Declare Independence, Like the Cool Kids
This Week in 1776, #20
“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.
You should also check out The History List—they have an excellent merch store and occasionally they get valuable historical pieces that are very much worth their prices. I’m not sponsored by them, they just make great stuff.
May 10th-16th, 1776, saw a broadening of the Independence movement from state to state. Remember that at the time, the colonies were kind of like their own little countries that adhered to British law and lived under British rule, and their main binding force on this side of the Atlantic was the Continental Congress. The “federal government” didn’t exist yet, just the individual colonial governments, which were usually filled by royal appointment (and thus became vectors for royal butt-kissing instead of public service.)
The Sons of Liberty couldn’t use Congress to speak for “the nation at large” because there wasn’t one yet. They needed the individual colonial governments to have their own microcosmic revolutions and independence movements before the national movement could come underway.
John Adams
Congress couldn’t physically replace King George, they could only deign to sever ties with him, but they could encourage the colonies to depose their local governors and start their own governments instead, “sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs”. (Adams.) They passed their initial resolution for this on May 10th, then came back five days later on the 15th with a new preamble that had even stronger language behind it:
…it appears absolutely irreconcilable to reason and good Conscience, for the people of these colonies now to take the oaths and affirmations necessary for the support of any government under the crown of Great Britain,
and it is necessary that the exercise of every kind of authority under the said crown should be totally suppressed, and all the powers of government exerted, under the authority of the people of the colonies…
—Journals of the Continental Congress, v4
The wiggle-room was gone and the time for the colonies to get on board had arrived.
New York and Canada
Fortifications continued in the former, and the retreat finished up from the latter. There are skirmishes elsewhere in the colonies but these two sites are the major conflicts. The forces under the command of Benedict Arnold and John Thomas are scattered, poorly supplied, and dealing with sickness. Word of this reaches Washington but there’s little he can do to help.
Remember the Ladies
For as much as Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote a bunch of cringey feminist wish-list crap into his Hamilton songs, there actually were documented calls to consider womens’ interest in the Independence movement. To the surprise of no one, Abigail Adams was a big driver of this. She wrote a letter to John (which then circulated among his peers) with no uncertain language:
“I long to hear that you have declared an independancy—and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors.
“Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”
John took a look at the letter, probably laughed, and said “Women!”
But his reply to Abby was a little more detailed:
“As to your extraordinary Code of Laws, I cannot but laugh. We have been told that our Struggle has loosened the bands of Government every where. That Children and Apprentices were disobedient—that schools and Colledges were grown turbulent—that Indians slighted their Guardians and Negroes grew insolent to their Masters.
“But your Letter was the first Intimation that another Tribe more numerous and powerfull than all the rest were grown discontented.—This is rather too coarse a Compliment but you are so saucy, I wont blot it out. Depend upon it, We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems.
“Altho they are in full Force, you know they are little more than Theory. We dare not exert our Power in its full Latitude. We are obliged to go fair, and softly, and in Practice you know We are the subjects.”
Also, they really didn’t believe in running Ye Olde Spell Check at House Adams, did they? My word.
Colonial Killdozer Gains Steam
We’re seven weeks away from the Declaration of Independence. The colonies have won some smaller fights against the Redcoats, and with the victory at Boston, spirits are high. Canada doesn’t have the same interests as the other colonies (although the Continental Congress still wouldn’t mind having them) so the military frustrations there aren’t great, but aren’t fatal. With the spreading of the Independence Movement in colonial governments, it’s only a matter of time before this becomes a national show.
If you like American history, read the Engines of Liberty series for all ages.
My Amazon page has all my novels, including the critically-acclaimed FOSSIL FORCE for young boys, and the
I post video reviews on YouTube.
Subscribe here for more book reviews and for articles on what I continue to learn as I read.