Category Archives: 18th century

America at 250: The Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary War, and the Founding as Seen Through Modern Film.

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Feature Image: Freedom Bell at Union Station. “Freedom Bell at Union Station” by dbking is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Early Encounters with History and Film

I first saw 1776 on an eighth‑grade field trip, and it hit perfectly. The music, the narrative, and the historical framing made it both fun and instructive. The year before, I had toured Washington, D.C.—the White House, Congress, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the National Archives, Arlington, Georgetown, Mount Vernon, Williamsburg, Patrick Henry’s Red Hill, Woodrow Wilson’s birthplace in Staunton, and Jefferson’s Monticello. My American‑history pump was primed, and 1776 met me at full readiness.

Philadelphia as the Stage of Independence

Set between May and July 1776, 1776 dramatizes the political struggle inside the Second Continental Congress as John Adams pushes the colonies toward independence. The film’s setting mirrors the real geography of the Revolution’s political machinery. Carpenters’ Hall, built between 1770 and 1774, hosted the First Continental Congress, bringing together delegates such as John Adams, Samuel Adams, George Washington, and Patrick Henry. The Second Continental Congress convened in Independence Hall beginning in May 1775.

Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia. The First Continental Congress met in Carpenters’ Hall precisely because it was not a royal space — a deliberate choice to avoid British‑controlled government buildings while delegates privately weighed trade boycotts and articulated colonial grievances. September 2001. Author’s photograph.

Abigail and John Adams exchanged more than 1,100 letters between 1762 and 1801, beginning in their courtship and continuing through John’s long absences in the Continental Congress and his diplomatic missions in Europe. Their correspondence essentially ended when John retired (from the U.S. presidency) in 1801 and the couple settled together in Quincy. Abigail died at 73 in 1818; John died at 90 on July 4, 1826—two centuries ago today. I’ve visited their graves at United First Parish Church in Quincy, along with all three Adams homesteads: the John Adams Birthplace (1681), the John Quincy Adams Birthplace (1717), Peacefield (the estate they purchased in 1788), and the Stone Library built in 1870 under J.Q. Adams’s will.

Author at Peacefield, July 1989. Purchased in 1787, Peacefield became the home and farm of John and Abigail Adams. It later housed their son John Quincy Adams and his wife Louisa Catherine, followed by their son Charles Francis Adams and his sons, historians Henry and Brooks Adams. Both John and Abigail died at Peacefield in Quincy, Massachusetts—Abigail on October 28, 1818, and John on July 4, 1826.

Abigail’s March–April 1776 letters blend political urgency with personal strain. She presses John toward independence, criticizes Virginia’s hierarchy and its contradictions on liberty, and pointedly demands legal protections for women—warning they will “foment a rebellion” if excluded. Her letters then turn to the epidemic sweeping Braintree, the pressure of household work, and her need for news from Congress. John’s reply is teasing but defensive, treating her call for women’s rights as one more uprising in a year already crowded with political unrest, insisting men will never surrender their “masculine systems” even though husbands are, in practice, “subjects” at home.

The musical 1776 draws heavily from these letters. “Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve / Till Then” captures their longing, their humor, and the shortages created by wartime separation. Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards lifted phrases directly from the correspondence, including Abigail’s complaints about scarce pins and John’s demands for saltpeter—details documented repeatedly in their late 1775 and early 1776 letters. Even the repeated sign off “Yours, yours, yours” comes straight from John’s actual closings.

“Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve / Till Then” near the beginning of the show pairs John Adams’s fast, exasperated critique of Congress with a quieter imagined exchange as he reads Abigail’s letter. The shift from political frustration to intimate connection mirrors the rhythm of their real correspondence: public crisis and private devotion intertwined in the founding of our country 250 years ago which we celebrate today.

Independence Hall. Both historic sites sit within Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia about 5 minutes apart on foot. In addition to the simple need for more space, by the time the Second Congress assembled, Lexington and Concord had already changed the stakes. The delegates were no longer a protest body; they were forced to operate as an emerging wartime government, making a formal legislative setting like the State House the appropriate venue. “Independence Hall” by michaelrighi is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The Independence Debate

By late spring 1776, the question of independence could no longer be deferred. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams urged Richard Henry Lee to introduce a resolution severing ties with Britain and its mercantile system “that cheat and rob the colonies.” John Dickinson led the opposition, arguing independence was reckless. When Adams believed he had the votes, Dickinson countered with a motion requiring unanimity. The vote tied, and John Hancock unexpectedly sided with Dickinson. Adams and Franklin responded by proposing that Congress draft a Declaration before taking the final vote, shaping the political terrain and buying time.

Drafting the Declaration

On June 11, Congress appointed the Committee of Five—Adams, Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Jefferson drafted the Declaration in a rented room on High Street during a brutal heat wave. Adams wrote that the air felt like “the fierce Breath of a hot oven.” Horseflies swarmed the city out of its livery stables, biting delegates through stockings both wool and silk. Only in early July did the weather break; Jefferson recorded 68°F on the morning of July 4 and 76°F that afternoon.

War in Crisis

While Jefferson wrote, the war deteriorated. The failed invasion of Canada left the Continental Army retreating in disorder, ravaged by smallpox. Washington braced for a massive British fleet assembling off New York—the largest amphibious assault in British history. Inside Congress, delegates debated how to reinforce the army, secure gunpowder, procure ships, and recruit soldiers. Bounties rose from $4 to $10 to $20 across 1776, but payment came in Continental paper money, which rapidly inflated. By 1779, the currency was nearly worthless. Casualties in the Revolutionary War were severe: nearly 7,000 killed in combat, 9,000 wounded, roughly 19,000 dead from disease, and another12,000 who perished from horrific conditions and disease as prisoners of war aboard British prison ships.

Scaled to today’s United States population of roughly 343 million—up from about 2.5 million in 1776—the Revolutionary War casualty figures would rise by a factor of about 137. In modern‑day terms, the war’s human toll would equal nearly 960,000 killed in combat, about 1.23 million wounded, roughly 2.6 million dead from disease, and approximately 1.64 million prisoners of war who died, compared with the original totals of 7,000 killed, 9,000 wounded, 19,000 dead from disease, and 12,000 POW deaths.

The Musical and Its Moment

The film’s musical centerpiece, “The Egg,” performed by Ken Howard, Howard Da Silva, and William Daniels, captures the moment when Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson commit themselves to the Declaration. Sherman Edwards—who wrote the show’s book, music, and lyrics—had been a successful pop songwriter before deciding to create “the great American musical.” 1776 opened on Broadway in March 1969, ran for 1,217 performances, won the Tony Award for Best Musical, and brought much of its original cast into the 1972 film.

Slavery and the Declaration’s Deleted Passage

The show does not avoid the era’s darker realities. Jefferson’s original draft included a forceful denunciation of slavery, describing King George as having “waged cruel war against human nature itself.” Congress removed the passage to preserve unity. Jefferson’s use of “Men” explicitly recognized the humanity of enslaved people—an acknowledgment absent from the final Declaration. Jefferson remained a lifelong slaveholder, yet he pursued legislation against the transatlantic trade, including Virginia’s 1778 ban and the 1807 federal prohibition he signed as president.

The July 2 Vote

The vote for independence on July 2 could not be delayed. British forces were landing on Staten Island that very day. Any hesitation would signal weakness to the colonies—and to British intelligence. Delaware’s vote depended on Caesar Rodney’s overnight ride; had he missed the session, the colony’s vote would have been discarded. Congress needed a clear, unanimous decision.

Crisis and Recovery

By December 1776, Washington’s army had shrunk by nearly 90 percent. British forces had captured Manhattan, taken thousands of prisoners, and seized artillery and ammunition. Thomas Paine, serving in the army, wrote The American Crisis, beginning with the line: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Washington wrote more soberly: “Our affairs are in a very bad way . . . the game is pretty near up.” His crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night reversed the momentum, but only barely.

Adams, Franklin, and the Diplomatic Front in France

A Young Nation Meets Old‑World Diplomacy

John Adams did not speak French, the dominant diplomatic language of the era. Benjamin Franklin was nearly thirty years older than Adams, while France’s new king, Louis XVI, was only twenty‑one. At his coronation, Marie Antoinette—just twenty—remarked, “God help us, for we reign too young.”

France Enters the Global Conflict

By late 1777, American finances were collapsing, and Philadelphia had fallen to the British. Many Americans believed trade ties with France were insufficient; military assistance was essential. The American victory at Saratoga convinced France to intervene. This decision launched the Anglo‑French (Bourbon) War, a global conflict (1778–1783) fought from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, overlapping almost entirely with the American Revolution.

Adams Arrives in France

Adams’s first diplomatic mission to France in 1778 produced little. He was largely ignored at Versailles. At forty‑two, he had been chosen partly for his vigor, while Franklin—now in his seventies—was seen as charming but indulgent. In one dramatized exchange, Louis XVI asks Franklin whether his fame in Paris comes from “science or the ladies,” to which Franklin replies, “Day and night, I am hard at work.”

A Fractured American Delegation

America’s other minister, Arthur Lee, was anti‑slavery but ineffective. Franklin and Lee led the delegation, while Adams worked behind the scenes. By late 1778, Congress promoted Franklin to minister plenipotentiary, leaving Adams sidelined and eventually sent home.

Adams Returns, Learns French, and Grows Frustrated

Adams returned to Paris in 1779 and this time learned French. After Lee was recalled, Adams joined Franklin in leading negotiations. But Adams believed the alliance had stalled. He wrote that the French intended “to keep their hands above our chin to prevent us from drowning—but not to lift our heads out of water.”

Confrontation with Vergennes

In March 1780, France’s foreign minister, Vergennes, summoned Adams to discuss American currency deflation. Adams instead aired grievances about French military inaction. The French had sent soldiers but few warships, diverting naval power to protect Caribbean interests. Adams insisted France must fully commit to the alliance. Vergennes bristled and declared he would deal only with Franklin going forward. Adams left France empty‑handed for the second time.

Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: General Washington’s Winter Encampment and Headquarters, 1777-1778.

During the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Army encamped at Valley Forge from December 1777 to June 1778. The stone house built between 1757 and 1773 by the family of Isaac Potts served as General George Washington’s headquarters.

Retreat After Brandywine and Collapse of Supply Lines

After Washington’s defeat at the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777, the Second Continental Congress fled Philadelphia, and Washington withdrew his force of roughly 12,000 soldiers to the strategically chosen high ground at Valley Forge, only a day’s march from the city. This third winter encampment quickly became defined by collapsing supply lines. On December 23, 1777, Washington wrote the President of Congress, then meeting 90 miles away in York, Pennsylvania, reporting that his officers had barely suppressed a “dangerous mutiny” driven by shortages of food, clothing, and basic provisions.

Washington’s Headquarters, Valley Forge Historical Park, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. June 2001. Author’s photograph.

Human Cost of the Winter

Washington understood the consequences of these conditions: malnutrition, exposure, and disease would kill about 2,000 soldiers—more than fifteen percent of the army—over the course of the winter. He warned Congress that “unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place in that [supply] line, this Army must inevitably be reduced to one or other of these three things, Starve, dissolve, or disperse, in order to obtain subsistence in the best manner they can.”

Congressional Intervention and Administrative Reform

The crisis marked a low point for the Continental Army, but Washington’s blunt communications forced action. A congressional delegation visited Valley Forge in late January 1778, and in March Congress created the office of Quartermaster General, appointing Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene to stabilize the army’s supply system—an administrative reform that proved vital to the war effort.

Washington’s First Inauguration, April 30, 1789: A Dramatized Moment in World History

This sequence is a dramatization of the first presidential inauguration from John Adams (2008). David Morse appears as Washington, while Paul Giamatti portrays the title character, anchoring the scene in the political and symbolic weight of the early republic.

George Washington was sworn in by New York Supreme Court Justice Robert Livingston (portrayed here by Alex Draper). Livingston was on the Committee of Five tasked with drafting the Declaration of Independence. Washington took the oath on Thursday, April 30, 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City, which served as the nation’s capital at the time. It was a moment of global significance—the formal launch of the American presidency and the constitutional republic.

In 1790, the capital moved to Philadelphia, where Washington’s second inauguration took place on March 4, 1793, inside the Senate chamber of Congress Hall. Philadelphia remained the national capital until 1800, when the government relocated permanently to Washington, D.C.

Adams and Jefferson: A Final Chapter

Jefferson’s narrow victory in 1800 made Adams the first one‑term president and sent him home to Quincy, resentful after years of partisan attacks. Their correspondence resumed only in 1812, beginning with Adams’s New Year’s greeting. They wrote steadily until July 4, 1826—the day both men died, fifty years after the Declaration.

Writing the Declaration of Independence, 1776, J.L.G. Ferris, 1921, Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Richmond, Virginia. Part of the famous America Series, this iconic painting depicts Franklin, Adams and Jefferson congregated at a table inside Jefferson’s Philadelphia lodgings to carefully review and revise the draft he delivered to Congress on June 28, 1776. Public Domain.

This explanatory article may be periodically updated.

250th Anniversary: The beginning of the American War for Independence started at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on the morning of April 19, 1775.

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PUBLISHED APRIL 19, 2025 7pm CT. Feature image: Lexington Minute Man, 1899, by H. H. Kitson (c.1863-1947) stands in Lexington Green west of Boston, Massachusetts. Although called Minute Man, the statue is meant to represent the local Lexington militiaman, colonists of many ages and backgrounds, who volunteered to be first responders to military and other threats. The actual “minute men” was part of an elite subset of militia who were young and fit and able to respond to the greatest danger and challenge. Author’s photograph, July 1989.

At the foot of the minuteman monument, visitors arrive in a steady flow, drawn to this enduring chapter of early American history. The bronze figure, rifle held in the classic Revolutionary‑era stance, recalls the citizen‑soldiers who first stepped forward to defend their towns. According to the National Park Service, the Minute Man National Historical Park—which includes Battle Road and its surrounding historic sites—welcomes more than 1 million visitors each year. see – Tourism to Minute Man National Historical Park contributes $102 million to local economy – Minute Man National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) – retrieved April 19, 2025.

H.H. Kitson, sculptor of the famed Lexington Minuteman, was born in England and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. After studying art in Paris, he returned to New York in 1884 and moved to Boston two years later, where he established a studio, taught, married one of his students, and raised three children. The monument was commissioned in 1898 for $10,000 by railroad executive and U.S. Congressman Francis Brown Hayes, erected in 1899 facing the route of the British advance, and formally unveiled on April 19, 1900, for the 125th anniversary of the battle. Public Domain. see – https://monuments.freedomsway.org/monuments/minute-man-statue/ – retrieved April 19, 2025.

On April 19, 1775, local militiamen stepped out from Buckman Tavern beside the Lexington common and formed two lines to face the advancing British troops. Their stand resulted in the first casualties of the American Revolution. During our visit, we also learned that the phrase “sleep tight” comes from the rope‑laced frames that supported Colonial‑era mattresses. Author’s photograph, July 1989.

Author’s wife on Lexington Green where the first shots of the War of American Independence were fired on April 19, 1775. Author’s photograph, July 1989.

Also on April 19, 1775, the British approached the town of Concord where the American colonists sprang into action. After an alarm rider notified minutemen and militia, scouts were sent out to reconnoiter British movements. They heard the cackle of gunfire at Lexington Green and, learning of this martial situation, Concord prepared. The British advanced to Concord and the colonial militia strategically retreated past the North Bridge to watch what the British would do. Meanwhile the colonists were checking on the safety of their own military stores. With Concord effectively in British hands the Regulars moved out to take the town’s two bridges over the Concord River. The South Bridge was taken but the North Bridge proved more problematic. They crossed the bridge but encountered the colonists who had moved past it and into an elevated position. Loyalists in town informed the British where the colonists kept their military stores filled with supplies such as gun powder, cannon, shot, and flour. The colonists had their own intelligence network and had moved these stores to other hidden locations. At a farm where they thought the military supplies to be stored, the British forced a woman who lived there, one Rebecca Barrett, to make them breakfast as they searched the premises. But they found, as the colonists planned, nothing. Although there were kegs of gunpowder stored in the farm next door, the British didn’t go look.

DO NOT FIRE UNLESS FIRED UPON.

Meanwhile, the British held the two Concord bridges and waited for their search party to return. At the same time, the American colonists were getting a better look at their red-coat adversaries. As the Americans held a military council, their growing military presence forced the British who had crossed the bridge to retreat back to it. Armed militiamen were streaming in from several towns and formed a formidable front. As the British were setting fires in downtown Concord, the American colonists could see the flames rising from their position on the high ground. Because of these fires (the British were burning carriages) the Americans decided to march to the North Bridge so to cross into town to prevent the British from burning it down. Fully expecting a confrontation with the British, the militia companies loaded their weapons but were told not to fire unless fired upon. Approximately 400 militia men marched in order by company seniority down towards the North Bridge. There were less than 100 British guarding the bridge. With the coming American militia the British retreated around the bridge and considered this American action as an attack. There were a flurry of orders flying around the field of action to the point of chaos. The British debated marching into the field to meet the approaching Americans. They also debated ripping up the bridge so the Americans could not cross. They finally decided on a firing formation in the street at the base of the bridge.

SHOT HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD.

In the chaos the Americans arrived to the bridge. The British fired directly into the group and wounded and killed men. “The balls whistled well,” recalled a militia soldier. One American was shot through the throat. Another under and through the eye. One more through the heart. In a matter of seconds there were six total casualties. The Americans were then ordered:  “Fire, for God’s sake fire!” A hail of bullets was shot into the British. Three were killed and nine wounded.  Many of the British fled towards town. As the Americans chased the British, one militiaman struck a hatchet blow into the head of a wounded British soldier.

The British were quickly reinforced and ordered to march back to the bridge. But there was no more firing. The militia dispersed from the bridge though there was a huge influx of militia coming into Concord from several towns in all directions. The militiamen knew the terrain and its backroads and could converge quickly, directly and stealthily. Though the British asked for reinforcements (1,000 men) from Boston, nothing happened. The British retreated though Concord Bridge marked the beginning of a massive battle that raged over 16 miles along the Bay Road from Boston to Concord, and included some 1,700 British regulars and over 4,000 Colonial militia. see – https://www.nps.gov/mima/north-bridge-questions.htm – retrieved April 19, 2025.

The Minute Man statue of 1875, created by Daniel Chester French (1850–1931), was unveiled on April 19, 1875, during the centennial commemoration of the battles of Lexington and Concord. Set near the site where the first colonial militiamen fell in Concord, the seven‑foot bronze was cast from old Civil War cannons by the Ames Foundry of Chicopee, Massachusetts. Its stone pedestal bears the opening lines of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Concord Hymn, honoring the “shot heard round the world.”
BY THE RUDE BRIDGE THAT
ARCHED THE FLOOD,
THEIR FLAG TO APRIL’S
BREEZE UNFURLED,
HERE ONCE THE EMBATTLED
FARMERS STOOD,
AND FIRED THE SHOT HEARD
ROUND THE WORLD.
https://www.nps.gov/mima/learn/historyculture/the-minute-man-statue-by-daniel-chester-french.htm – retrieved April 19, 2025. Author’s photograph, July 1989.

Daniel Chester French (1850–1931) was born in New Hampshire and, at seventeen, moved to Concord to be near Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Alcott family, where he received his first art lessons. After further study in Boston, he was only twenty‑one when he received the commission for The Minute Man. The statue was unveiled to critical acclaim in 1875, though French himself was in Europe studying art at the time. Upon returning to the United States, he worked in studios in Washington, Boston, and eventually New York City. In 1897 he purchased the Stockbridge, Massachusetts estate that became Chesterwood, his longtime home and workspace. Over the following decades, French produced major public monuments in Boston, Cambridge, New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., and he is best known today for his Seated Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial. He is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord alongside Emerson, the Alcotts, and Henry David Thoreau.
https://www.nps.gov/mima/learn/historyculture/sculptor-daniel-chester-french.htm – retrieved April 19, 2025.

The author stands at the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, a house on Monument Street with the Concord River just behind it and the North Bridge—now part of Minute Man National Historical Park—beside the property. Built in 1770 for Rev. William Emerson (1743–1776), the home later became central to the Emerson family line: William’s son, minister William Emerson, and his grandson, the transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson. The elder Rev. Emerson served as Concord’s minister, chaplain to the Provincial Congress in 1774, and later chaplain to the Continental Army; he watched the fighting at the North Bridge from his fields while his family witnessed it from the upstairs windows. Decades later, Ralph Waldo Emerson drafted his foundational essay Nature here, and during his stay in the mid‑1830s he proposed to Lydia Jackson before the couple moved to what is now known as the Emerson House. Author’s collection, July 1989.

John Hancock, 1770, by John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) in the Massachusetts Historical Society. Public Domain.

Built in 1738, the Hancock–Clarke House at 36 Hancock Street in Lexington, Massachusetts—less than half a mile from Lexington Green—is the historic residence where John Hancock (1737–1793) and Samuel Adams (1722–1803) were staying on the eve of the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Author’s photograph, July 1989.

Samuel Adams, 1772, by John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Public Domain. https://collections.mfa.org/objects/30881/samuel-adams?ctx=de17a5dc-0f39-480c-8e84-f4fc92f44030&idx=0 – retrieved April 19, 2025.

John Hancock and Samuel Adams attended the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in Concord on the evening of April 18, 1775, and spent the night in Lexington as guests of Rev. Jonas Clarke (1730–1805). Clarke, a Harvard graduate and Lexington’s pastor since 1755, feared the two leaders might be seized by the advancing British. In Boston, Joseph Warren (1741–1775) dispatched William Dawes (1745–1799) and Paul Revere (1734–1818) to warn them; arriving separately at the Hancock–Clarke House around midnight, both riders delivered the alarm before continuing on toward Concord. Hancock and Adams then left for Burlington, about a half‑hour away by horseback, to ensure their safety. Author’s photograph, July 1989.

Old North Church, founded in 1723 as Christ Church, is best known for the night of April 18, 1775, when sexton Robert Newman and vestryman Capt. John Pulling Jr. climbed the steeple to display two lanterns. Their signal—alerting Paul Revere’s network that British troops were crossing the Charles River “by sea” toward Lexington and Concord—set in motion the opening moments of the American Revolution. see – https://www.oldnorth.com/ – retrieved April 19, 2025. Author’s photograph, July 1989.

Inside Old North Church, visitors stand only a short walk from Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, where Increase Mather (1639–1723) and his son Cotton Mather (1663–1728) are buried. Both served as Puritan ministers whose era of leadership overlapped with the notorious Salem witch trials. Author’s photograph, July 1989.

Paul Revere, c. 1770, by John Singleton Copley (1738–1815), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Public Domain. Unlike Copley’s formal portraits of Samuel Adams and John Hancock—both displayed in Boston’s Faneuil Hall—Revere’s portrait was long kept in the Revere family attic, disliked for its informality. After Revere’s fame surged with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1861 poem Paul Revere’s Ride, the painting was restored in 1875, though it was not publicly exhibited until 1928. Revere’s descendants donated it to the Museum of Fine Arts in 1930. https://collections.mfa.org/objects/32401/paul-revere?ctx=00d797a8-0c5a-4d78-ba26-db22eb858902&idx=5 – retrieved April 19, 2025.

Author at the Paul Revere House in Boston with a work friend of my dad. March 1976. Author’s collection.