#americanrevolution — Public Fediverse posts

Book Review: As If an Enemy’s Country by Richard Archer

Author: Richard Archer
Title: As If an Enemy’s Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution
Publication Info: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.
Summary/Review:

I read this book 14 years ago and this reread is for a book group discussion.  I actually didn’t remember a lot of the details in the book.  Actually, there are historical facts in this book that I thought I learned in more recent years, so I guess I actually learned them again.

This work focus on a period in Boston’s history in the lead up to the American Revolution.  It starts with resistance to Parliamentary taxation in the early 1760s which in Boston often involved intimidation and violence against government officials and tax agents as well as smuggling.  In response, the British government sent troops to “keep the peace” This lead to 18 months of occupation with increasing tension among the soldiers and the populace culminating with soldiers shooting and killing five civilians.  After the “massacre” the troops were pulled from Boston and with the concurrent repeal of taxes a period of normalcy followed, although Bostonians were forever changed by the experience.

I like that this book tests a lot of the assumptions of the Revolutionary period.  Classifications of people as “patriots” or “loyalists” didn’t exist, although there was a popular party and a court party.  Even here, people who ultimately remained loyal to Britain were still involved in non-importation agreements.  I also think that Archer is very even-handed in describing the actions and motivations of all the people involved, for example a sympathetic view of the soldiers involved in the massacre which nonetheless doesn’t excuse them of their culpability.  He also effectively describes the role of class and race in these events.  This includes the actions of violence and intimidation as being dismissed as the acts of the “rabble,” or outsiders such as sailors.  Black men serving as drummers for the British troops also raised the racial animus of the colonists.

All in all this is an excellent work that was worth revisiting.

Favorite Passages:

“In short, during the British occupation of Boston, one man in three was a soldier. Redcoats were everywhere, on duty and off. Theirs was not a casual or unobtrusive presence. In the streets, along the ropewalks, in the taverns, directly outside the Town House where the main guard was located, at checkpoints, on the Common, daytime and night, the people of Boston encountered the representatives of British power. They could not be avoided.”

“There was no mistaking that the Sugar Act was a tax bill. The preamble, declaring its intent to raise funds to help pay for troops in North America, made that clear. Up to this time, Parliament had requisitioned money through colonial legislatures, allowing the constitutional voices of those who were to be taxed to be heard. For the first time, the British government (Crown and all) prepared to tax colonists directly, with no pretense of representation. The Sugar Act delineated taxable commodities and outlined measures for eliminating, or at least significantly reducing, smuggling. It was a tax bill, not a trade bill.”

“To supplement their meager incomes, some soldiers took part-time work. Patrick Dines of the 29th, for example, found employment in a wig maker’s shop. Others hustled jobs with rope makers and did a variety of tasks along the waterfront. But such competition depressed wages, reduced opportunities for locals, and deepened the resentment over the occupation.”

“Promoting desertion was another way to undermine the standing army, as colonists recognized almost immediately, and unhappy soldiers were plentiful among the regiments. Despite the sullen greeting they received as they garrisoned Boston, the troops realized that a new life in the countryside might be an improvement over their current condition; at least forty of the regulars deserted within the first two weeks of the occupation. Bostonians and others apparently encouraged and assisted soldiers to flee.”

“Before the captain reached the troops, Henry Knox literally pulled him aside by the coat. ‘For God’s sake take care of your Men for if they fire your life must be answerable,” Knox pleaded. ‘I am sensible of it,’ Preston peevishly replied and then hurried on to take command.

“As Preston concluded the conversation, a white object was thrown in their direction. It might have been a snowball, a chunk of ice, or a piece of white birch cordwood. Whatever its composition, the missile struck the muzzle of Private Montgomery’s musket. Montgomery stepped back, recovered his balance, and discharged his weapon. Many scurried for cover or ducked down. Surprisingly, quite a few remained frozen in place, unable to believe that a shot had been fired. There was a pause, punctuated incredibly by renewed shouts of ‘Fire!'”

“Estimates of the elapsed time between the first and next shots varied, but most observers agreed that there had been sufficient time, somewhere between a few seconds and half a minute, for Preston to have commanded the men to halt. Prompted by the first shot and without any prohibition from Preston, several of the other soldiers then fired at the crowd.”

“In none of these cases can we know with certainty what a soldier was thinking when he fired his weapon. Montgomery most likely had inadvertently pulled the trigger. The impulse of the others is murkier. Perhaps some did believe they were defending their lives or obeying a command, and perhaps a few discharged their weapons immediately after an adjacent comrade had fired. It is just as likely that several of them, without any premeditation, seized the opportunity to vent their frustration and anger at the hostile residents or to attain revenge. Whatever the case, the massacre on King Street was a soldiers’ riot.”

“Five people died and six others were wounded, but the punishment for Preston and the eight soldiers, beyond incarceration until the conclusion of their trials, was two branded thumbs. The citizens of Boston could take pride that there had been a fair and open trial. There had been no vigilante justice, but neither had there been justice. Had the victims been more prominent, such as the wounded merchant Edward Payne, rather than transient or poor, there might have been more of an outcry. As it was, there was some grumbling, an inflammatory broadside that was pulled down off the door of the Town House, and a series of lengthy newspaper articles by Samuel Adams.Most Bostonians settled for returning to a life without soldiers and with fewer duties on commerce.”

Recommended books:

• The Boston Massacre: A Family History by Serena Zabin
• Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
• The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution by Alfred F. Young
• Boston Riots: Three Centuries of Social Violence by Jack Tager

Rating: ****

Book Review: As If an Enemy’s Country by Richard Archer

Author: Richard Archer
Title: As If an Enemy’s Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution
Publication Info: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.
Summary/Review:

I read this book 14 years ago and this reread is for a book group discussion.  I actually didn’t remember a lot of the details in the book.  Actually, there are historical facts in this book that I thought I learned in more recent years, so I guess I actually learned them again.

This work focus on a period in Boston’s history in the lead up to the American Revolution.  It starts with resistance to Parliamentary taxation in the early 1760s which in Boston often involved intimidation and violence against government officials and tax agents as well as smuggling.  In response, the British government sent troops to “keep the peace” This lead to 18 months of occupation with increasing tension among the soldiers and the populace culminating with soldiers shooting and killing five civilians.  After the “massacre” the troops were pulled from Boston and with the concurrent repeal of taxes a period of normalcy followed, although Bostonians were forever changed by the experience.

I like that this book tests a lot of the assumptions of the Revolutionary period.  Classifications of people as “patriots” or “loyalists” didn’t exist, although there was a popular party and a court party.  Even here, people who ultimately remained loyal to Britain were still involved in non-importation agreements.  I also think that Archer is very even-handed in describing the actions and motivations of all the people involved, for example a sympathetic view of the soldiers involved in the massacre which nonetheless doesn’t excuse them of their culpability.  He also effectively describes the role of class and race in these events.  This includes the actions of violence and intimidation as being dismissed as the acts of the “rabble,” or outsiders such as sailors.  Black men serving as drummers for the British troops also raised the racial animus of the colonists.

All in all this is an excellent work that was worth revisiting.

Favorite Passages:

“In short, during the British occupation of Boston, one man in three was a soldier. Redcoats were everywhere, on duty and off. Theirs was not a casual or unobtrusive presence. In the streets, along the ropewalks, in the taverns, directly outside the Town House where the main guard was located, at checkpoints, on the Common, daytime and night, the people of Boston encountered the representatives of British power. They could not be avoided.”

“There was no mistaking that the Sugar Act was a tax bill. The preamble, declaring its intent to raise funds to help pay for troops in North America, made that clear. Up to this time, Parliament had requisitioned money through colonial legislatures, allowing the constitutional voices of those who were to be taxed to be heard. For the first time, the British government (Crown and all) prepared to tax colonists directly, with no pretense of representation. The Sugar Act delineated taxable commodities and outlined measures for eliminating, or at least significantly reducing, smuggling. It was a tax bill, not a trade bill.”

“To supplement their meager incomes, some soldiers took part-time work. Patrick Dines of the 29th, for example, found employment in a wig maker’s shop. Others hustled jobs with rope makers and did a variety of tasks along the waterfront. But such competition depressed wages, reduced opportunities for locals, and deepened the resentment over the occupation.”

“Promoting desertion was another way to undermine the standing army, as colonists recognized almost immediately, and unhappy soldiers were plentiful among the regiments. Despite the sullen greeting they received as they garrisoned Boston, the troops realized that a new life in the countryside might be an improvement over their current condition; at least forty of the regulars deserted within the first two weeks of the occupation. Bostonians and others apparently encouraged and assisted soldiers to flee.”

“Before the captain reached the troops, Henry Knox literally pulled him aside by the coat. ‘For God’s sake take care of your Men for if they fire your life must be answerable,” Knox pleaded. ‘I am sensible of it,’ Preston peevishly replied and then hurried on to take command.

“As Preston concluded the conversation, a white object was thrown in their direction. It might have been a snowball, a chunk of ice, or a piece of white birch cordwood. Whatever its composition, the missile struck the muzzle of Private Montgomery’s musket. Montgomery stepped back, recovered his balance, and discharged his weapon. Many scurried for cover or ducked down. Surprisingly, quite a few remained frozen in place, unable to believe that a shot had been fired. There was a pause, punctuated incredibly by renewed shouts of ‘Fire!'”

“Estimates of the elapsed time between the first and next shots varied, but most observers agreed that there had been sufficient time, somewhere between a few seconds and half a minute, for Preston to have commanded the men to halt. Prompted by the first shot and without any prohibition from Preston, several of the other soldiers then fired at the crowd.”

“In none of these cases can we know with certainty what a soldier was thinking when he fired his weapon. Montgomery most likely had inadvertently pulled the trigger. The impulse of the others is murkier. Perhaps some did believe they were defending their lives or obeying a command, and perhaps a few discharged their weapons immediately after an adjacent comrade had fired. It is just as likely that several of them, without any premeditation, seized the opportunity to vent their frustration and anger at the hostile residents or to attain revenge. Whatever the case, the massacre on King Street was a soldiers’ riot.”

“Five people died and six others were wounded, but the punishment for Preston and the eight soldiers, beyond incarceration until the conclusion of their trials, was two branded thumbs. The citizens of Boston could take pride that there had been a fair and open trial. There had been no vigilante justice, but neither had there been justice. Had the victims been more prominent, such as the wounded merchant Edward Payne, rather than transient or poor, there might have been more of an outcry. As it was, there was some grumbling, an inflammatory broadside that was pulled down off the door of the Town House, and a series of lengthy newspaper articles by Samuel Adams.Most Bostonians settled for returning to a life without soldiers and with fewer duties on commerce.”

Recommended books:

• The Boston Massacre: A Family History by Serena Zabin
• Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
• The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution by Alfred F. Young
• Boston Riots: Three Centuries of Social Violence by Jack Tager

Rating: ****

Book Review: As If an Enemy’s Country by Richard Archer

Author: Richard Archer
Title: As If an Enemy’s Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution
Publication Info: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.
Summary/Review:

I read this book 14 years ago and this reread is for a book group discussion.  I actually didn’t remember a lot of the details in the book.  Actually, there are historical facts in this book that I thought I learned in more recent years, so I guess I actually learned them again.

This work focus on a period in Boston’s history in the lead up to the American Revolution.  It starts with resistance to Parliamentary taxation in the early 1760s which in Boston often involved intimidation and violence against government officials and tax agents as well as smuggling.  In response, the British government sent troops to “keep the peace” This lead to 18 months of occupation with increasing tension among the soldiers and the populace culminating with soldiers shooting and killing five civilians.  After the “massacre” the troops were pulled from Boston and with the concurrent repeal of taxes a period of normalcy followed, although Bostonians were forever changed by the experience.

I like that this book tests a lot of the assumptions of the Revolutionary period.  Classifications of people as “patriots” or “loyalists” didn’t exist, although there was a popular party and a court party.  Even here, people who ultimately remained loyal to Britain were still involved in non-importation agreements.  I also think that Archer is very even-handed in describing the actions and motivations of all the people involved, for example a sympathetic view of the soldiers involved in the massacre which nonetheless doesn’t excuse them of their culpability.  He also effectively describes the role of class and race in these events.  This includes the actions of violence and intimidation as being dismissed as the acts of the “rabble,” or outsiders such as sailors.  Black men serving as drummers for the British troops also raised the racial animus of the colonists.

All in all this is an excellent work that was worth revisiting.

Favorite Passages:

“In short, during the British occupation of Boston, one man in three was a soldier. Redcoats were everywhere, on duty and off. Theirs was not a casual or unobtrusive presence. In the streets, along the ropewalks, in the taverns, directly outside the Town House where the main guard was located, at checkpoints, on the Common, daytime and night, the people of Boston encountered the representatives of British power. They could not be avoided.”

“There was no mistaking that the Sugar Act was a tax bill. The preamble, declaring its intent to raise funds to help pay for troops in North America, made that clear. Up to this time, Parliament had requisitioned money through colonial legislatures, allowing the constitutional voices of those who were to be taxed to be heard. For the first time, the British government (Crown and all) prepared to tax colonists directly, with no pretense of representation. The Sugar Act delineated taxable commodities and outlined measures for eliminating, or at least significantly reducing, smuggling. It was a tax bill, not a trade bill.”

“To supplement their meager incomes, some soldiers took part-time work. Patrick Dines of the 29th, for example, found employment in a wig maker’s shop. Others hustled jobs with rope makers and did a variety of tasks along the waterfront. But such competition depressed wages, reduced opportunities for locals, and deepened the resentment over the occupation.”

“Promoting desertion was another way to undermine the standing army, as colonists recognized almost immediately, and unhappy soldiers were plentiful among the regiments. Despite the sullen greeting they received as they garrisoned Boston, the troops realized that a new life in the countryside might be an improvement over their current condition; at least forty of the regulars deserted within the first two weeks of the occupation. Bostonians and others apparently encouraged and assisted soldiers to flee.”

“Before the captain reached the troops, Henry Knox literally pulled him aside by the coat. ‘For God’s sake take care of your Men for if they fire your life must be answerable,” Knox pleaded. ‘I am sensible of it,’ Preston peevishly replied and then hurried on to take command.

“As Preston concluded the conversation, a white object was thrown in their direction. It might have been a snowball, a chunk of ice, or a piece of white birch cordwood. Whatever its composition, the missile struck the muzzle of Private Montgomery’s musket. Montgomery stepped back, recovered his balance, and discharged his weapon. Many scurried for cover or ducked down. Surprisingly, quite a few remained frozen in place, unable to believe that a shot had been fired. There was a pause, punctuated incredibly by renewed shouts of ‘Fire!'”

“Estimates of the elapsed time between the first and next shots varied, but most observers agreed that there had been sufficient time, somewhere between a few seconds and half a minute, for Preston to have commanded the men to halt. Prompted by the first shot and without any prohibition from Preston, several of the other soldiers then fired at the crowd.”

“In none of these cases can we know with certainty what a soldier was thinking when he fired his weapon. Montgomery most likely had inadvertently pulled the trigger. The impulse of the others is murkier. Perhaps some did believe they were defending their lives or obeying a command, and perhaps a few discharged their weapons immediately after an adjacent comrade had fired. It is just as likely that several of them, without any premeditation, seized the opportunity to vent their frustration and anger at the hostile residents or to attain revenge. Whatever the case, the massacre on King Street was a soldiers’ riot.”

“Five people died and six others were wounded, but the punishment for Preston and the eight soldiers, beyond incarceration until the conclusion of their trials, was two branded thumbs. The citizens of Boston could take pride that there had been a fair and open trial. There had been no vigilante justice, but neither had there been justice. Had the victims been more prominent, such as the wounded merchant Edward Payne, rather than transient or poor, there might have been more of an outcry. As it was, there was some grumbling, an inflammatory broadside that was pulled down off the door of the Town House, and a series of lengthy newspaper articles by Samuel Adams.Most Bostonians settled for returning to a life without soldiers and with fewer duties on commerce.”

Recommended books:

• The Boston Massacre: A Family History by Serena Zabin
• Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
• The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution by Alfred F. Young
• Boston Riots: Three Centuries of Social Violence by Jack Tager

Rating: ****

Book Review: As If an Enemy’s Country by Richard Archer

Author: Richard Archer
Title: As If an Enemy’s Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution
Publication Info: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.
Summary/Review:

I read this book 14 years ago and this reread is for a book group discussion.  I actually didn’t remember a lot of the details in the book.  Actually, there are historical facts in this book that I thought I learned in more recent years, so I guess I actually learned them again.

This work focus on a period in Boston’s history in the lead up to the American Revolution.  It starts with resistance to Parliamentary taxation in the early 1760s which in Boston often involved intimidation and violence against government officials and tax agents as well as smuggling.  In response, the British government sent troops to “keep the peace” This lead to 18 months of occupation with increasing tension among the soldiers and the populace culminating with soldiers shooting and killing five civilians.  After the “massacre” the troops were pulled from Boston and with the concurrent repeal of taxes a period of normalcy followed, although Bostonians were forever changed by the experience.

I like that this book tests a lot of the assumptions of the Revolutionary period.  Classifications of people as “patriots” or “loyalists” didn’t exist, although there was a popular party and a court party.  Even here, people who ultimately remained loyal to Britain were still involved in non-importation agreements.  I also think that Archer is very even-handed in describing the actions and motivations of all the people involved, for example a sympathetic view of the soldiers involved in the massacre which nonetheless doesn’t excuse them of their culpability.  He also effectively describes the role of class and race in these events.  This includes the actions of violence and intimidation as being dismissed as the acts of the “rabble,” or outsiders such as sailors.  Black men serving as drummers for the British troops also raised the racial animus of the colonists.

All in all this is an excellent work that was worth revisiting.

Favorite Passages:

“In short, during the British occupation of Boston, one man in three was a soldier. Redcoats were everywhere, on duty and off. Theirs was not a casual or unobtrusive presence. In the streets, along the ropewalks, in the taverns, directly outside the Town House where the main guard was located, at checkpoints, on the Common, daytime and night, the people of Boston encountered the representatives of British power. They could not be avoided.”

“There was no mistaking that the Sugar Act was a tax bill. The preamble, declaring its intent to raise funds to help pay for troops in North America, made that clear. Up to this time, Parliament had requisitioned money through colonial legislatures, allowing the constitutional voices of those who were to be taxed to be heard. For the first time, the British government (Crown and all) prepared to tax colonists directly, with no pretense of representation. The Sugar Act delineated taxable commodities and outlined measures for eliminating, or at least significantly reducing, smuggling. It was a tax bill, not a trade bill.”

“To supplement their meager incomes, some soldiers took part-time work. Patrick Dines of the 29th, for example, found employment in a wig maker’s shop. Others hustled jobs with rope makers and did a variety of tasks along the waterfront. But such competition depressed wages, reduced opportunities for locals, and deepened the resentment over the occupation.”

“Promoting desertion was another way to undermine the standing army, as colonists recognized almost immediately, and unhappy soldiers were plentiful among the regiments. Despite the sullen greeting they received as they garrisoned Boston, the troops realized that a new life in the countryside might be an improvement over their current condition; at least forty of the regulars deserted within the first two weeks of the occupation. Bostonians and others apparently encouraged and assisted soldiers to flee.”

“Before the captain reached the troops, Henry Knox literally pulled him aside by the coat. ‘For God’s sake take care of your Men for if they fire your life must be answerable,” Knox pleaded. ‘I am sensible of it,’ Preston peevishly replied and then hurried on to take command.

“As Preston concluded the conversation, a white object was thrown in their direction. It might have been a snowball, a chunk of ice, or a piece of white birch cordwood. Whatever its composition, the missile struck the muzzle of Private Montgomery’s musket. Montgomery stepped back, recovered his balance, and discharged his weapon. Many scurried for cover or ducked down. Surprisingly, quite a few remained frozen in place, unable to believe that a shot had been fired. There was a pause, punctuated incredibly by renewed shouts of ‘Fire!'”

“Estimates of the elapsed time between the first and next shots varied, but most observers agreed that there had been sufficient time, somewhere between a few seconds and half a minute, for Preston to have commanded the men to halt. Prompted by the first shot and without any prohibition from Preston, several of the other soldiers then fired at the crowd.”

“In none of these cases can we know with certainty what a soldier was thinking when he fired his weapon. Montgomery most likely had inadvertently pulled the trigger. The impulse of the others is murkier. Perhaps some did believe they were defending their lives or obeying a command, and perhaps a few discharged their weapons immediately after an adjacent comrade had fired. It is just as likely that several of them, without any premeditation, seized the opportunity to vent their frustration and anger at the hostile residents or to attain revenge. Whatever the case, the massacre on King Street was a soldiers’ riot.”

“Five people died and six others were wounded, but the punishment for Preston and the eight soldiers, beyond incarceration until the conclusion of their trials, was two branded thumbs. The citizens of Boston could take pride that there had been a fair and open trial. There had been no vigilante justice, but neither had there been justice. Had the victims been more prominent, such as the wounded merchant Edward Payne, rather than transient or poor, there might have been more of an outcry. As it was, there was some grumbling, an inflammatory broadside that was pulled down off the door of the Town House, and a series of lengthy newspaper articles by Samuel Adams.Most Bostonians settled for returning to a life without soldiers and with fewer duties on commerce.”

Recommended books:

• The Boston Massacre: A Family History by Serena Zabin
• Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
• The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution by Alfred F. Young
• Boston Riots: Three Centuries of Social Violence by Jack Tager

Rating: ****

Letter to the Editor: France helped make America | Jamestown News

As we Americans celebrate the 250th anniversary of our independence, I find myself thinking not only about t…
#France #FR #Europe #EU #250thanniversary #admiraldegrasse #america250 #AmericanRevolution #battleofthecxapes #British #chesapeake #continentalarmy #cornwallis #georgewashingont #independence #jamestown #jamestownnews #Lafayette #lettertotheeditor #roberthicks #rochambeau #yorktown
https://www.europesays.com/france/76665/

POV: you stepped back into 1776

https://kimbodianspeaks.wordpress.com/2026/09/08/pov-you-stepped-back-into-1776/

Good morning! Two views of buildings at Crown Point, NY. There was a French, then British fort here. In 1775 it was captured by the colonists and a local militia group during the #AmericanRevolution. #history #photography

Good morning! Two views of buildings at Crown Point, NY. There was a French, then British fort here. In 1775 it was captured by the colonists and a local militia group during the #AmericanRevolution. #history #photography

Good morning! Two views of buildings at Crown Point, NY. There was a French, then British fort here. In 1775 it was captured by the colonists and a local militia group during the #AmericanRevolution. #history #photography

Good morning! Two views of buildings at Crown Point, NY. There was a French, then British fort here. In 1775 it was captured by the colonists and a local militia group during the #AmericanRevolution. #history #photography

https://www.europesays.com/people/211530/ Peter Thiel in Aspen: The pope is ‘working for the Chinese Communists’ | Regional/National Headlines #AmericanRevolution #Antichrist #ArtificialIntelligence #China #Democracy #DemocraticParty(unitedStates) #DemocraticSocialism #FormsOfGovernment #FrancisFukuyama #HolySee #LiberalDemocracy #PeterThiel #PoliticalIdeologies #PoliticalScience #Politics #PopeLeoXIV #UnitedStates

RE: https://newsie.social/@TheConversationUS/117188457811842433

Fascinating story about #DNA , #archeology and the #AmericanRevolution. It should be read by wannabe mercenaries in #Kenya , #Indonesia and anywhere else who are thinking about joining the #Russian invasion of #Ukraine.

This will be you if you join the #vatniks 👉 ☠️ 🌻

RE: https://newsie.social/@TheConversationUS/117188457811842433

Fascinating story about #DNA , #archeology and the #AmericanRevolution. It should be read by wannabe mercenaries in #Kenya , #Indonesia and anywhere else who are thinking about joining the #Russian invasion of #Ukraine.

This will be you if you join the #vatniks 👉 ☠️ 🌻

RE: https://newsie.social/@TheConversationUS/117188457811842433

Fascinating story about #DNA , #archeology and the #AmericanRevolution. It should be read by wannabe mercenaries in #Kenya , #Indonesia and anywhere else who are thinking about joining the #Russian invasion of #Ukraine.

This will be you if you join the #vatniks 👉 ☠️ 🌻

RE: https://newsie.social/@TheConversationUS/117188457811842433

Fascinating story about #DNA , #archeology and the #AmericanRevolution. It should be read by wannabe mercenaries in #Kenya , #Indonesia and anywhere else who are thinking about joining the #Russian invasion of #Ukraine.

This will be you if you join the #vatniks 👉 ☠️ 🌻

https://www.europesays.com/ch/119254/ New Bern marks 252nd anniversary of New Bern Resolves, honors unsung patriots #AmericanRevolution #Bern #Ceremony #DaughtersOfTheAmericanRevolution #historical #NewBern #NorthCarolina #resolves #SonsOfTheAmericanRevolution #TryonPalace

Finished app.thestorygraph.com/books/e48daa...

#books #ebooks #kobo #bookthreads #booksky #americanrevolution #history #politics #philosophy

First Principles: What America...

Finished app.thestorygraph.com/books/e48daa...

#books #ebooks #kobo #bookthreads #booksky #americanrevolution #history #politics #philosophy

First Principles: What America...

Finished app.thestorygraph.com/books/e48daa...

#books #ebooks #kobo #bookthreads #booksky #americanrevolution #history #politics #philosophy

First Principles: What America...

Finished app.thestorygraph.com/books/e48daa...

#books #ebooks #kobo #bookthreads #booksky #americanrevolution #history #politics #philosophy

First Principles: What America...

Saluting America’s ‘Founding Stepfather From Germany’

In Washington’s Lafayette Park is a statue of Baron Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand von Steuben. (Dreamstime) The…
#Germany #DE #Europe #EU #Europa #AmericanRevolution #GeorgeWashington #Newsmax #OrderoftheFoundersandPatriotsofAmerica #vonSteuben
https://www.europesays.com/germany/74833/

Book Review: Boston, 1776 by J.D. Dickey  

Author: J.D. Dickey  
Title: Boston, 1776: A Rogue Tour of Revolution City
Publication Info: Diversion Publishing, 2026
Summary/Review:

The conceit of this book is that it is a guidebook written for the visitor to Boston in the summer of 1776.  The town is in rough shape after battles and siege of the previous year, yet celebrating the recent declaration of independence for the American states.  Dickey guides us through a town that is not only physically smaller before landmaking and annexation, but also has a small town feeling among its population.  Neighborhood by neighborhood (as well as the then separate towns of Charlestown, Roxbury, and Dorchester) we visit sites that are already of historical interest, learning of important events and people in that location, but also the daily life of everyday people of varied backgrounds.  Dickey does an excellent job of tying together disparate historical events and showing the connections among them.  This book is full of historical details including many that I’m not familiar with despite decades of reading about Boston history and leading historical walking tours.

Favorite Passages:

On their off time, soldiers took jobs at workshops, docks, and ropewalks, working for wages less than those of hometown laborers and taking jobs away from residents who desperately needed them. More alarmingly, the British troops fought with local night watchmen who dared to question their movements after dark, and they behaved boorishly on and off duty. They drank to excess, and patriot newspapers reported their transgressions in detail. One journal condemned the “drunkenness, debaucheries, and other extravagances which prevail by means of the troops being quartered in the midst of a town, where distilled spirits are so cheap and plenty.”

Surprisingly, the main lawyer for the grenadiers’ defense would be John Adams, ardent patriot and Samuel Adams’s cousin. The younger Adams took the job to show the Whig faction was just as committed to protecting the traditional rights of British subjects (including trial by jury) as the Crown was to violating them. Through skillful legal maneuvers, Adams got a jury to acquit Preston of murder and, in a separate trial, helped five of the seven grenadiers to go free as well, though two would be convicted of manslaughter and branded on the thumbs. Samuel Adams and other radicals denounced the lenient verdicts, but the outcome did forestall another riot, at least for the moment

One thing is certain: Almost everyone wants the town to recover from the last decade of conflict, chaos, and financial near ruin. Not only have trade and commerce been crippled, but due to the exodus of patriots before the siege and the exodus of loyalists after it, the town has plummeted from more than 15,500 citizens to 2,700 and is only now recovering some of those resident.

Assuming you’re in good health, you can choose to get inoculated—as five thousand Bostonians have been, and as Washington has ordered his troops to be. During periods when the procedure is allowed, a physician will make a small incision in your skin with a lancet carrying the virus, and you will have to isolate yourself as you endure some milder symptoms of the disease. Once you’re free of those symptoms, you will have lifelong immunity, provided there isn’t a complication from the procedure. About six in one thousand people die from inoculation—a figure that might seem unsettling, but is actually far less than the fatality rate of the disease itself (one in ten).

As you stroll about the wharves, you might hear the sailors called “Jack Tars,” or even “Jolly Tars.” It’s true they can have a rough look, with baggy tar-smeared breeches, short jackets and Monmouth caps, and copious tattoos, but they’re as committed to the Revolution as any genteel patriot with a Harvard degree or a law office. They call themselves the Sons of Neptune (matching the more-famous Sons of Liberty) and have participated in most of the boycotts, protests, and uprisings that have animated the town over the last thirty years. None of these revolts were more violent than the riots of 1747—recalled as “the most spectacular series of impressment riots in the eighteenth century”—which countered the attempts the Royal Navy to force sailors to serve in the fleet by kidnapping them from the streets and breaking into their homes. The old salts haven’t forgotten the outrage, making just one more reason for them to serve the cause of independence from the decks or the docks.

Many whalers are black and find in the work a freedom they don’t have on shore. Some advance up to mate or harpooner, and in a few cases, to captain. Overall, one in six sailors is black, and they make up a good portion of local residents too (one in ten). However, like most towns in America, Boston is a slave town, and the majority of the caulkers, smiths, and sailmakers you see working in the yards are not free to quit their labors or get paid for them. Some merchants are known to hold or traffic in slaves and place advertisements for buying or selling them in newspapers. Enslaved mariners often get the worst jobs in the most dangerous conditions. Free black laborers face a similar struggle but at least have the option of negotiating their wages or quitting a job if they don’t like it.

Andrew Eliot might be the bravest preacher in town. He was one of the first to criticize the Stamp Act and has long leaned toward Whiggish politics, but he chose to remain in town during the siege and continue leading his New North congregation. It was a bold step, and he was soon serving hundreds of other Protestants whose ministers had decamped for the countryside, even providing them with food and medicine since many were lower class or poor. But the war proved too much for him. Upon witnessing the ruination of the town and the collapse of its population, he could only react in horror: “poor Boston May God sanctify our distresses which are greater than you can conceive—Such a Sabbath of melancholy and darkness I never knew.” Since then, his health has suffered greatly, and if you chance to meet him, you might think the siege had never ended.

Even with the strength of their community, black residents of this and other parts of Boston face many challenges. Employers pay them less than whites, and if they own their own businesses, competitors can try to sue them to drive them out of business, knowing the law will not treat them fairly. Town and provincial statutes forbid them from carrying sticks or canes or knives, loitering on the Sabbath, and buying food in the country and selling it in town. The General Court also forbids interracial sex and marriage, and designates anyone born to such a union a “molatto bastard child.” Enslaved people face greater restrictions: They can’t buy or sell goods, keep hogs or swine, stay out after 9:00 p.m., defy an order from a slaveholder, or even gain their freedom without a bond posted for their release. In defiance of such laws, some bondsmen have escaped their captivity and fled to the countryside, while others have found refuge in West Boston, in neighborhoods just like this one.

Unlike former colonies to the south, Massachusetts permits enslaved people to own property, receive a trial by jury, and sue in court. Accordingly, they have filed suit when a slaveholder’s promise of manumission is revoked, or when he subjects them to cruel and barbaric treatment. They can also petition the legislature to grant them relief. In 1773, a slave named Felix demanded that the General Court improve the welfare of the enslaved, since they were subject to oppression contrary to moral law and human dignity. The next year, another petition from a group of bondsmen said they had a right to freedom and liberty like everyone else and asked for one day a week to work for themselves, so as to gain enough money to purchase their freedom. Prompted by the petitions and by changing public opinion, the Assembly again passed a bill to ban the import of slaves into the colony—though Governor Hutchinson, himself a slaveholder, refused to sign it.

Roxbury has suffered £24,412 worth of damage. When Abigail Adams came to visit, she was shocked by the conditions you see before you, writing to John, “Roxbury looks more injured than Boston, that is, the houses look more torn to pieces. I was astonished at the extent of our lines and their strength.” Another writer put it in more detail: Nothing struck me with more horror than the present condition of Roxbury. That once busy, crowded street is now occupied only by a picket-guard. The houses are deserted, the windows taken out, and many shot-holes visible. Some have been burnt, and others pulled down to make room for the fortifications. A wall of earth is carried across the street to [an] old house, where there is a formidable fort mounted with cannon.

Roxbury has suffered £24,412 worth of damage. When Abigail Adams came to visit, she was shocked by the conditions you see before you, writing to John, “Roxbury looks more injured than Boston, that is, the houses look more torn to pieces. I was astonished at the extent of our lines and their strength.” Another writer put it in more detail: Nothing struck me with more horror than the present condition of Roxbury. That once busy, crowded street is now occupied only by a picket-guard. The houses are deserted, the windows taken out, and many shot-holes visible. Some have been burnt, and others pulled down to make room for the fortifications. A wall of earth is carried across the street to [an] old house, where there is a formidable fort mounted with cannon.

Recommended books:

• 1776 by David McCullough
• Siege: How General Washington Kicked the British Out of Boston and Launched a Revolution by Roxane Orgill
• Bunker Hill : A City, A Siege, A Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
• The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution by Alfred F. Young
• The Boston Massacre : A Family History by Serena R. Zabin
• Boston: A Topographical History by Walter Muir Whitehill
• Boston ways: High, By, and Folk by George F. Weston
• Dr. Johnson’s London: Coffee-Houses and Climbing Boys, Medicine, Toothpaste and Gin, Poverty and Press-Gangs, Freakshows and Female Education by Liza Picard

Rating: ****

Book Review: Boston, 1776 by J.D. Dickey  

Author: J.D. Dickey  
Title: Boston, 1776: A Rogue Tour of Revolution City
Publication Info: Diversion Publishing, 2026
Summary/Review:

The conceit of this book is that it is a guidebook written for the visitor to Boston in the summer of 1776.  The town is in rough shape after battles and siege of the previous year, yet celebrating the recent declaration of independence for the American states.  Dickey guides us through a town that is not only physically smaller before landmaking and annexation, but also has a small town feeling among its population.  Neighborhood by neighborhood (as well as the then separate towns of Charlestown, Roxbury, and Dorchester) we visit sites that are already of historical interest, learning of important events and people in that location, but also the daily life of everyday people of varied backgrounds.  Dickey does an excellent job of tying together disparate historical events and showing the connections among them.  This book is full of historical details including many that I’m not familiar with despite decades of reading about Boston history and leading historical walking tours.

Favorite Passages:

On their off time, soldiers took jobs at workshops, docks, and ropewalks, working for wages less than those of hometown laborers and taking jobs away from residents who desperately needed them. More alarmingly, the British troops fought with local night watchmen who dared to question their movements after dark, and they behaved boorishly on and off duty. They drank to excess, and patriot newspapers reported their transgressions in detail. One journal condemned the “drunkenness, debaucheries, and other extravagances which prevail by means of the troops being quartered in the midst of a town, where distilled spirits are so cheap and plenty.”

Surprisingly, the main lawyer for the grenadiers’ defense would be John Adams, ardent patriot and Samuel Adams’s cousin. The younger Adams took the job to show the Whig faction was just as committed to protecting the traditional rights of British subjects (including trial by jury) as the Crown was to violating them. Through skillful legal maneuvers, Adams got a jury to acquit Preston of murder and, in a separate trial, helped five of the seven grenadiers to go free as well, though two would be convicted of manslaughter and branded on the thumbs. Samuel Adams and other radicals denounced the lenient verdicts, but the outcome did forestall another riot, at least for the moment

One thing is certain: Almost everyone wants the town to recover from the last decade of conflict, chaos, and financial near ruin. Not only have trade and commerce been crippled, but due to the exodus of patriots before the siege and the exodus of loyalists after it, the town has plummeted from more than 15,500 citizens to 2,700 and is only now recovering some of those resident.

Assuming you’re in good health, you can choose to get inoculated—as five thousand Bostonians have been, and as Washington has ordered his troops to be. During periods when the procedure is allowed, a physician will make a small incision in your skin with a lancet carrying the virus, and you will have to isolate yourself as you endure some milder symptoms of the disease. Once you’re free of those symptoms, you will have lifelong immunity, provided there isn’t a complication from the procedure. About six in one thousand people die from inoculation—a figure that might seem unsettling, but is actually far less than the fatality rate of the disease itself (one in ten).

As you stroll about the wharves, you might hear the sailors called “Jack Tars,” or even “Jolly Tars.” It’s true they can have a rough look, with baggy tar-smeared breeches, short jackets and Monmouth caps, and copious tattoos, but they’re as committed to the Revolution as any genteel patriot with a Harvard degree or a law office. They call themselves the Sons of Neptune (matching the more-famous Sons of Liberty) and have participated in most of the boycotts, protests, and uprisings that have animated the town over the last thirty years. None of these revolts were more violent than the riots of 1747—recalled as “the most spectacular series of impressment riots in the eighteenth century”—which countered the attempts the Royal Navy to force sailors to serve in the fleet by kidnapping them from the streets and breaking into their homes. The old salts haven’t forgotten the outrage, making just one more reason for them to serve the cause of independence from the decks or the docks.

Many whalers are black and find in the work a freedom they don’t have on shore. Some advance up to mate or harpooner, and in a few cases, to captain. Overall, one in six sailors is black, and they make up a good portion of local residents too (one in ten). However, like most towns in America, Boston is a slave town, and the majority of the caulkers, smiths, and sailmakers you see working in the yards are not free to quit their labors or get paid for them. Some merchants are known to hold or traffic in slaves and place advertisements for buying or selling them in newspapers. Enslaved mariners often get the worst jobs in the most dangerous conditions. Free black laborers face a similar struggle but at least have the option of negotiating their wages or quitting a job if they don’t like it.

Andrew Eliot might be the bravest preacher in town. He was one of the first to criticize the Stamp Act and has long leaned toward Whiggish politics, but he chose to remain in town during the siege and continue leading his New North congregation. It was a bold step, and he was soon serving hundreds of other Protestants whose ministers had decamped for the countryside, even providing them with food and medicine since many were lower class or poor. But the war proved too much for him. Upon witnessing the ruination of the town and the collapse of its population, he could only react in horror: “poor Boston May God sanctify our distresses which are greater than you can conceive—Such a Sabbath of melancholy and darkness I never knew.” Since then, his health has suffered greatly, and if you chance to meet him, you might think the siege had never ended.

Even with the strength of their community, black residents of this and other parts of Boston face many challenges. Employers pay them less than whites, and if they own their own businesses, competitors can try to sue them to drive them out of business, knowing the law will not treat them fairly. Town and provincial statutes forbid them from carrying sticks or canes or knives, loitering on the Sabbath, and buying food in the country and selling it in town. The General Court also forbids interracial sex and marriage, and designates anyone born to such a union a “molatto bastard child.” Enslaved people face greater restrictions: They can’t buy or sell goods, keep hogs or swine, stay out after 9:00 p.m., defy an order from a slaveholder, or even gain their freedom without a bond posted for their release. In defiance of such laws, some bondsmen have escaped their captivity and fled to the countryside, while others have found refuge in West Boston, in neighborhoods just like this one.

Unlike former colonies to the south, Massachusetts permits enslaved people to own property, receive a trial by jury, and sue in court. Accordingly, they have filed suit when a slaveholder’s promise of manumission is revoked, or when he subjects them to cruel and barbaric treatment. They can also petition the legislature to grant them relief. In 1773, a slave named Felix demanded that the General Court improve the welfare of the enslaved, since they were subject to oppression contrary to moral law and human dignity. The next year, another petition from a group of bondsmen said they had a right to freedom and liberty like everyone else and asked for one day a week to work for themselves, so as to gain enough money to purchase their freedom. Prompted by the petitions and by changing public opinion, the Assembly again passed a bill to ban the import of slaves into the colony—though Governor Hutchinson, himself a slaveholder, refused to sign it.

Roxbury has suffered £24,412 worth of damage. When Abigail Adams came to visit, she was shocked by the conditions you see before you, writing to John, “Roxbury looks more injured than Boston, that is, the houses look more torn to pieces. I was astonished at the extent of our lines and their strength.” Another writer put it in more detail: Nothing struck me with more horror than the present condition of Roxbury. That once busy, crowded street is now occupied only by a picket-guard. The houses are deserted, the windows taken out, and many shot-holes visible. Some have been burnt, and others pulled down to make room for the fortifications. A wall of earth is carried across the street to [an] old house, where there is a formidable fort mounted with cannon.

Roxbury has suffered £24,412 worth of damage. When Abigail Adams came to visit, she was shocked by the conditions you see before you, writing to John, “Roxbury looks more injured than Boston, that is, the houses look more torn to pieces. I was astonished at the extent of our lines and their strength.” Another writer put it in more detail: Nothing struck me with more horror than the present condition of Roxbury. That once busy, crowded street is now occupied only by a picket-guard. The houses are deserted, the windows taken out, and many shot-holes visible. Some have been burnt, and others pulled down to make room for the fortifications. A wall of earth is carried across the street to [an] old house, where there is a formidable fort mounted with cannon.

Recommended books:

• 1776 by David McCullough
• Siege: How General Washington Kicked the British Out of Boston and Launched a Revolution by Roxane Orgill
• Bunker Hill : A City, A Siege, A Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
• The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution by Alfred F. Young
• The Boston Massacre : A Family History by Serena R. Zabin
• Boston: A Topographical History by Walter Muir Whitehill
• Boston ways: High, By, and Folk by George F. Weston
• Dr. Johnson’s London: Coffee-Houses and Climbing Boys, Medicine, Toothpaste and Gin, Poverty and Press-Gangs, Freakshows and Female Education by Liza Picard

Rating: ****

The Roaring Twenties

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/29/the-roaring-twenties/

The Roaring Twenties

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/29/the-roaring-twenties/

The Roaring Twenties

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/29/the-roaring-twenties/

The Roaring Twenties

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/29/the-roaring-twenties/

Peer AI Review

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/28/peer-ai-review/

Peer AI Review

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/28/peer-ai-review/

Peer AI Review

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/28/peer-ai-review/

Peer AI Review

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/28/peer-ai-review/

A Guide to the Gazette articles 01~50

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/26/a-guide-to-the-gazette-articles-0150/

A Guide to the Gazette articles 01~50

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/26/a-guide-to-the-gazette-articles-0150/

The End of the Old World

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/26/the-end-of-the-old-world/

The End of the Old World

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/26/the-end-of-the-old-world/

The End of the Old World

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/26/the-end-of-the-old-world/

The End of the Old World

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/26/the-end-of-the-old-world/

Wilson’s Impossible Peace

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/25/wilsons-impossible-peace/

Wilson’s Impossible Peace

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/25/wilsons-impossible-peace/

Wilson’s Impossible Peace

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/25/wilsons-impossible-peace/

Wilson’s Impossible Peace

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/25/wilsons-impossible-peace/

The Canal Between Two Oceans

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/24/the-canal-between-two-oceans/

The Canal Between Two Oceans

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/24/the-canal-between-two-oceans/

The Canal Between Two Oceans

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/24/the-canal-between-two-oceans/

The Canal Between Two Oceans

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/24/the-canal-between-two-oceans/

The Progressive President

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/23/the-progressive-president/

The Progressive President

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/23/the-progressive-president/

The Progressive President

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/23/the-progressive-president/

The Progressive President

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/23/the-progressive-president/

When America Crossed the Ocean

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/22/when-america-crossed-the-ocean/

When America Crossed the Ocean

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/22/when-america-crossed-the-ocean/

When America Crossed the Ocean

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/22/when-america-crossed-the-ocean/

When America Crossed the Ocean

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/22/when-america-crossed-the-ocean/

Untapped Cities takes a look at the Conference House in Tottenville, where Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge met with British Admiral Lord Howe in September 1776, and the war nearly ended. I am featured in their video archive discussing Tottenville's overlooked history. If you love local history, this one is worth your time. #Tottenville #StatenIsland #AmericanRevolution #LocalHistory https://www.untappedcities.com/evolutionary-peace-conference-staten-island/

The Rise of Wall Street

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/20/the-rise-of-wall-street/

The Rise of Wall Street

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/20/the-rise-of-wall-street/

The Rise of Wall Street

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/20/the-rise-of-wall-street/

The Rise of Wall Street

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/20/the-rise-of-wall-street/

The Man Who Financed America

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/19/the-man-who-financed-america/

The Man Who Financed America

https://gotunitedstates.wordpress.com/2026/07/19/the-man-who-financed-america/