Revolution Song

by Russell Shorto

  117“repeated complaints”: Yates, Journal and Copybook, 134.

  118“but I don’t think”: Yates, Journal and Copybook, 134–136.

  Chapter 6: This Land I Have Made for You and Not for Others

  120By the time Venture intersected: Stanton, A Record, Genealogical, Biological, Statistical, of Thomas Stanton, 9–11, 35–40.

  120That January, of 1755: Hempstead, Diary, 644.

  120A man-of-war left the harbor: Hempstead, 643.

  120He commented with satisfaction: Hempstead, 655. Spelling has been modernized.

  121about 370 pounds: Figured at 11.74 pounds per gallon, and 31.5 gallons per barrel.

  121Venture too took pleasure: Smith, Narrative, 18.

  121two sloops from Boston: Hempstead, 668.

  121In June of 1757: Hempstead, 690.

  122“he hath been to advise”: Hempstead, 665.

  122hired from a man named Powers: Hempstead, 665.

  122Then, in June: Hempstead, 665–670.

  123“I have quit”: George Washington to Richard Washington, May 7, 1759.

  124“Your safe Return”: William Fairfax to Washington, July 26, 1755.

  124“Mr. Washington had two Horses”: Quoted in Samuel Hazard, Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, VI:488.

  124“the merit of Washington”: Quoted in Paul Longmore, Invention of George Washington, 29.

  124“it would reflect eternal dishonor”: George Washington to Mary Ball Washington, August 14, 1755.

  125“How the Officers”: Humphrey Bland, A Treatise of Military Discipline (London, 1743), passim.

  126“conveyed much more terror”: George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, August 3, 1757.

  126It was Washington’s first trip: Details on the trip come from W. C. Ford, The Writings of George Washington, 1:231–233.

  127“Split me, madam!”: Singleton, Social New York Under the Georges, 374.

  127“Microcosm or the World”: Washington, Writings, 298.

  128“a gentleman who has deservedly a high reputation”: Boston Gazette, March 1, 1756.

  128“If bleeding, dying!”: George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, April 22, 1756.

  129letter to Loudoun: George Washington to John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun, January 10, 1757.

  129Washington dashed off a letter: George Washington to Thomas Gage, April 12, 1758.

  130Diseases swept through the army . . . two horses: Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience, 213.

  130“The enemy, after letting us”: George Washington to Francis Fauquier, November 28, 1758.

  131a shift of allegiance: Johnson, 2:812–830, 3:1–10.

  132“the heroick spirit”: George Washington to Horatio Sharpe, April 24, 1754.

  132“more happiness in retirement”: George Washington to Richard Washington, September 20, 1759.

  133he had ducked yet again: Valentine, Lord George Germain, 33.

  133“the conduct of this old King”: Watson, Reign of George III, 4.

  134In aligning himself: Brown, 2–3; Valentine, Lord George Germain, 32–33.

  136“Voilà cet homme”: Walpole, Memoirs of George II, 2:367.

  137“kindled up such a blaze”: David Hume and Tobias Smollett, History of England, XIII:225.

  137“a damned chicken-hearted soldier”: Valentine, Lord George Germain, 58.

  137“I gave you the opportunity”: Stopford-Sackville, I:312–313.

  138“I find myself”: Stopford-Sackville, I:315.

  138“Lord Sackville seemed not to understand them”: The Proceedings of a General Court-Martial, Held at the Horse Guards on Friday the 7th, and Continued by Several Adjournments to Monday the 24th of March, 1760: And of a General Court-Martial Held at the Horse Guards on Tuesday the 25th of March, and Continued by Several Adjournments to Saturday the 5th of April 1760, upon the Trial of Lord George Sackville (Edinburgh, 1760), 16.

  138“guilty of having disobeyed”: Proceedings of a General Court-Martial, 224.

  139Not only . . . saving his son’s life: Valentine, Lord George Germain, 67.

  139“are Subject to Censures”: Valentine, Lord George Germain, 68.

  140“So finishes a career”: Valentine, Lord George Germain, 72.

  142Under the terms of this agreement . . . their subordinate role: Grimes, “We ‘Now Have Taken up the Hatchet Against Them,’” 228–232; Jay Miller, “The Delaware as Women.”

  143Presque Isle: Misencik, 53–56.

  144At the same time: Parmenter, “After the Morning Wars,” 63–64.

  144“handsomely entertained”: Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, VI:124.

  145“We expect to be killed”: Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, VI:37.

  145“savage fury”: George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, April 22, 1756.

  145Amherst had served as page: Valentine, Lord George Germain, 455–456.

  146Within a short time: Dowd, War Under Heaven, 64.

  146“expect nothing but that the general”: Johnson, X:317. Spelling corrected.

  147In 1761. . . . stand down: Thomas Abler, “Kayahsota,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

  147“This land where ye dwell”: Cave, “The Delaware Prophet Neolin,” 272.

  147The language of the treaty: “The Definitive Treaty of Peace and Friendship Between His Britannick Majesty, the Most Christian King, and the King of Spain,” 1763, Article VII.

  148“the Indians by means of Blanketts”: Bouquet, Papers, Series 21634, 161.

  149“two Blankets and an Handkerchief”: Bouquet, Papers of Col. Henry Bouquet, Series 21655, 210; Fenn, “Biological Warfare in Eighteenth-Century North America,” 1554.

  150To an Iroquois, the whorl: Michael Galban, Ganondagan Seneca Art and Culture Center, in personal correspondence.

  150That you and your enemy: Pouchot, Memoir from the Late War in North America, II:246–247.

  Chapter 7: The Spirit That Rages

  151his roan mare: Washington, Diaries, June 8, 1762.

  151they named Susanna: Wolf, Abraham Yates Jr., chap 1, p. 19; Robert Livingston to Abraham Yates, September 13, 1762, in Yates Papers, NYPL; Bielinski File, NYSL.

  152daughter of an officer: Coghlan, Memoirs, 15–16. (All citations of the Coghlan Memoirs refer to pages of the New York edition.)

  152named her older brother: Coghlan, Memoirs, 119.

  153“I did not like my new mother”: Coghlan, Memoirs, 21.

  153On October 25, 1760, George II: Walpole, Memoirs of the Last Ten Years, 2:454.

  154He kept a leisurely . . . for sixpence: Flanders, Memoirs of Richard Cumberland, 325.

  155“I pretend now to some knowledge of midwifery”: George Sackville to John Irwin, July 6, 1762, and July 10, 1762, in Stopford-Sackville.

  155“offices might be open to him”: Stopford-Sackville, 1:58.

  156“the cause of freedom”: Pauline Maier, “John Wilkes and American Disillusionment with Britain,” 387.

  156Wilkes was bringing his attacks: Valentine, Lord North, 1:116.

  157“of all the middling and inferior class of people”: Russel, A New and Authentic History of England, 797.

  158“the Juries of London”: Stopford-Sackville, 92.

  158Robert Dinwiddie, the former royal governor: Ritcheson, 546–547.

  159“a strange doctrine”: Stopford-Sackville, 105–106.

  160“nervous compactness”: Valentine, Lord George Germain, 87.

  161“there is no relying”: James Wood to George Washington, July 7, 1758.

  161The goal . . . from London merchants: Breen, Tobacco Culture, 58.

  161“strips off his coat”: Chernow, 119.

  161He bought coaches, linens, lace: Invoices, George Washington to Robert Cary, September 20, 1759; George Washington to Robert Cary, September 28, 1760.

  162“swallowed up”: George Washington to Robert Stewart, April 27, 1763.

  163As he became . . . “a free mind”: George Washington to R
obert Cary, August 10, 1764.

  163“be condemned forever”: Breen, 134.

  163Under the pressure: Breen, 132f.

  163“servant”: Chernow, 110.

  164“set the whole Country in Flames”: George Washington to Robert Stewart, May 2, 1763.

  164“increase of the people”: Mississippi Land Company Memorial to the King, September 9, 1763, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-07-02-0150.

  165“Liberties & Privileges”: E. J. Miller, “The Virginia Legislature and the Stamp Act,” 234–237.

  165The reaction in the colonies. . . . like vassals: Henry Young, “Agrarian Reactions to the Stamp Act Crisis in Pennsylvania,” 25–30.

  166“such as I have never heard”: National Quarterly Review, no. 27 (1873): 152.

  167“It cannot reasonably”: George Washington to Robert Cary, September 20, 1765.

  167A winter’s night: Yates correspondence, January 3, 1766, in Yates Papers, NYPL; Bielinski File, NYSL.

  168“I am an Intire Stranger”: Yates correspondence, January 3, 1766.

  169“illegal, unconstitutional and oppressive”: McAnear, “The Albany Stamp Act Riots,” 492.

  170“the mischevious politics”: Yates, untitled history manuscript, in Yates Papers, NYPL, Box 3; Bielinski File, NYSL.

  170“the Americans to a man seem resolved”: Valentine, Lord North, I:124.

  170“If I can crawl”: Taylor, Correspondence of William Pitt, 2:362.

  170“There is an idea in some”: Knight, Popular History of England, 5:91.

  171The king was against repealing: Valentine, Lord North, I:129.

  171“Dam’n me”: Johnson, 12:4.

  172“The Repeal of the Stamp Act”: George Washington to Robert Cary, July 21, 1766.

  173In 1768, he ran for . . . for guidance: Longmore, 87.

  173the 254 blacks: Haynes, Stonington Chronology, 39.

  173Stonington was growing . . . Nathan Chesebrough’s meadow: Haynes, 39.

  174“a gunning”: Smith, Narrative, 18.

  174“The treatment of slaves: Mars, Life of James Mars, 4.

  175“I earnestly requested”: Smith, Narrative, 18–19.

  175raised a two-foot club: Smith, Narrative, 19.

  175slaves had some rights in Connecticut. . . . punish the owner: Wahl, “Legal Constraints on Slave Masters,” 6–7.

  176“improved this convenient”: Smith, Narrative, 20.

  176“gold rings”: Smith, Narrative, 20.

  177“Well then, I will send you”: Smith, Narrative, 20.

  177“I crossed the waters”: Smith, Narrative, 20.

  Chapter 8: Thirteen Toasts

  178“RAN away”: Maryland Gazette, August 20, 1761.

  179“he amazed me”: Hirschfeld, George Washington and Slavery, 58.

  179Washington’s expanding businesses . . . picking apples: Mary Thompson, Lives of Enslaved Workers, 3.

  179“wretched wooden shacks”: Mary Thompson, 6.

  179“both a Rogue & Runaway”: George Washington to Joseph Thompson, July 2, 1766.

  181“If you will go by no other measures”: Smith, A Narrative, 21.

  183exchanged gossipy letters: Stopford-Sackville, 62–67.

  183“At a time when our lordly Masters in Great Britain”: Washington, Diaries, April 4, 1769.

  184“If at length it becomes undoubted”: John Dickinson, “Letters from an American Farmer,” Letter 3, http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/690.

  185“infringements of their natural and constitutional rights”: Massachusetts Circular Letter, February 11, 1768, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/mass_circ_let_1768.asp.

  185“no man shou’d scruple”: George Washington to George Mason, April 5, 1769.

  186one Massachusetts statute: Sumner Eliot Matison, “Manumission by Purchase,” 147.

  186Connecticut law: George Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, from 1619 to 1880, 257.

  189“the noble Lord”: Jaques, The History of Junius, 267.

  190“Mr. Speaker”: West, Source Book in American History to 1787, 383.

  191“Spirits, Wine, Cyder”: http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0019.

  192It was October 14, 1772: Reynolds, Albany Chronicles, 270.

  192more than 900 cases: Wolf, chap. 3.

  192He bought city lots . . . and the mill: Yates, Account Book, 95, in Yates Papers, NYPL; Bielinski File, NYSL.

  192The election results . . . to be lit every evening: Reynolds, 263–271.

  193A year ago . . . ordinary workers: Bielinski, Abraham Yates, Jr., and the New Political Order, 12.

  195“he offends nobody”: Valentine, Lord North, I:192.

  195“His Majesty”: Parliamentary History of England, 17:1159.

  196“totally displeased”: Parliamentary History of England, 17:1162.

  196“put an end to their town meetings”: Parliamentary History of England, 17:1195–1196.

  196“you will teach them by these means”: Moffatt, Burke’s Speech on American Taxation, 63.

  196“The Americans have tarred and feathered”: Parliamentary History of England, 17:1280.

  197“anarchy and confusion”: Stopford-Sackville, I:315.

  198“takes Loaded arms”: Johnson, 13:321–322.

  199“when I started to return”: Stone, Life and Times of Red Jacket, 452.

  199gaudy versions of proper ladies: Kenneth Jackson and David Dunbar, eds., Empire City, 84.

  200“genteelly regaled with arack”: Bayles, Old Taverns of New York, 255.

  200a fire broke out: New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, May 4, 1772.

  200That winter was so cold: Burrows and Wallace, Gotham, 213.

  200“to bask in the heart-cheering smile”: Coghlan, 68.

  200“If some heads had been lopped off”: Johnson, 7:650.

  200“raskals”: Johnson, 12:4.

  200“the finest race of Young women”: Johnson, 12:1144.

  201“Those who have too successfully labored”: Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, I:35.

  201“such a sot”: James Mooney, Loyalist Imprints, 144.

  202“I found myself”: Coghlan, 22.

  Chapter 9: Assuming Command

  203“I hope you will stand firm”: Brady, Martha Washington, 92.

  204He met John Jay: Coghlan, 22.

  204“easy Soldierlike Air”: Longmore, 138.

  205“the most spirited”: Adams, Diary, September 2, 1774, in Charles Francis Adams, The Works of John Adams, 2:362.

  205“The Crisis is arrived”: George Washington to Bryan Fairfax, August 24, 1774.

  205“tedious beyond expression”: John Adams to Abigail Adams, October 9, 1774. Founders Online, National Archives, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0111.

  205In the evenings they carried the discussions to taverns: Washington Papers, Card Playing Expenses 1772–1774.

  206“the times are ticklish”: George Washington to John Tayloe, October 31, 1774.

  207“property will be exposed”: James Madison Papers, I:144. Founders Online, National Archives, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-01-02-0044.

  207“It is imagined the first thing”: Alexander Spotswood to George Washington, April 30, 1775.

  207“We were fired on from all sides”: Hibbert, Redcoats and Rebels, 34–36.

  208“The news from America”: Stopford-Sackville, I:135.

  208Germain responded with a primer: Stopford-Sackville, II:2–3.

  209“the utmost force of this kingdom”: Stopford-Sackville, I:137.

  209“First, the people of the colonies”: William Crane, ed., Edmund Burke’s Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies, 72.

  210“There never perhaps was a commission of such importance”: Stopford-Sackville, II:10–12.

  210“thinks you the fittest man”: Stopford-Sackville, II:10–12.

  212The second Continental Congress. . . . the Pennsylvania delegation: Isaacson, 288. />
  212“Col. Washington appears at Congress”: John Adams to Abigail Adams, May 29, 1775.

  212“That a general be appointed”: Journals of the Continental Congress, June 15, 1775.

  213“Mr. President, Tho’ I am truly sensible”: Journals of the Continental Congress, II:92.

  213“a consciousness of its being a trust too great”: George Washington to Martha Washington, June 18, 1775.

  214The Seneca delegation. . . . all his life: Abler, Chainbreaker, 43–51.

  215Brothers, Sachems, and Warriors: Journals of the Continental Congress, Speech to the Six Nations, July 13, 1775.

  216The “island” that the commissioner referred to: Abler, Chainbreaker, 39.

  217“from Washington”: Abler, Chainbreaker, 51.

  217“see clear with the naked eyes”: Abler, Chainbreaker, 52.

  Chapter 10: A Natural Inclination to Liberty

  220the army had only enough gunpowder: Ramsay, Life of George Washington, 29.

  220“When the Enemy first discovered”: George Washington to John Hancock, March 7–9, 1776.

  220Washington had no way of knowing: George Washington to Joseph Reed, March 19, 1776.

  221“the Savior of your Country”: Josiah Quincy to George Washington, March 21, 1776.

  221“any deserter”: Wiencek, 200.

  221“to reject Negroes altogether”: Washington Papers, October 8, 1775.

  222African-American slaves in the eighteenth century: Inscoe, “Carolina Slave Names,” 541–542.

  222Cuff was a West African name: Inscoe, 533.

  223eels and lobsters: Smith, Narrative, 25.

  223“I cut and corded”: Smith, Narrative, 25. The calculation is based on an estimate in Howard Russell, A Long, Deep Furrow: Three Centuries of Farming in New England, 175.

  223“All fine clothes”: Smith, Narrative, 23.

  224They settled on: Smith, Narrative, 24.

  225He and Denison agreed on a price of 60 pounds: Cameron Blevins, “‘Owned by Negro Venture’: Land and Liberty in the Life of Venture Smith,” 32; Stonington Town Land Records, 9:110.

  225“ran away from me”: Smith, Narrative, 26.

  225Charles Church: Smith, Narrative, 24.

  226“to my great grief”: Smith, Narrative, 26.

  227“How sharper”: Act 1, Scene 4.

  227they passed a law: Smith, Narrative, 27.

  227a special town meeting: Richard Anson Wheeler, History of the Town of Stonington, 36–37.