May 20, 2009

Our colonial ancestors were protesting the raising of taxes without representation when they stopped purchasing and drinking British tea. When the brave Bostonians of so long ago, participated in their Boston Tea Party, there was no such thing as a “Tea Bag” anywhere in the world. One method of shipping tea to colonial America was to pack the dried leaves into heavy, compressed, baked bricks, as illustrated above, tightly packed in wooden crates. This protected the tea leaves from mildew and dampness during the long months at sea and in storage.
America’s media such as Chris Matthews of MSNBC and Anderson Cooper of CNN got it wrong when they described these current tax protests as “Tea Bag” Parties.
UPDATE: Here is a great photograph of some of the original tea which washed up on the shoreline after the Boston Tea Party of 1773: Massachusetts Historical Society
The image, Tea Bricks – NOT Tea Bags!, is subject to copyright by barneykin. It is posted here with permission via the Flickr API by barneykin.
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Revolution, patriots | Tagged: anderson cooper, boston tea party, chris matthews, msnbc, tea bag, tea bags, tea bricks, tea party, teabags |
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Posted by Daughter of Revolution
April 6, 2009

When Americans of today think about the history of equality, equal protection and equal civil rights, their thoughts are dominated by the history of desegregation, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the antislavery debates of the 1830s. However, long before the slavery debate, Virginians were debating different standards of equality regarding religious diversity. In eighteenth-century Virginia, there was one church rule, and in those days, the church was the law as the head of the church was the British monarch. These discussions and petitions and desires for religious freedom by rank and file Virginians had much to do with fomenting the American Revolution.
While American patriots of New England were throwing crates of tea into Boston Harbor objecting to British taxes, Virginians were standing for religious equality for all, including dissenters. With these petitions they were demanding disestablishment of the Church of England, the outlawing of the Church’s assessments, and the banishment of the Church’s ministers, who were working for the Crown.
The image, Petition of 7 December 1780, is subject to copyright by barneykin. It is posted here with permission via the Flickr API by barneykin, an administrator of “The Revolution
ed” pool.
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Revolution, Virginia, patriots | Tagged: buckingham county, church of england, disestablishment, petitions |
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Posted by Daughter of Revolution
February 6, 2009
From the museum at the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution:
The Georgia room is modeled after a room from Peter Tondee’s tavern in Savannah, Georgia. The tavern, no longer standing, was in business from 1770-1785. Objects seen in the room are based on Tondee’s probate inventory. Taverns fulfilled numerous functions providing food, drink, lodging, and rooms for entertainment and meetings. Tondee’s tavern served as a meeting place for the “Sons of Liberty”, and was the site of the raising of the first Liberty Pole and the first reading of the Declaration of Independence in Georgia. After Peter Tondee’s death, his widow, Lucy Mouse Tondee, operated the tavern until 1783. (NSDAR Museum, Virtual Tour of Peter Tondee’s Tavern)
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N.S.D.A.R., Revolution, patriots | Tagged: petertondee, savannah, Sons of Liberty, tavern |
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Posted by Daughter of Revolution
December 17, 2008
On December 17th, General Washington ordered 600 of his forces, mostly untrained men and boys from nearby towns augmented by two companies of Virginia soldiers, to cross the Delaware River and march via Moorestown to Mount Holly, New Jersey. At Mount Holly the rebels set up a few “3-pounder” artillery pieces on Iron Works Hill, causing the Hessian commanders at Black Horse and Bordentown to believe they were being opposed by 3,000 men. By Christmas Eve, Washington’s plan had lured 2,000 Hessians to the The Mount in Mount Holly, to engage the supposed “thousands” of rebel forces occupying Iron Works Hill. Then at nighttime, while the Hessians were making merry, indulging in the confiscated contents of a local brewery, the Americans stealthily evacuated their positions and marched to Moorestown. On December 26, Washington’s army was able to wax victorious at the Battle of Trenton, capturing 1,000 prisoners. Part of that victory by the Americans is attributed to Washington’s plan a week earlier at the Battle of Iron Works Hill.
I am sorry to report that the photograph that was here of the reenactment of the Battle of Iron Works Hill in Mount Holly, New Jersey that took place on 13 December 2008, has been removed from Flickr’s public viewing.
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George Washington, Revolution, Virginia | Tagged: 1776, battle of iron works hill, december 1776, New Jersey, revolutionary war |
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Posted by Daughter of Revolution
November 29, 2008

The church was used as a field hospital during the Battle of Monmouth, when wounded soldiers were carried to the church where members of the congregation tended them. The battle was so near that walls of the church are riddled with holes from cannonballs. The pews still bear scars of the surgeon’s saw and bloodstains of the wounded and dying. Those Revolutionary War soldiers who died at the hospital are buried in the cemetery, along with British soldiers. There are antique cannons on the grounds. An active congregation continues worshipping at the Old Tennent Church.
The image, When You Think About It, The Revolution Wasn’t That Long Ago., is subject to copyright by Sister72. It is posted here with permission via the Flickr API by barneykin, an administrator of “The Revolution
ed” pool.
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George Washington, Revolution, patriots | Tagged: battle of monmouth, cemetery, New Jersey, old tennent church, patriot graves, revolutionary war |
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Posted by Daughter of Revolution