250 and Counting

Category: Second Continental Congress

  • Helping New York Help Itself–February 21, 1776

    Cover art for February 21, 1776: "Bowling Green, Broadway," by artist James Dakin and engraved by the firm Barnard and Dick, 1831. The house on the left became Washington's headquarters when he came to New York.

    There’s a line in the play 1776 about how everyone in the New York Legislature is very loud and talks very fast and as a result nothing ever gets done. This was likely a side effect of the fact that New York was so politically mixed at the time. Everyone hollering at rather than talking to each other means that nobody is truly connecting with anyone else. Thank goodness we’ve moved past THAT! <eyeroll>

    But New York and the Hudson Valley in particular held great strategic value for the various parties involved in the conflict we call the American Revolution. Britain taking that area would separate New England from the other Colonies. What’s more, George Washington knew it. So he devoted a lot of energy into ensuring that that territory remained defended, even while the British were nowhere in sight, because he knew it was a matter of time.

    And he was right: the British did show up ready for battle. It didn’t happen when he expected it to happen, and we’ll talk about that when things start heating up.

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  • From Connecticut To Georgia–February 20, 1776

    Cover art for February 20, 1776: Portrait of Connecticut Founding Father Oliver Wolcott by the American painter Ralph Earl, oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Museum of Connecticut History.

    Oliver Wolcott was one of our Founding Fathers in that he was one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, but while he never achieved prominence on the level of Franklin or Adams, he nevertheless served an important role as a member of the Second Continental Congress.

    As the Revolution began, Wolcott was made a commissioner of Indian affairs, largely to work on ensuring that the northern tribes remained neutral. He was considered qualified for that position because he worked in that part of the continent during the French and Indian War.

    He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775, and although he was quite ill for a chunk of 1776, he did sign the Declaration of Independence, although it was some time later than everyone else. He was also a signatory to the Articles of Confederation, but he did not sign the US Constitution because by then he was the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, becoming governor in 1796. A year later he died at the age of 71.

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  • Making Money–February 17, 1776

    Cover art for February 17, 1776: A two-dollar bill from the February 1776 run. Note the stitches holding the two halves together. via the Smithsonian Institution.

    Back in June, Mike told you about the Continental Congress taking a stab at issuing common currency that could be used throughout the Colonies. It didn’t work out very well, and the Continentals became a joke because there was nothing backing them up.

    But this time around, they may have gotten it right, because the new Continental Currency had some specific backing to it. (We don’t even have that today, thanks to Richard Nixon.)

    Look carefully at the bill in the cover art and you’ll see that it tore in two at some point. It wasn’t clear whether a half-bill would be accepted by any merchants, so people came up with all kinds of clever ways to reunite the two halves; in this case it was a needle and thread. Many bills that have survived to this day used this method to repair them.

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  • A More Organized War–February 13, 1776

    Cover art for February 13, 1776: a posthumous portrait of Patrick Henry by Thomas Sully, 1815. Sully was clearly cribbing much of this painting from a portrait of Captain Cook by his brother, made 20 years earlier.

    So nearly a year ago, in March 1775, Patrick Henry said “Give me Liberty or give me death.” Today the Continental Congress said “Bet,” and sent him to lead troops in Virginia.

    That was a coincidence, of course: practically anyone who showed any real leadership skills was given the opportunity to lead troops. Henry had the leadership and the oratory skills to get his troops into shape.

    We mentioned the various committees and their reports today. One of them was the committee that was directed to draft an address to the Colonies. John Dickinson wrote the first draft; James Wilson wrote the second. His version was much like the first, except he added the part about preparing for eventual separation from England. Dickinson was still mostly in denial about that but while Wilson wasn’t a strong personality, he was pragmatic in the end and figured he could see that ending coming.

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  • Common Sense Comes to NC–February 10, 1776

    Cover art for February 10, 1776: Portrait of John Penn, ca. 1776. Artist unknown. Now at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. via Wikimedia.

    As the ideas behind Common Sense spread through the country, it’s an interesting coincidence that Common Sense came to both North and South Carolina a day apart. What’s curious is the way it caught on very quickly in South Carolina, but was more of a slow burn in North Carolina.

    It’s possible that the difference is as simple as Christopher Gadsden presenting the pamphlet orally before the Provincial Congress, whereas John Penn took more of a backdoor approach, giving a copy to a colleague and hoping word gets out. Sure enough it did, and while there was no hard line of “Wow! We need to act on this!,” it proved to be quite the influential pamphlet that led to a gradual changing of minds regarding whether or not the Colonies should be free from England.

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  • A New Job For John Adams–February 9, 1776

    Cover art for February 9, 1776: John Adams as portrayed by Mather Brown in 1788.

    One of John Adams’ stronger talents was being able to see the motivation behind the action, and because of this he was usually able to thwart unattractive actions somehow.

    In today’s case, he was able to thwart people who opposed him by simply agreeing with them. As a newly-minted Chief Justice of Massachusetts, some Loyalist (if not Loyalist, then certainly in the Don’t Declare Independence crowd) delegates from Maryland suggested that because he worked for Massachusetts, he had an inherent conflict of interest and therefore couldn’t vote in Congress.

    Now, at that time a colony’s quorum was exactly one delegate, so if he was the only person from Massachusetts attending that day, Massachusetts wouldn’t be able to cast a vote. So, Adams did the sensible thing and agreed with the Marylanders. Then he resigned from the position they thought he’d never give up.

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  • Gadsden, Come Home–February 8, 1776

    Cover art for February 8, 1776: portrait of Christopher Gadsden, ca. 1760-1770 by Jeremiah Theus. via Wikimedia.

    Christopher Gadsden is famous almost entirely for the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag. But even for that, most people don’t know that the flag was named after a person. And those who do, don’t necessarily know Gadsden’s first name.

    And yet, he was instrumental in getting America to break away from England.

    Christopher Gadsden was the one who got South Carolina more excited about Independence. He was a Brigadier General in that colony during the war. He helped draft a state constitution and was then elected Lieutenant Governor. When Charleston was overrun by the British, Gadsden stuck around so he could surrender the city like a gentleman.

    For his gentlemanly act, he was allowed to return home on parole. But when the next British leader came in and broke the parole by arresting him, he refused new parole because they’d already lied to him about the first one, so why believe them now? That cost him the better part of a year in solitary confinement.

    In short, he was a badass. Go listen to part of the reason why.

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  • What To Do With Prisoners?–February 7, 1776

    Cover art for February 7, 1776: detail from "The Battle of Bennington" by Grandma Moses, 1953, depicting British prisoners being taken. Originally commissioned by the Daughters of the American Revolution but rejected because of some inaccuracies. Now at the Bennington Museum.
    Detail from “The Battle of Bennington” by Grandma Moses, 1953, depicting British prisoners being taken. Originally commissioned by the Daughters of the American Revolution but rejected because of some inaccuracies. Now at the Bennington Museum.

    When I mentioned in today’s episode that American prisoners were left to disease or neglect, I wasn’t telling you the half of it.

    The British used captured, damaged or obsolete ships as their prisons. Conditions were so bad that more Americans died as a result of disease than died on the battlefield. Over 10,000 men died that way, and their bodies were either dumped overboard or buried in shallow graves along the shoreline.

    At that time, supplies for combatants were expected to be supplied by their own side, or through the largesse of private resources. But when the prison is a ship off-shore, getting those supplies through was nearly impossible.

    British prisoners, on the other hand, were generally treated much better. This isn’t to say that there weren’t instances of them being abused, but it wasn’t the norm.

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  • Enlisting Apprentices–January 30, 1776

    Cover art for January 30, 1776: "Colonial Blacksmith, 1776". Wood engraving, attributed to "Granger" though this may be the name of the collection.
    “Colonial Blacksmith, 1776”. Wood engraving, attributed to “Granger” though this may be the name of the collection.

    While we’re talking about enlisting apprentices today, it should be noted that there was precious little difference between an apprentice and an indentured servant, except maybe their age. Thus, the rules that applied to apprentices when it came to enlistment could also be applied to indentured servants, especially inasmuch as some of those rules seemed designed more for them than apprentices.

    Also: Mike mentioned James Mease and his ketchup recipe. To clarify, ketchup had been around for hundreds of years, originating in China (or Vietnam; it’s a little fuzzy). What Mease did was add a tomato base, giving us the ketchup that we’re used to putting on our cookout foods. The Chinese stuff, commonly called “kê-chiap” was a fish-based sauce.

    Mease’s recipe involved brandy and spices; no sugar or vinegar. Here’s the recipe he published:

    Slice the apples* thin, and over every layer sprinkle a little salt; cover them, and let them lie twenty-four hours; then beat them well, and simmer them half an hour in a bell-metal kettle; then add mace & allspice. When cold, add two cloves of raw shallots cut small, and half a gill of brandy to each bottle, which must be corked tight, and kept in a cool place.

    *Mease called them “apples” because he was using the French word for tomatoes, “pommes d’amour” or “love apples.”

    Anyway, try it out and get back to us.

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  • Rules for Native American Trade–January 27, 1776

    Cover art for January 27, 1776: Engraving titled Washington and Fairfax and a War-Dance by John Rogers, 1857.
    Engraving titled Washington and Fairfax and a War-Dance by John Rogers, 1857. The event depicted actually took place in 1779.

    As noted in the episode, there were several different rules laid down for trading with Native Americans at that time, and some of them were designed to ensure that they remained on our side or, at worst, that they remained neutral in Revolution-based matters.

    But the rules wound up working out well for both sides: the various tribes were able to get the materials they wanted, and trade was conducted under better-controlled conditions.

    In addition, they led to trade-related treaties with several tribes up and down the coast during the next year or so. And with over 80 tribes east of the Mississippi River at that time, that’s a lot of treaties to negotiate.

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