Document # 1 – Patrick Henry’s Address to the Virginia Assembly (1775)
Patrick Henry presented his views in this excerpt from a speech to the convention that gathered after the Virginia Assembly was suspended.
Document # 2 – Lord Dunmore’s Declaration (1775)
Lord Dunmore sent this declaration to the rebel Patriots in Virginia:
Document # 3 – Stephen Hopkins’s Letter (1775)
When it came to breaking news, eighteenth-century information networks were susceptible to some of the same problems as modern-day media.
Even as redcoats and minute men clashed on April 19, 1775, colonists began to circulate sketchy reports of the events. In the rush to alert people to what was going on, preliminary and sometimes inaccurate details were put forward as facts. And in the day's aftermath, reports were constructed as pro-American propaganda. Because of conflicting information sources, historians today still dispute central questions, like who fired the first shot.
This printed broadside from the Library of Congress illustrates how early information about the Battle of Lexington and Concord spread.
Document # 4 – The Gadsden Flag (1775)
Benjamin Franklin was the first to use a serpent as a symbol of the colonies. By 1775, the serpent had become a rattlesnake, which stood for the idea that the colonists would fight back against tyranny. Although Benjamin Franklin helped create the American rattlesnake symbol, his name isn't generally attached to the rattlesnake flag. The yellow "don't tread on me" standard is usually called a Gadsden flag, for Colonel Christopher Gadsden.
Document # 5 - The Bostonians Paying the Excise-Man (1774)
The spirit of protest sometimes took a violent turn. The British cartoon below shows a tax official in Boston being tarred and feathered by members of the Sons of Liberty. Hot tar was poured over the body of the victim, who was then covered with chicken feathers. Tarring and feathering was not fatal, but it was painful and humiliating. In the background, colonists pout tea into the BostonHarbor. In addition to being tarred and feathered, the unfortunate tax collector has tea poured down his throat.
Document # 6 – Paul Revere’s “Boston Massacre” Engraving (1770)
The Boston Massacre happened on the evening of March 5, 1770 between some citizens of Boston and British troops. Most likely, the citizens of Boston were the main cause of the incident. Soon after its occurrence, Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty used this tragedy to their advantage. They quickly coined the phrase “Boston Massacre” to describe the event. The purpose of the Boston Massacre name was to try to make undecided colonists become supporters of the Sons of Liberty. It was really an accident and the Sons of Liberty used propaganda to turn something small into something big. The propaganda in the press about the Boston Massacre and a misleading engraving by Paul Revere (shown below) helped to shape colonists’ opinion about the British soldiers and Parliament’s unfair taxes.