Lisa Learns Aloud

One of the more interesting observations as I read the day to day events leading up to declaring independence is the timing of events in the colonies. By 1775, the Boston massacre (1770) and the Boston tea party (1773) along with other fuses, put the colonies in a revolutionary mood. The first battle was Lexington and Concord, which I’ll cover later. Events in the days before that first battle played out in Connecticut and Massachusetts. What’s striking is word of the battle wouldn’t hit Pennsylvania, the Carolina’s or Georgia for 3-14 days, yet decisions to create safety committees, militias and the first small steps of the individual colonies to distance themselves from the crown all seem to be happening at once. 250 years later, it feels and looks coordinated, but it wasn’t really happening that way. It was more like a patchwork quilt. 1770-1775 were the squares as each colony formed a kind of shadow government and it wouldn’t be until summer of 1775 for more formal coordination to occur.