Before Boston: The Tea Revolt That Began in Philadelphia
By: Mike Maharrey The Boston Tea Party is arguably the best-known event leading up to the war for independence, but a number of leading Revolutionaries, including Benjamin Rush and John ...
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The Satirical Genius of Benjamin Franklin’s 1774 Letter to Lord North
By: Mike Maharrey “A friend to military government.” That’s not what we’d expect from one of the leading supporters of American independence, but that’s just how Benjamin Franklin signed his ...
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The Treaty of Paris: How the War for Independence Almost Didn’t End
By: Michael Boldin Signed on Sept 3, 1783 – the Treaty of Paris has long been called the formal end to the War for Independence. But the war didn’t officially ...
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Prelude to Independence: Thomas Jefferson Declares British Acts Null and Void
By: Mike Maharrey “The British parliament has no right to exercise authority over us.” At all. This was the bold conclusion Thomas Jefferson came to in his powerful pamphlet A ...
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Benjamin Franklin’s Brilliant Satire: Exposing British Hypocrisy Through a Fake Prussian Edict
By: Mike Maharrey As frustrations with usurpations and arbitrary power from the British government grew, American colonial leaders fired up the presses, producing hundreds of newspaper articles, pamphlets, and ...
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James Madison on the Ignored “Fundamental Principle of the Revolution”
By: Mike Maharrey Forget schoolhouse history. James Madison exposed a much deeper truth about the American Revolution. It wasn’t just “taxation without representation.” He argued that This clash, Madison declared, ...
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Power From the People: The Revolutionary Roots of the 10th Amendment
By: Michael Boldin Thomas Jefferson called the 10th Amendment the “foundation of the Constitution,” and for good reason too. It enshrines many of the radical principles that sparked the ...
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No Deal for Gun Control: How the American Revolutionaries Defied the Empire
By: Michael Boldin June 12, 1775 – less than 2 months after Lexington and Concord and the “shot heard ‘round the world,” General Gage made an offer he felt ...
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John Adams: Patriot and Tyrant?
By: Mike Maharrey Many revere John Adams as a great patriot. Others view him as a big-government tyrant. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. Adams was a prominent leader during ...
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Today in History: “Solemn League and Covenant” Published
By: Mike Maharrey Today in history, on June 5, 1774, the Boston committee of correspondence approved and published the “Solemn League and Covenant,” an agreement to boycott British goods. The covenant was ...
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