Documents in Year 1776                     

Links of Interest:

• King George III, British Monarch over American Colonies

On 4 July 1776 the Continental Congress under leadership of John Hancock declared independence from Britain by signing the Declaration of Independence. By November 1776 the British had taken New York and the Colonists retreated to Pennsylvania. Fighting continued until 1781 when the British were defeated by Americans and French at Yorktown. In the Treaty of Paris in 1783 Britain agreed to recognize American independence.

• American Revolution:

American Revolution 1775-1783

All about the American Revolution from battles and commanders to documents and timeline

American Revolutionary War Reenactment organization

Field Guide has drawings of Continental forces uniforms

Primary Source Documents:

January 1776 - Common Sense and The American Crisis essays by Thomas Paine

America's Founding Primary Source Documents:

July 4, 1776 - Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson adopted by the Continental Congress

• Exploration:

Spanish Explorers establish San Francisco.

BBC Atlas of the Natural World North America Land of the Eagle "Searching for Paradise" Documentary 2006.

English explore Northwest Coast 1776-78

Explorer is James Cook (Northwest) who was able to find longitude on all the oceans of the world because of John Harrison's timekeeper. (Go back to 1773.)
Viola, Herman I, North American Indians, Crown Publishers, New York: New York, 1996
Lasky, Kathryn The Man Who Made Time Travel Canada: Douglas & McIntyre: 2003.

British Captain James Cook

awarded Copley Medal from British Royal Society for his paper on preventing scurvy in his crew during his world voyage on H.M.S. Resolution.

• Westward Expansion / American Frontier:

Chief Blackfish of the Shawnee Indians sees the numerous settlements over his land and declares war against the pioneers. Daniel Boone's teenage daughter, Jemima Boone, and two Callaway daughters are abducted by Shawnee and Cherokee Indians on 14 July 1776. Daniel Boone and his men rescue the girls. Weeks later word of the signing of the Declaration of Independence from Britain reaches Fort Boonesborough.

Sources:

The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen

This 2018 four-episode, high-quality documentary offered on Amazon Prime or the History Channel is well worth watching. The episode titled "Into the Wilderness" covers the time period from 1773-1783. It compares and contrasts the frontiersmen's efforts led by Daniel Boone to fight off the Native Americans led by Chief Black Fish, allies of the British, during the American Revolution. It ends with the Treaty of Paris signed in 1783 where the British conceded control from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River. Although the British surrendered, the Native Americans did not.

My Father, Daniel Boone: The Draper Interviews with Nathan Boone

This free ebook preview provides a major portion of an interview of Nathan Boone, the youngest son of frontiersman, Daniel Boone. He and his wife recollect interesting stories they knew about his father's exploits on the American frontier.

• North American Population:

Native Americans (Indians) = 1.4 million
Europeans = 2 million
Viola, Herman I, North American Indians, Crown Publishers, New York: New York, 1996

see 1800 next

• Science:

Antoine Lavoisier, French Chemist, Father of Modern Chemistry (1743-1794)

"At the beginning of the American Revolutionary conflict, all thirteen colonies had between them only 80,000 pounds of gunpowder, a supply that wouldn't last half a year of fighting. Englishman, Joseph Priestly (see 1774) and Frenchman Lavoisier's chemical revolution in discovering oxygen and combustion, and Ben Franklin's diplomatic skills ultimately turned the tide as Lavoisier's innovations in gunpowder production gave the French a stockpile of top-quality powder and the colonies imported 200 tons in late 1776 and 800 tons by 1779."

Johnson, Steven. The Invention of Air. New York: Riverhead, 2008.