A Calm Week
This Week in 1776, #15
“This Week in 1776” is an ongoing almanac of events from the American Revolution, mostly political and military in nature. I drew on these very loosely for my Engines of Liberty series of YA novels.
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In terms of military action, the week of April 6-11 was relatively calm; Washington was still on his way to New York and there weren’t any big battles recorded. The goings-on of this week were more policy-based.
On December 22, 1775, before this almanac began, the Crown imposed the British Prohibitory Act on the States. It was a punitive measure to harm the economy of the colonies for their rebellion; King George thought he could starve them out, basically. This was what led to the Continental Congress issuing letters of marque. “If you won’t trade with us, we’ll just steal your stuff.”
To further counter the Prohibitory Act, Congress opened all colonial ports for trade with foreign nations except for Britain. With control of Boston, this was significant. Basically any defiance of Crown law would have to have military backing or it was just paper, and George Washington’s armies had proven they had the military might to get things done. Now they could do things the paper way.
And speaking of paper ways, down in Halifax, North Carolina, the Provincial Congress was the first to formally vote on secession/independence measures. Obviously it was already underway, they were just taking the initiative to make it official.
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