Items tagged Patriots (5 total)

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African Americans were faced with conflicting loyalties during the Revolutionary War, with some joining the British side in hopes of escaping from slavery, while many others remained loyal to the Patriot cause. While it's difficult to know the exact numbers, an army report in 1778 listed 755 African Americans serving in the Continental Army; the…

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Item Type: Poster/Print
Date: 1781

This 1774 British print, titled "The Bostonians Paying the Excise-Man, or Tarring and Feathering," depicts the attack of a Patriot crowd on Boston Commissioner of Customs John Malcolm. Tarring and feathering was a ritual of humiliation and public warning that stopped just short of serious injury. Victims included British officials such as Malcolm…

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Item Type: Poster/Print
Date: 1774

In these excerpts from the famous pamphlet Common Sense, Thomas Paine makes the case for independence from Britain. The alleged benefits of British rule, Paine asserts, are actually liabilities; he cites unfair trade policies and American entanglement in Britain's foreign wars. Published anonymously on January 10, 1776, the work spread quickly…

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Item Type: Pamphlet
Date: 1776

Esther Reed launched the creation of the Ladies' Association of Philadelphia with the publication of a broadside "Sentiments of an American Woman." Keenly aware of the limited scope of earlier women's efforts and referring to women as "brave Americans," Reed urged women to "render themselves more really useful" to the Revolution. In an addendum to…

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Item Type: Pamphlet
Date: Circa 1780

In this famous letter, Abigail Adams, already planning for the war's successful conclusion, admonishes her husband John Adams to consider inequality between men and women when developing laws for a newly independent nation.

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Item Type: Diary/Letter
Date: 1776