250 and Counting

This day in American History, 250 years ago.

  • May 3, 1775: You Can’t Keep a Good Spy Down

    Cover art for May 3, 1775: detail of the Massachusetts Spy from that day.

    More often than not, items that appear in the Bill of Rights derive directly from actions that the British took at one time or another in the past. Ban guns, will you? Here’s a nice Second Amendment. Ban free speech? Here’s your First Amendment.

    And so on.

    Today’s edition could be considered a Part Two to the events of April 16, when the Massachusetts Spy had to pack up shop and hightail it out of Boston down the road some forth miles to Worcester specifically so it could keep publishing. On this day, the Spy sprang back to life.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • May 2, 1775: Meet Rachel Revere

    Cover art for May 2, 1775: portrait of Rachel Walker Revere by Gilbert Stuart, 1812.

    Rachel Walker Revere was Paul Revere’s second wife. When he married her, he’d only been a widower for a few months, so clearly she made a big impression on him, especially since they remained together until her death in 1813 (one year after the portrait in today’s artwork was painted), and he didn’t remarry after that.

    Rachel was a very supportive wife to Paul, by most accounts, but she was also willing to give him grief when he deserved it, as you’ll learn in today’s episode.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • May 1, 1775: Invasion of Quebec, and a Fort is Destroyed

    Cover art for May 1, 1775: a map used by Benedict Arnold to plan his invasion of Quebec.

    Wellll….ordered to be destroyed. But it didn’t happen. Oddly, it was also quite susceptible to the foibles of weather, so when the British took South Carolina back five years later, it was assumed that the garrison had been destroyed on purpose, but nobody knows for sure.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • April 30, 1775: The Fourteenth Colony

    Cover art for April 30, 1775: Detail of a map of the Nova Scotia area c. 1775

    Nova Scotia could have been the fourteenth state, except we ruined it for them over the whole fishing rights thing. And then when push came to shove, they decided that rebellion wasn’t for them, and they sent troops down to Boston to help the British there.

    Ain’t that a kick in the head!

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • April 29, 1775: The Gunpowder Incident, Part 2

    Cover art for April 29, 1775: Payton Randolph by John Wollaston the Younger, 1775.

    Payton Randolph was the Speaker of the House of Burgesses during this period in 1775, and while what was said wasn’t recorded, he managed to put down two riots in which Virginians were ready to trash the Royal Governor’s place with the Royal Governor inside of it.

    He did it twice.

    No question, this man was a patriot who cared deeply about the soul of its people. And if he hadn’t died just a few months later, he would almost certainly have been a name we’d have heard a lot more often in recent years.

    PlayPlay

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

  • 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.)

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • April 27, 1775: Skullduggery and Rebellion Here & There

    Cover art for April 27, 1775: Robert Eden, by Florence Mackubin after Charles Willson Peale (1914)

    The war was hot in Massachusetts, but it was still cold elsewhere. But that didn’t mean that there wasn’t rebellious activity going on, since by this point everyone knew what was going on up north.

    It manifested itself in different ways. In Maryland, it appeared that Patriots were straight-up lying to the Royal Governor in order to deprive the British troops of some of their arms and gunpowder stores.

    And in North Carolina, the Royal Governor loudly declaimed his disdain for anyone who didn’t agree with him. Unfortunately for him, that included the entire North Carolina Assembly. Their response was to do exactly the opposite of everything he asked.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • April 26, 1775: Josiah Quincy II Dies at Sea

    Cover art for April 26, 1775: posthumous portrait of Josiah Quincy II by Gilbert Stuart, c. 1825

    Josiah Quincy—who we’ve talked about before; remember that portrait?—would have been one of the more prominent men we speak of when we use venerated tones about the Founding Fathers, had it not been for the fact that he died just as the war was getting started.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • 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.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • April 24, 1775: Eyewitness Testimony from Lexington & Concord

    Cover art for April 24, 1775: Written deposition of John Robins regarding events at Lexington

    The testimony of John Robins is what teachers like to call “primary sources”. It’s a document prepared by someone contemporary to an event, and even if the narrator is unreliable, we learn much more from it than from, say, something that was written long after the fact.

    In the case of John Robins’ testimony regarding events at Lexington and Concord, the events were still fresh in his mind, having happened only a few days earlier. And because it derived from an official proceeding, that document was reasonably well-preserved and serves as a fascinating window into one of the most important events of our history.

    And as for Robins himself, he was a relatively common man who happened to be part of the militia that day and might have been otherwise forgotten.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed