American Colonies Quotes
Washington was very unhappy with militia even from his native Virginia. See also {613030} This quotation is very important because the common belief is that all Americans in Colonial America were skilled with a gun and that there was a strong gun ownership culture. Many people quote {613057}. However, that was not the case as this and other research has shown. Less than one quarter of the Virginia militia had any weapon. Guns were expensive and only a minority of Americans could afford them. Despite the image of sharpshooters, and there were some, most guns were very inaccurate in the hands of most men.
His idea was to send English people who were vagabonds, paupers, failures, and never do wells to America. These people in England were just “waste”. But in America, the could be apprenticed or become indentured servants, learn skill and they would (and indeed did) become the corps of laborers needed to cut down the trees, beat the hemp (for making rope), gather honey, salt and dry fish, dress raw animal hides, dig the earth for minerals, raise olives and silk, and sort and pack bird feathers. In England they were so desperate that they would work in the difficult conditions of the colonies and would be willing to venture out from the country and culture in which they existed—a major problem in getting colonial workers.
The code provided for trial by jury and for proportional taxation on property. It was called “The Duke’s Laws” in recognition of the English Duke of York from whom authority in the colony then derived as the English supplanted the Dutch.
Burke argued for England giving America much more freedom and self determination.
At the time, English ordinary citizens were not allowed to have firearms, but exception was made for the colonists. “Stands” were y-shaped sticks that the gun would rest on as the weight was about 20 pounds.
Most of the Colonies had laws against Indians possessing guns and any white seeing such was allowed to attack such Indians. Rhode Island had peaceful relations with the Indians and not only allowed Indians to carry firearms for hunting but hired them to do the hunting as they were better at it and did not value their time as highly as the whites. However, travelers coming from out of the colony would see an Indian with a gun, and shoot at him thereby killing or injuring friendly Indians and causing racial problems when there were few. The quotation also illustrates that there was little uniformity amongst the colonies as to how to deal with their various social and political problems.
Ministers refers to the Government Ministers, not to clergy.
The speech was never actually delivered, but instead the Bishop published it. It received wide distribution including in America where it was published by the Maryland Gazette on September 29, 1774.
Ingersoll was considered to be the greatest orator and political thinker of his day, but his overt atheistic views curtailed his elected political career.
Lee at that time was one of the leaders of the American colonists’ cause. He was born in England and was an old friend of Burgoyne who had just arrived in America. Lee wanted to explain the American viewpoint. Lee later became the senior major general under Washington.
The speech was never actually delivered, but instead the Bishop published it. It received wide distribution including in America where it was published by the Maryland Gazette on September 29, 1774.
The purpose was to try and get the king and parliament not to enforce the Stamp Act in the colonies. The delegates had to thrash out the language and it was important to flatter the king and parliament. While some delegates felt that loyalty to the mother country, many others thought that the king and parliament had betrayed them and thought this language gross hypocrisy. See {589426} for one delegate’s description of the difficulty.
Frederick the Great. He and many other Europeans thought that England had been so preoccupied with the American rebellion that she was ignoring Europe and other traditional foreign policy interests of theirs.
Lord Dunsmore was John Murray, 1732-1809, the Royal Colonial Governor of Virginia who was one of the least competent of the British officials in Colonial America.
