art for April 28, 1775: portrait of Governor Jonathan Trumbull, artist unknown but could be his son John Trumbull.

    Jonathan Trumbull was one of only two men to serve as governor of a Colony and of a State. (Nicholas Cooke of Rhode Island was the other.) This, to us, gives him a kind of air that perhaps he could be trusted by all parties to act appropriately.

    And when push came to shove, Trumbull found himself in the position of having to support the Colony rather than the crown, as you’ll see in today’s episode. And as things further deteriorated, he became more focal about supporting the Colony, since the British no longer appeared to view the Colonists as subjects of the Crown but as a genuine enemy to be crushed. (Which is exactly how many in Parliament felt, so.)

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  • April 25, 1775: Benedict Arnold Wasn’t All Bad

    Cover art for April 25, 1775: Benedict Arnold engraving by Henry Bryan Hall after John Trumbull, published 1879.

    Benedict Arnold was a pretty smart guy who chose the wrong friends…and, as we’ll discover later on, the wrong enemies as well.

    But for the time being, here’s a peek into some of Arnold’s activities when he was still on our side in both body and spirit.

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  • February 21, 1775

    Cover art for February 21, 1775: "The Residence of the late revered Rev Claudius Herrick", artist unknown, via Yale University Library

    Of all the indignities we laid upon Claudius Herrick in this episode (okay, there weren’t that many), the worst is that we misspelled his name in the cover art.

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  • 250 and Counting: February 4, 1775

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    Cover art for February 4, 1775: the front page of George III's New England Restraining Act

    After the Boston Tea Party, Parliament enacted what they called the Coercive Acts and the Colonies called the Intolerable Acts. The Colonists were neither coerced, nor were the acts tolerated (hence the name). And you know that because we’ve told you this already several times.

    In October 1774 the Continental Congress composed the “Petition to the King”, and as you’ll learn in greater detail tomorrow, it was pretty clear that the petition crossed an ocean and still managed to go nowhere. In fact…

    At about the same time, King George III decided that New England needed some more “convincing” to fall into line. This was the beginning of the New England Restraining Act. As the name suggests, it affected mostly the New England colonies, but people in the other colonies took notice and wondered “Hey, this could happen to us too, couldn’t it?” As a result, everyone continued moving down the path they fervently hoped they wouldn’t travel.