Pictured above: Reenactment at Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts
By Mary Moore Mason
As the United State of America moves toward its 250-year independence celebrations in July 2026, it’s easy to focus on such iconic places and symbols as Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, Declaration of Independence and the Liberty Bell but, as Lindsay Sutton has discovered, the passage to independence was much more complicated … and interesting … than we sometimes realise. Take for example, the flamboyant 1773 Boston Tea Party and the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, which alerted the world to the American colonists’ desire for independence.
Philadelphia (discoverphl.com) may see itself as the birthplace of the American Revolution – but, as Bostonians are keen to tell you: “We did the heavy lifting, they did the paperwork.”
The ‘paperwork’ just happened to be the pulling together of the disparate 13 colonies to ultimately form an independent United States of America; the setting up of a Continental Army of ‘Patriots’ to fight the professional British Army; and the drafting of the all-important Declaration of Independence, announced on July 4, 1776. But you have to admit that the Bostonians have a point.
Long before the Declaration signers put pen to parchment, Boston (meetboston.com) and its Massachusetts hinterland were doing the heavy lifting, with civil unrest, skirmishes, showdowns, and radical protests. In March, 1770, five protesting Bostonians lost their lives to British gunfire in what became known as ‘The Boston Massacre’; in December, 1773, the local Sons of Liberty and others protested against what they considered as unfair British tea taxes by dumping 46 tons of British tea into Boston Harbour. And then came the April 19, 1775, Battles of Lexington (visitlex.com) and Concord (cabcocvb.com), staged 17 and 22 miles north-west of Boston and pitting local militiamen against British troops sent from Boston to root out potential arms caches.
In the middle of the conflict, which the colonists won, there was what poet Ralph Waldo Emerson later called “The shot heard around the world”, which inspired those from other European counties to support the colonists’ cause. And it’s also where Bostonian patriot Paul Revere made his famous ride out into the Massachusetts countryside to warn the militia with the cry: “The British are coming!” (His actual words are said to be: “The Regulars are coming”, but that’s not as evocative for the history books.) One thing is certain – Revere is revered as a Revolutionary hero, and his home in Boston and the Old North Church from which he began his ride are among the 16 totemic shrines on the city’s 2.5-mile Freedom Trail.
Then, on June 17, 1775, came the Battle of Bunker Hill, which the Patriots lost but in which the British suffered major demoralising manpower injuries and fatalities, followed on March 17, 1776, by the total British evacuation of the city when the British and their fleet were threatened by a brutal bombardment by 60 cannons strategically sited on the city’s Dorchester Heights. And herein lies a fascinating story. The canons were originally captured in May 1775, from upper New York State’s British-held Fort Ticonderoga by Vermont’s Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, with the help of Connecticut-based Major General Benedict Arnold, later to become infamous when he defected to the British. They were then dragged 300 miles by sledge to Boston under the leadership of George Washington’s young self-taught artillery expert Henry Knox.
The British troops then fled to Nova Scotia, regrouped and only returned in August,1776, this time to attack New York City with a vengeance. Outnumbered nearly two to one, Washington‘s Continental Army were pushed out of Brooklyn, then into Manhattan, with the British holding the city throughout the entire six years of subsequent warfare.
In fact, the Continental Army and Generals Washington and Israel Putnam could have easily and literally been finished off then but for the ineptitude of the British military leadership. For this, the Patriots owed much gratitude to Mary Lindley Murray, a wealthy sympathiser whose Manhattan estate was near to the spot where British General William Howe and his troops crossed the East River from Long Island into Manhattan, ready to engage with the Continental troops. She invited Howe and his generals to have wine and cake, delaying his 8,000-strong force for two hours, just long enough for the 3,500 Patriots to escape and live to fight another day.
And that day, or rather days, September 19 and October 7, 1777, came when the British were soundly defeated at the Battles of Saratoga (discoversaratoga.org), north of today’s present New York state capital, Albany. Known as ‘The Turning Point of the War’, this doubtless will be a major focal point for the state’s 250th celebrations.
Not only were the 6,000 British troops led by General John Burgoyne outmanoeuvred and out-fought by the Patriots commanded by General Horatio Gates but much of the credit for their success was due to Benedict Arnold, who defied orders from Gates not to get involved in strategy.
The repercussions of the Patriots’ victory were immense in that the French joined the cause for independence by supplying arms and manpower. (In fact, there are many who say that without the French, there would have been no independence for the United States.)
And as the plans for the 250th anniversary come into play, other states will step up to take their place on the stage. Among them will be New Jersey, which regards itself as being ‘The Crossroads of the Revolution’. After Washington and his troops were pushed out of New York State, they headed there to cross the Delaware River into Pennsylvania, famously returning to New Jersey on Christmas Eve, 1776, to win the morale-boosting Battle of Trenton against Hessian mercenaries. It gave heart to Washington’s rattled and almost-beaten troops, primarily farmers, labourers and merchants who then survived the freezing conditions at Washington’s winter camp at Valley Forge (valleyforge.org), Pennsylvania, to eventually turn the tide – but that, too, is a later story.
As for the other nearby states, although Maryland and Delaware saw little ground action throughout, their militias fought in nearly every major battle during the six years of warfare. For instance, a group of young dandies known as the ‘Maryland Macaroons’ made their mark in the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, by delaying the British advance and thus allowing Washington and his troops to escape capture.
The teenage recruits – all from good Maryland families – were hand-picked by General Mordecai Gist, kitted out in distinctive blue uniforms with red trim, then licked into shape before being transferred to New York for duty. Less than a week later they faced the crack British and Hessian troops – all 20,000 of them – who landed on Long Island, ready to move into Manhattan. They eventually succeeded, but only after being twice repelled by the 256 ‘Macaroons’. Not one flinched, despite being outnumbered ten to one and only one survived to make it to Brooklyn Heights.
In New England, patriots in small but fiercely-independent Rhode Island captured and destroyed the grounded British warship The Gaspee in early June 1772, and, although defeated, took on the British during 1778’s Battle of Rhode Island in Narragansett Bay. It also was the first colony to declare independence on May 4, 1776, two months before the actual Declaration of Independence.
Connecticut supplied more food and artillery to the Patriot cause than any other colony, and during a raid by the British on warehouses in Danbury, Sybil Ludington, the 16-year-old daughter of militia leader Henry Ludington, rode 40 miles to raise the alarm among the Patriots. The state was also the only colony where the Royal Governor, Jonathan Trumbull, joined the rebels, as did his brother, Joseph, and his son, Jonathan. And although no battles were fought in New Hampshire, the local militia, responding to the residents’ hunger for independence, in December 1776, captured Fort William and Mary, forcing the royal governor to flee.
Vermont fought a double-bill battle for independence – one against the British, the other against rule by the colony of New York, which leaders Ethan Allen and Seth Warner and their Green Mountain Boys declared independence from in January, 1777.
Meanwhile, protest and disaffection was mounting in the southern colonies. So much so that at a meeting in St John’s Church, Richmond (visitrichmondva.com), during the Virginia Convention of March, 1775, Patriot Patrick Henry proclaimed the immortal words: “Give me Liberty, or give me death”. The words electrified the entire congregation and served as a rallying cry throughout the colonies.
In fact, from early days, Virginia, the oldest, largest and wealthiest colony, led the charge in political and military matters while producing some of the colonies’ most influential leaders. In addition to Henry himself and, of course, first American President George Washington, they included Thomas Jefferson, main author of The Declaration of Independence, Virginia governor and third US President, and James Monroe, also a Virginia governor and the fifth US President. Interestingly, Monroe crossed the Delaware River with Washington on Christmas night, 1776; at age 18 was wounded at the subsequent Battle of Trenton; and wintered with Washington during the harsh conditions at Valley Forge.
North Carolina had its own Tea Party on October 25, 1774, when the women of Edenton, angry about English taxation and regulations, agreed to boycott tea and other English products. After 51 of them signed a supportive document, they were mocked by the British, but it gave the lead to other women throughout the disaffected colonies. On the other hand, loyalist supporters of the Crown were plentiful in wealthy South Carolina plantation country and were somewhat kept in check by the guerrilla warfare led by Francis Marion, known as ‘The Swamp Fox’ as he and his followers conducted their hit-and-run tactics and then disappeared into the vast, impenetrable swamps of the Low Country.
Bordering Florida, the southernmost colony of Georgia was seen by the British government as a vital buffer zone against its predatory Spanish owners, but it was strongly loyalist and saw no need for independence. Yet the Royal Governor fled to a British warship off the coast, radical Georgians produced one of the most democratic constitutions of any potential state, and, barely a month after The Declaration of Independence, they declared independence only to endure a return to British rule from 1778 until 1782. (Interestingly enough, Georgia still maintains St George, the patron state of England, as its patriot saint, and he appears on the state’s coat of arms.)
The Women’s Role in The American Revolution
Although men were in the forefront during the War for American Independence women were also playing a significant role. For instance, Martha Washington was not only raising funds for the cause but also providing moral support to George and his troops by hunkering down with them in the dire conditions of Pennsylvania’s Valley Forge during the harsh winter of 1777/78.
During New Jersey’s late June 1778 Battle of Monmouth the woman later nicknamed ‘Molly Pitcher’ not only took over from her exhausted husband when he collapsed by his cannon but also moved around the battlefield supplying pitchers of water to the troops as temperatures soared.
And that’s not to forget the woman simply referred to as ‘Spy 355’ who discovered and revealed the planned treachery of Benedict Arnold, the Patriot hero-turned-villain who planned to deliver vital military information to the British.
And chief among them in the longer view of history is Massachusetts-based Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams, later to become the second US president. For not only did she constantly support her lawyer husband to do such things as ensure that the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre received a fair trial but despite her young age – she was only 23 when the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed –she kept urging the Founding Fathers to “Remember the Ladies” by ensuring that the new country’s constitution gave women the same rights as men while she promoted women’s education and opposed slavery. A woman truly ahead of her times!
