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Olive Branch Petition – 1775
Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19th 1775 the Second Continental Congress convened on May 10th to make a decision on how best to proceed with regard to the growing revolution in America. During the congress, the Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17th. At the beginning of July, representatives from twelve of the thirteen states of the colonies agreed to petition King George III directly in the hope that he might intercede on their behalf with Parliament, in an effort to address the impositions they felt Parliament were levying on the States without the full knowledge of the Sovereign. Georgia had not sent representation…
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Martha Washington
Martha Dandridge was born on 2nd June 1731, the oldest child of John Dandridge and Frances Jones, on Chestnut Grove Plantation, Virginia. Her birth was followed by her three brothers and four sisters. It is claimed John also had two illegitimate children, Ann Dandridge Costin, born to a slave of African descent, and Ralph Dandridge, who was thought to be white. Although considered to be of the minor local gentry, John Dandridge owned 500 acres of land and around twenty slaves. Frances raised Martha to be a good housewife and mother, learning all the domestic skills required of a lady of a household, and as a bonus, Martha could also…
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Tales from New York City
New York was first colonised by Native Americans around 12,000 years ago. These Natives eventually formed two main tribes, the Iroquoian and the Algonquian. In 1524, the French sailed past the area and charted the coastline, the first “discovery”, however it wasn’t until 1609 that the area was first settled by the Dutch, who gave their land the name New Netherlands, also noted historically as New Amsterdam although in actuality New Amsterdam represented the administrative seat, on what is now the South tip of Manhattan Island, which the Dutch bought from Native Americans in 1626. New Netherlands covered the coastal area from the Delmarva Peninsular to the furthest south-western point…
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Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now Kentucky, which was then part of Virginia but on the other side of the mountains from the settled areas. He is known as one of the first American folk heroes, but was also an American pioneer, explorer, a woodsman, and a frontiersman. His exploits made him the stuff of legends. The Boone family were “Quakers”, they belonged to the Religious Society of Friends, and following persecution in England for their dissenting beliefs, Daniel’s father, Squire Boone emigrated from the small town of Bradninch, Devon (near Exeter, England) to Pennsylvania in 1713, to join William Penn’s colony…
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Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold was born on January 14, 1741 he was the second of six children to Benedict Arnold and Hannah Waterman King in Norwich, Connecticut. Like his father and grandfather, as well as an older brother who died in infancy, he was named after his great-grandfather Benedict Arnold, an early governor of the Colony of Rhode Island.Only Benedict and his sister Hannah survived to adulthood. Arnold’s father was a successful businessman, and the family moved in the upper levels of Norwich society. When he was ten, Arnold was enrolled in a private school in nearby Canterbury, with the expectation that he would eventually attend Yale. However, the deaths of his…
