Excerpts from: Americanism Redux: April 18, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago today, in 1774
Henry Putnam of Medford, colony of Massachusetts has a year and a day to live. It will be at that time that he “turns out” as a 62-year old, carrying his musket and dying in battle near the Russell house. Three black women—Dinah, Cato, and Deliverance—are working as enslaved people in the home of Jeremiah Page, in Danvers, colony of Massachusetts. In the next few weeks, British General Thomas Gage will seize the Page House for his headquarters. In New York City, John Jay helps oversee a family friend’s distribution of her silver among the extended Jay family; the family is badly divided over the imperial-colonial crisis.
And in the Maryland legislature, James Lloyd Chamberlain joins a majority in voting to delay a binding decision on how to choose a speaker of the house. The Maryland legislators will put it off until summer before voting on the final procedures.
Americanism Redux, a series by historian author, Dr. Dan Miller, explores what Americanism meant 250 years ago and its significance for America today. Visit Dr Dan Miller’s website>
Reference: The Remnant Trust Collection
Meanwhile, in Parliament, Edmund Burke, delivers an extraordinary speech in defense of American rights and in criticism of British imperial policy. Included in this 57-page speech is a remarkable reference. Burke reminds his fellow members in the House of Commons that John Hampden had attempted in the 1630s to defend rights similar to those claimed by the Americans now in 1774. Burke’s reference to Hampden is now the second public invocation of him as a significant symbolic figure for supporters of colonial rights. The Remnant Trust is in possession of an original publication of Hampden’s, Item (#0155), “The Tryal and Conviction of John Hampden.” Americanism Redux is among the first to uncover the importance of Hampden as a model for colonial rights supporters in America.
View The Remnant Trust “Wisdom of the Ages Athenaeum PDF for reference>