1775
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A Boston Loyalist newspaper publishes letters in January from Tory Daniel Leonard, 34, who writes under the pseudonym "Massachusettensis" that the grievances of the colonists against the crown are largely without foundation. The richest lawyer in town, Leonard took refuge at Boston last year when outraged patriots drove him from his Taunton home. "The British government is . . . a limited monarchy," responds Boston lawyer John Adams February 6 under the pseudonym "Novanglus" ("New England"). "Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington . . . define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men" (see 1779).
Salem merchant and shipowner Captain Richard Derby, 62, assembles cannon and refuses in February to let British troops cross a drawbridge to seize the guns (see 1741). "Find them if you can," Derby allegedly shouts across the stream, "They will never be surrendered." Having gone to sea at an early age and become master of the sloop Ranger at age 24, he has continued to trade with Spain in defiance of British law, European men-of-war have captured ships he has sent to the West Indies with cargoes of New England fish and lumber in exchange for rum and sugar, but he has nevertheless amassed a substantial fortune and will soon place his schooner Quero at the disposal of the Continental Congress to carry documents to London showing that the redcoats started hostilities and the colonists acted only in self defense.
"Give me liberty or give me death," Patrick Henry says March 23 to the Virginia Convention that meets at St. John's Episcopal Church in Richmond. "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" Many patriots echo his sentiments.
The American War of Independence begins April 19 at the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Boston silversmith Paul Revere has ridden to Lexington April 16 to warn patriots Samuel Adams and John Hancock that General Thomas Gage intends to arrest them; now 53, Gage was appointed last year to replace Thomas Hutchinson, whose stringent measures precipitated colonial unrest (see Boston "Massacre," 1770), and Revere has sent word to patriots at Concord that General Gage has found out through his spies about the war matériel the patrots have accumulated. Adams and Hancock have hidden in a parsonage at Lexington; Revere has ridden out with compatriot William Dawes, 30, the night of April 18 to warn them that 700 redcoats have been marching from Boston since midnight; local physician Samuel Prescott, 23, has joined in spreading the alarm. Adams and Hancock ride off safely to Philadelphia, but the British capture Revere. They force Dawes to flee, and it is Prescott who rouses Samuel Hartwell of the Lincoln Minutemen and other patriots. Massachusetts towns since 1645 have selected young men of about 25 and younger from their militias to be ready at a minute's notice to march with matchlocks or pikes plus 3 days' provision, and well-trained Minutemen played a role even before the French and Indian wars in helping to suppress local insurrections and riots, but although they have combined forces with their counterparts from other towns the Minutemen have never had good leadership.
The outbreak of hostilities comes just 2 weeks after publication of "The Group," a pamphlet by Mercy Otis Warren. John Adams has arranged for its printing and will later verify its authorship.
Redcoats under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, 51, and Marine Major John Pitcairn, 53, arrive at the Lexington Green outside Boston near dawn April 19 and encounter a force of 77 poorly armed Minutemen under the command of John Parker, 45, who says to his men, "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." Eight Minutemen fall to British musketfire at Lexington, and the rest retreat at bayonet point, having got off only six or seven shots in the town square and hit no one (the one man who tried to stand and reload was killed by a British bayonet charge).
The British cut down a Liberty pole at Concord and skirmish with the militia at the town's North Bridge. British reinforcements (the 43rd Regiment of Foot) under the command of Brig. Gen. Sir Hugh Percy, 33, arrive at the bridge with two six-pound cannon; opposed by Minutemen from Concord, Acton, Littleton, and other towns, General Percy is outnumbered 3,763 to about 1,800, but the British are well organized and far better armed. General Percy executes a skillful retreat, the Minutemen do not pursue him, and the redcoats are back in Boston by nightfall, having lost 65 dead, 173 wounded, 26 missing. American marksmen have picked off 15 British officers, but despite having the advantage of firing from concealed positions the Americans have been able to hit only 273 men with their muskets; the Americans have lost 95 killed and wounded.
Artemas Ward mounts his horse at Shrewsbury April 20, rides to Cambridge, and assumes command of rebel (patriot) forces under powers granted to him by the Second Provincial Congress. Now 47, Ward has helped organized resistance to General Gage.
The Royal Navy begins an 11-month siege of Boston.
Benjamin Franklin arrives by ship at Philadelphia May 5, having been abroad for the past 18 years. Now 69, he learned at London in March that his common-law wife, Deborah, had died after 44 years of marriage; he is chosen May 6 as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.
The first American victory in the War of Independence comes May 10 as Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain falls to Green Mountain Boys led by Litchfield, Connecticut-born Vermonter Ethan Allen, 37, and Colonel Benedict Arnold, 34, a Norwich, Connecticut-born New Haven apothecary who has called out his company of militia and marched north. Allen and Arnold have 832 men but only a few boats, so there are scarcely 200 men in their party when they move on orders from the Connecticut legislature, cross the lake in the small hours of the morning, enter the fort through a breach in the wall, and force the superannuated 45-man garrison to surrender. Asked by Captain de la Place under whose authority Allen has stormed his fort, Allen replies, "The Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress"; he and Arnold take the fort without firing a shot. The Americans will hold Ticonderoga until next spring, thereby cutting off the British supply route from Canada via the Hudson River. Colonel Seth Warner takes Crown Point on Lake Champlain May 12.
Cherokee chief Nancy Ward, 37, discourages her people from participating in the conflict on either side. She will save lives on both sides by warning the colonists of impending raids.
The Second Continental Congress meets at Philadelphia May 10, and 2 weeks later chooses Bostonian John Hancock as its president. The congress establishes the Continental Army June 14, authorizing the enlistment of riflemen to serve the United Colonies for a period of 1 year; John Adams proposes June 16 that Virginian George Washington be appointed commander in chief, and the delegates vote unanimous approval (although Hancock had coveted the appointment for himself). Now 43, Washington professes to be diffident about his military abilities (which are at best unproven), but he has worn his old uniform from the 1750s for the previous 64 days. The congress votes June 17 to give Artemas Ward the rank of major general and make him Washington's second in command.
British forces burn Charlestown on Boston Harbor and prepare to occupy the rest of the Charlestown Peninsula. General Washington at Philadelphia appoints Boston-born engineer Richard Gridley, 64, chief engineer for the Army June 16 with the rank of colonel (see Corps of Engineers, 1779). Gridley's miners and sappers begin building breastworks at midnight on Breed's Hill, lower than Bunker Hill and closer to the enemy on the Charlestown Peninsula; Gridley himself is wounded in the Battle of Bunker Hill that begins shortly after dawn June 17. Militia colonel William Prescott, 49, has given the order to fortify Breed's Hill and draws fire from the British as he walks up and down the battlements, ignoring the bullets that pierce his clothing. Prescott is a veteran of King George's War; the day being warm, he removes his uniform and dons a jacket and broad-brimmed hat, inspiring his men to return the enemy fire. "You are all marksmen. Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes," General Israel Putnam has ordered, and the militiamen have discharged their muskets with deadly effect as the redcoats charged up the hill, dealing a setback to General William Howe, 46, who has been sent to reinforce General Gage in his siege of Boston and will succeed to the supreme British military command next year. The patriots run out of ammunition, and the battle ends in victory for the British, one third of whom have been killed or wounded. Their bayonets take a heavy toll on the defenders, but New Hampshire patriot John Stark distinguishes himself in combat; now 46, Stark served in Rogers' Rangers in the 1750s (Robert Rogers has offered his services to the American cause but George Washington has rejected the offer, fearing that Rogers may be a British spy and Rogers, now 43, has been given command of a British unit). Some 1,150 redcoats fall in the battle of Bunker Hill, including Major Pitcairn, while the colonists lose only 411, including their leader General Joseph Warren, the Boston physician who was named general of militia June 14.
The pamphlet "Taxation No Tyranny" by Doctor Johnson is a tract against the American colonies, but Johnson's companion James Boswell supports the American cause.
The pamphlet "On Conciliation with the Colonies" by Edmund Burke is based on a speech delivered by Burke in Parliament.
"An Address to the People of England, Scotland, and Ireland" by historian Catharine Macaulay attacks the Quebec Act and colonial taxation. Widowed in 1766, Macaulay moved to Bath last year and has supported popular sovereignty.
The first naval engagement of the war takes place in June when the Rhode Island Navy sloop Katy meets the British sloop Diana in Newport Bay and defeats her. The Diana is a tender of H.M.S. Rose, stationed at Newport to enforce the Acts of Trade.
British Army officer Charles Lee, now 44, resigns his commission, visits Gen. Washington at Mount Vernon, and accepts a commission June 17 as the Continental Army's second major general (see 1776).
George Washington arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts, July 3 after a 12-day journey from Philadelphia and takes command of the ragtag Continental Army, whose officers have been chosen by the men and whose weapons are conspicuously deficient in numbers and quality. General Artemas Ward remained at his headquarters in Cambridge during the Battle of Bunker Hill but designated the detachments participating in the encounter; Washington gives him command of his right wing (see 1776).
Britain's George III declares August 22 that a state of open rebellion exists in the American colonies. General Washington reports to John Hancock that two British deserters have arrived at his headquarters with allegations that General William Howe has sent diseased people out of the city "with design of spreading the Smallpox" among the colonial troops, and although he does not believe the charges at first he changes his mind a few days later when the disease breaks out among Bostonians fleeing the British siege. Washington sends General John Stark home to recruit New Hampshire farmers and townsmen for service in the Continental Army.
Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold leaves Massachusetts September 13 with an expedition of 1,000 volunteers and orders from the Second Continental Congress to make its way through the Maine woods, take Quebec, and gain control of the St. Lawrence River. Arnold's little army of volunteers includes New Jersey-born rifle expert Captain Daniel Morgan, 38, who has served in Pontiac's War and last year accompanied Lord Dunsmore's expedition to western Pennsylvania. Congress has given Albany-born Continental Army general Philip J. (John) Schuyler, 41, command of a second army with the same mission, but Schuyler falls ill and returns to Fort Ticonderoga September 16, letting his Irish-born second-in-command Richard Montgomery, 36, take his place. The British capture Ethan Allen September 25 in a failed attempt on their fort at St. Johns (they will hold him until May 1778). The French in Canada do not rise in support of the American cause as Allen had hoped, 350 of Arnold's men turn back October 25, General Montgomery takes St. Johns after a long siege November 2, Arnold arrives at Point Levis on the St. Lawrence opposite Quebec November 8. Montgomery occupies Montreal November 13, but when he arrives at Point-aux-Trembles December 3 he has only 350 men. Arnold joins Montgomery in a siege of Quebec, but while General Sir Guy Carleton has abandoned Montreal he has marched into Quebec and is determined to hold it. Arnold and Montgomery cannot afford to wait (their men's enlistment periods expire December 31), they make an attack that nearly succeeds December 27, and in the midst of a snowstorm December 31 they launch what they believe is a surprise attack, but an American deserter has betrayed their plan to Sir Guy, General Montgomery is killed along with two of his officers, Arnold takes a musket ball in his leg and has to be carried off, Captain Daniel Morgan assumes command, his men enter the city, but Sir Guy traps them in the streets and although Arnold manages to escape almost all of the Americans are eventually captured or surrender.
An American Navy is established October 13 by the Second Continental Congress, whose members authorize construction of two "swift sailing vessels." The Rhode Island Navy sloop Katy becomes part of the new fleet in December and is renamed Providence. The Congress votes November 10 to authorize formation of two battalions of Marines "to be enlisted and commissioned to serve during the present war between Great Britain and the colonies." It commissions the first Marine officer November 28, he recruits 100 Rhode Islanders, and Rhode Islander Esek Hopkins, now 57, is named commodore of the fleet December 22, partly through the influence of his elder brother, who is chairman of the naval committee (see 1776).
Second Continental Congress president Peyton Randolph dies of a stroke at Philadelphia October 22 at age 54 and is succeeded as president by John Hancock.
Boston bookseller and Grenadier Corps officer Henry Knox, 25, is commissioned a colonel in the Continental Army and given command of artillery in November; he takes 55 artillery pieces captured by Ethan Allen at Fort Ticonderoga and manages to move them overland to Boston, where they are set up on Dorchester Heights overlooking the city, intimidating the British (see 1776).
Colonial troops in Virginia defeat Loyalists under the command of Governor Dunmore December 9 at Great Bridge (see 1774). Lord Dunmore withdraws to his ships and bombards Norfolk; he will return to England next year following a conflict on Gwynn's Island, win election to Parliament as a Scottish representative, and later serve as governor of the Bahamas.
Italian navigator Alejandro Malaspina, 20, distinguishes himself in January when his frigate Santa Teresa participates in an effort to relieve a Moroccan siege of Melilla, wins promotion to frigate-ensign; he joins in a siege of Algiers in July, beginning what will prove a notable career.
The former Mughal emperor Ahmad Shah dies in captivity at his native Delhi January 1 at age 49. The Treaty of Surat signed March 7 supports the claim of Raghunath Rao to succeed his late father, Narayan, as peshwa (chief minister) of the Maratha in return for Salsette Island and Bassein (Vasai). The Bombay (Mumbai) government of the British East India Company has negotiated the treaty, but the British raj sends its own agent to renegotiate, and the disagreement precipitates the first Anglo-Maratha War (see 1776).
Shuja-ud-Dawlah, vizier of Oudh, dies and his successor is forced to sign the (second) Treaty of Banaras (Treaty of Faizabad), obliging his government to cede Banaras to the British East India Company and to increase the size of the subsidy paid to the company (see 1781).
Nepal's Prithvi Narayan Shah dies after a 33-year reign in which he has begun to establish a unified state in the central Himalayas. His successors will continue his efforts to bring the entire hill area from Bhutan to Kashmire under Nepalese control.
Portugal abolishes slavery in the Madeira Islands, whose sugar will hereafter be produced by free men (see 1761; sugar, 1432).
George III signs an order releasing from bondage the women and young children in British coal mines and salt mines. Many of the children are under 8, work like the women for 10 to 12 hours per day, and have been transferable with the collieries and salt works when the properties changed hands or their masters had no further use for them (see Scottish coal miners, 1778).
Stop discrimination against women, says English-born pamphleteer Thomas Paine, 38, in his Pennsylvania Magazine. Paine has failed as a corsetmaker and tax collector in England, twice failed in marriage, and arrived at Philadelphia late last year with letters of introduction from Benjamin Franklin and encouragement to try his luck in America.
The first American abolition society is founded in Pennsylvania to free the slaves, whose population below the Mason-Dixon line now exceeds 450,000. Black slaves outnumber colonists two to one in South Carolina, while in Virginia the ratio is about equal.
The Transylvania Company employs Daniel Boone to lead a party of 30 North Carolina woodsmen westward (see 1773). The group sets out March 10 and breaks a Wilderness Road of nearly 300 miles that will be used in the next 15 years by more than 100,000 pioneers en route to the new territories of western Tennessee and Kentucky. Boone founds Boonesborough on the Kentucky River in April (see Harrod, 1774; Filson, 1784).
Explorer James Cook returns from a second voyage to the Pacific, having discovered the South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia Island in the Atlantic (see 1774). He is finally promoted to captain and elected to the Royal Society (see 1776).
American imports from Britain decline by 95 percent as a result of efforts by the Association formed last year. English businessmen feel the loss of trade, support the colonists, and ask Parliament to repeal the so-called Intolerable Acts, but while Edmund Burke makes a speech on conciliation with America, Lord North tells the House of Commons that Britons are paying 50 times more tax per capita than are the American colonists.
British banks organize their first clearing house in London's Lombard Street (see 1708; New York, 1853).
Philadelphia merchants form the United Company of Philadelphia for Promoting American Manufactures. The colonies have more iron furnaces and forges than England and Wales combined.
The Continental Congress appoints Philadelphia physician John Morgan Director General to the Military Hospitals and Physician-in-Chief to the American Army (see 1765). Now 40, Morgan will try to bring the nearly autonomous regimental surgeons under general army control, but Congress will not agree to the idea (see 1776).
The vacancy that has existed in the papacy at Rome since the death last year of Pope Clement XIV ends February 15 with the consecration of Giovanni Cardinal Breschi, 57, who will reign until 1799 as Pius VI.
Printer and typeface designer John Baskerville dies at Birmingham, Warwickshire, January 8 at age 68. French dramatist Pierre de Beaumarchais purchases his type, whose design has met with criticism in Britain.
The 5-year-old Massachusetts Spy carries the first eyewitness accounts of the battles of Lexington and Concord. Publisher Isaiah Thomas will move the paper from Boston to Worcester in 1778.
News of the skirmish at Lexington, Massachusetts, reaches Philadelphia via post rider Israel Bissel, 23, who takes a note penned at 10 o'clock in the morning of April 19, rides 36 miles to Worcester in 2 hours, alerts Israel Putnam at Brooklyn, Connecticut, during the night, and reaches Old Lyme at 1 o'clock in the morning of April 20. Bissel is ferried across the Connecticut River and reaches Saybrook by 4 in the afternoon and Guilford by 7. At noon on April 21 he arrives at Branford, and on the morning of April 22 reaches New Haven. Bissel arrives at New York City April 23, and the intelligence from Boston causes New Yorkers to close their port, distribute arms, and burn two sloops bound for the British garrison at Boston. Ferried across the Hudson, Bissell arrives at New Brunswick at 2 in the morning of April 24, reaches Princeton by dawn, and is in Trenton by 6 and in Philadelphia soon after, having traveled in 5 days a distance that the fastest stage would have taken 8 days to cover.
Nonfiction: A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland by Doctor Johnson, who toured Scotland in 1773 from August to November in the company of Scotsman James Boswell, then 32. "That certain kings reigned and certain battles were fought we can depend upon as true," says Doctor Johnson April 11, "but all the coloring, all the philosophy of history is conjecture."
Painting: Self-portrait (pastel) by Jean-Siméon Chardin, now 75; Miss Bowles by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Portrait of Count Shuvaloff by Parisian painter (Marie Louise) Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun (née Vigée), 20, who has married local art dealer Jean-Baptiste Pierre Le Brun (a chronic gambler, he will take much of her earnings). Her subject is the chamberlain to Russia's Catherine the Great at St. Petersburg.
Theater: The Rivals by Dublin-born London playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 23, 1/17 at London's Royal Theatre in Covent Garden, with John Quick as Bob Acres. Sheridan left his native Ireland at age 8 and has never returned. "'Tis safest in matrimony to begin with a little aversion," he writes (I, ii). His Mrs. Malaprop delights audiences with "malapropisms" such as "headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile" (III, iii); The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution (Le barbier de Séville, ou La précaution inutile) by Pierre de Beaumarchais 2/23 at the Comédie-Française; St. Patrick's Day, or The Scheming Lieutenant by Sheridan 5/2 at London's Royal Theatre in Covent Garden; The Jews (Die Juden) by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 9/13 at Frankfurt-am-Main (one-act comedy). English tragic actress Sarah Siddons (née Kemble), 20, makes her London debut in December playing the role of Portia in Shakespeare's 1596 tragedy The Merchant of Venice but is not well received and will work in the provinces until 1782.
Opera: La finta Giordiniera 1/13 at Munich, with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Il Re Pastore 4/23 at Salzburg, with music by W. A. Mozart, libretto by Pietro Metastasio, now 77; Viennese soprano Catarina Cavalieri (Franziska Helena Appolonia Kavalier), 15, makes her debut 4/29 as Sandrina in Anfossi's La finta giardiniera at Vienna's Kärtnerthortheater; The Duenna 11/29 at London's Royal Theatre in Covent Garden, with music by English composer Thomas Linley, 42, libretto by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
Stage musical: Maid of the Oaks at London with music by London-born playwright and composer John Burgoyne, 53, songs that include "The World Turned Upside Down" (from an old English ballad). Son of an army captain, Burgoyne served as an officer in the Seven Years' War and is married to a daughter of the rich and powerful Edward Stanley, 11th earl of Derby, who is now 85 and has used his influence to advance his son-in-law's military and political career (see politics, 1777).
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at Salzburg writes five violin concerti between April 14 and December 20, each in 1 day except for the Concerto No. 4 in D major, which he works on over the course of a month and completes in October.
First performances: Concerto No. 5 in A major for Violin and Orchestra (Turkish) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 12/20 at Salzburg.
Popular song: "Yankee Doodle" with lyrics to an old English tune. American colonist Edward Barnes has written the words that will be popular in the Continental Army.
English inventor Alexander Cummings receives the first patent to be issued for a flush toilet, but such devices will not come into common use for more than a century (see Harington, 1596; Bramah, 1778).
Mrs. Thrale and her husband take Doctor Johnson to Paris on his only visit abroad. They visit Fontainebleau and see young Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette at dinner.
The first house rats recorded in America appear at Boston (see 1728).
The New Bedford, Massachusetts, whaling fleet reaches 80 vessels. More than 280 whaling ships put out from American ports, 220 of them from Massachusetts (see 1751; 1845).
British mercantile interests re-enter the whaling industry largely abandoned by the English in 1612 as Dutch activity begins to wane (see 1789).
The Royal Society awards Captain James Cook, Royal Navy, its Gold Copley Medal for having conquered scurvy. The navy's Sick and Hurt Board loaded H.M.S. Resolution with various experimental antiscorbutics, Cook told his sailors that sauerkraut was being served each day to the officers and gentlemen aboard, the men soon followed suit, but Cook's real success was based far less on antiscorbutics than on his zealous efforts to obtain fresh food at every port. Sir John Pringle, now 68, chief medical officer of the British army and physician to George III, hails Captain Cook's achievement in bringing 118 men through all climates for 3 years and 18 days "with the loss of only one man by distemper," even though he has gone for as many as 117 days in extreme latitudes without touching land, and while Cook may "entertaine no great opinion of [the] antiscorbutic virtue" of concentrated citrus juices, Pringle suggests that he may be mistaken (see 1794; Lind, 1757).
Aynsley bone china is manufactured for the first time, in England.
Denmark's Queen Juliane Marie goes into partnership with some Copenhagen entrepreneurs to found the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory, whose wares will be trademarked with three wavy blue blues. The queen will acquire full ownership in 1779.
Prussia's Friedrich II (the Great) moves to block the imports of green coffee that are draining his country's gold; coffee has become nearly a match for beer as the national beverage (see 1772).
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