“Surrender, in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!” That was Ethan Allen gently explaining to the skeleton British garrison at Fort Ticonderoga that their time had come. The capture of the fort on May 10, 1775, by what amounted to a guerrilla American force was not a battle for the ages. […]

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The Second Continental Congress opened on May 10, 1775. The British had already fired upon Massachusetts militia men at Lexington and Concord. Soon, Congress would make itself into a genuine, revolutionary government by taking on the traditional tasks of borrowing money, printing paper currency, and raising an army, which is what they needed the money […]

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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the Journal of the American Revolution on November 26, 2024. With edits to match MTC’s style guidelines, it is cross-posted here with permission. The adjectives leveled Benedict Arnold’s way by contemporaries and historians leave little room for doubt. Though he inspired devotion among those serving under him, the […]

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At sunrise on April 19, 1775, about 80 American townsmen in Lexington, Massachusetts, filed out of Buckman Tavern onto Lexington Green. They were commanded by French and Indian War veteran John Parker.  Parker was restrained. His words were, “Stand your ground; don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let […]

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Of course, Paul Revere was a hero as he rowed and rode to alarm the countryside around Boston: “The British are coming! The British are coming!” (“The Regulars are coming out,” the staid historians tell us were his actual words.) So too were the much neglected William Dawes and Samuel Prescott. We owe our independence and our liberty to their pluck and bravery. […]

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It was March 30, 1775. King George III delivers another blow to the American colonies, formally endorsing the New England Restraining Act.  This Act, a direct response to the Continental Association’s 1774 boycott of British goods, was designed to strangle the rebelling colonies into submission. By royal decree, New England’s trade was restricted solely to […]

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On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry gave his “Give me liberty or give me death” speech at the Second Virginia Convention, in favor of a resolution that Virginia form a militia to oppose King George’s tyranny. Moderates at the convention were somewhat reluctant to go on record saying explicitly that George was a tyrant who must […]

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On March 22, 1775, Edmund Burke delivered one of his great Parliamentary orations on Conciliation with America. Britain and America were rushing to war, and Burke pulled out the stops to make an extraordinary peroration for peace. Britain’s current policy was worse than unjust—it was doomed to fail. Peace must be achieved, argued Burke, by […]

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On February 9, 1775, the Parliament of Great Britain declared Massachusetts in a state of rebellion. With cause: Massachusetts’ Provincial Congress had met without royal leave and was organizing and training a military force. Massachusetts’ disobedience could no longer be ignored. Now, Britain would arm itself for war. Orders sailed to Governor Thomas Gage in […]

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America survived those crucial months because we had self-government as well as liberty. The Second Massachusetts Provincial Congress assembled on February 1, 1775. The Second Congress would select Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Thomas Cushing, and Robert Treat Paine to serve as delegates to the Continental Congress. It authorized a Committee of Safety—among other […]

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