So, uh, what now?
This Week in 1776, #29
“This Week in 1776” is an ongoing almanac of events from that year in the American Revolution. Be sure to check out my novel HEARTLANDERS.
In the immediate wake of the signing of the Declaration, a great deal of work remained to be done. In fact this auspicious mile marker only sits at the halfway point between the Stamp Act (1765) and the Constitutional Convention (1787). A lot had happened, and a lot would happen still before we got to where we needed to be.
On July 5th, Congress ordered 200 copies to be printed and distributed in the papers (these were known as the Dunlap broadsides.) The Pennsylvania Evening Post was the first paper to run it on July 6th.
On July 8th, a Philadelphia merchant named John Nixon read the Declaration aloud in the State House yard; other public readings took place in New Jersey and the surrounding area to the interest of many a local. It was an exciting time.
When George Washington ordered the news to be read to his troops in New York (July 9), there was much applause and rejoicing, and the soldiers even tore down a statue of King George III and melted the head into bullets.
Overall, this week was a “victory lap” for the Independence cause. Congress and the Army went about their duties in the political and martial realms in between the celebrating, as British warships inched closer to major American harbors. The South was more or less quiet.
But things were about to not be. More on that in a week.
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