AMERICAN REVOLUTION

A rare one page, quarto, printed broadside of "A Resolve of the General Court of the the State of Massachusetts Bay, passed on the 30th day of November, A.D. 1776." The broadside contains amendments to "An Act for providing a reinforcement to the American Army," a law which exempts from military service all those who, prior to April 19, 1775 [the battles of Lexington and Concord], had "Been by law deemed of the denomination of Christians called Quakers, settled ministers of the Gospel, the president, professors, tutors, librarian, steward, butler and undergraduates of Harvard College, Indians, Negroes, Molattoes, and four men to each of the Powder Mills in Stoughton and Andover."

At the outset of the Revolutionary War, America did not have a professional army or navy. In June 1775, the Continental Congress tried to coordinate military efforts by establishing a regular army and appointing George Washington as its Commander-in-Chief. This was always a work in progress. Washington used regulars (whose tours of duty might be only three months long, as this document specifies) and state militias, rarely personally commanding in the field more than 17,000 men at any given time.

In July 1775, General Washington arrived outside Boston to take charge of the colonial forces and organize the Continental Army. Though the British had been able to seize the Charlestown peninsula at the Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775), their losses were so significant that they could not follow up their attack. The Americans kept them bottled up until early March of 1776 by which time heavy cannons captured at Fort Ticonderoga were placed on Dorchester Heights overlooking British positions. The British fled on March 17, 1776; Washington then moved most of the Continental Army to fortify New York City. Under these circumstances, the Massachusetts Legislature saw fit to exempt Quakers and just about everyone at Harvard College from fulfilling their military duty.

Broadsides by their nature are ephemeral. It is highly unusual for such a significant though time sensitive piece of public information to have survived since the early days of the Republic.

This item is associated with the following category in our inventory:

• American Revolution