Thirteen Colonies Quotes
This was written more than a year before the American Revolution Battles began. It took time to ship the men and supplies to America and the British did not handle that task with much efficiency. See {636926} for another of the King’s statements.
The simplistic view that the American colonists were patriots and the British were the colonizers against whom the colonists revolted is not really accurate. The American colonists were polarized into patriots and loyalists. The Loyalist Americans ranged from many of those merchants whose business depended upon England, those whose family were still in England, those whose religion made them loyal to the Church of England, slaves who would be free under British law, Americans who had strong cultural and intellectual ties to England and those Americans who were great believers in monarchy and whose honor required that they fulfill the oath that they had taken to the King of England. Some of the worst atrocities of the American Revolution occurred in the battles of these Americans against each other. See {82105} for more on this point.
during and after the American Revolution
This resolution of independence was voted upon a month before the Declaration of Independence. It was approved by 12 of the colonies but not by New York. The Congress appointed a committee to draft what became the Declaration of Independence and that was approved by all the colonies. The resolution was introduced by Richard Henry Lee on instructions from Virginia. The graphic is of Lee’s original notes.
July 4 is celebrated today, but the exact day has varied.
This was the first official act of any state in declaring independence from England. On July 4th---almost 3 months later---Congress issued the Declaration of Independence. But North Carolina had taken the first official step.
This appears to be one of the first uses of the word "United" with respect to what was to become the United States.
The American Colonies were very diverse culturally, educationally, sociologically and economically as the States are in modern times. Despite the intellectuals of Boston, most of New England at the time of the Revolution was much less sophisticated than New York and Philadelphia.
