West Florida land grant document highlights British colonial era in the Pensacola region

THIS JUST IN : Here is a land grant document for a thousand acres executed in 1772 in West Florida for one Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Munster in partial payment for service in His Majesty’s army keeping the colony safe for monarchy. The document specifically instructs the king’s surveyor general, Charles Durnford, to make sure he assign land to Colonel Munster that was vacant and hadn’t been given to anyone else. The last thing the monarch (who was King George III at the time) needed was his army officers squabbling over land.

King George had his hands full with the uppity colonists in other American colonies thinking they’d be better off going it alone. The following year, some of them dumped tea in Boston Harbor to protest the King’s unreasonable taxes. When the American Revolution came, East and West Florida remained loyal to the crown. In the end, though, the British only stayed in Florida 20 years. In 1781, Spain captured Pensacola, and by 1783, the entire Florida territory was ceded back to Spain.

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Arnold betrayed American Revolution

It is the birthday of traitor General Benedict Arnold (1741), whose plot to surrender West Point to the British during the American Revolutionary War earned him the enmity of the fledgling nation. In the 19th century, his name became synonymous with traitor. Scholars say he was embittered against the Americans after being accused and acquitted of corruption and being passed over for promotion in the American Continental Army He was in command of fortifications at West Point, New York. His plot was revealed when American forces captured a British major who was carrying papers about Arnold’s planned defection.

Happy birthday, artist John Trumbull

It is the birthday of American Revolution artist John Trumbull (1756), who is best remembered for his painting, Declaration of Independence (1817), which was used on the reverse of the two-dollar bill. Trumbull created many historical paintings depicting events related to the American Revolutionary War, including The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill (1786), The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec (1786) and the Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown (1820). Trumbull also painted portraits of George Washington and John Adams. His paintings are on display in the rotunda of the Capitol Building, the Boston Athenaeum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, New York City Hall, Yale University, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Museum of American History.

Cicero's ideas influenced Europe, America

It is the birthday of the Roman philosopher Cicero (106 BC), one of ancient Rome's greatest writers and orators. He had a profound influence on European literature and thinking as well as the writings that lead to the French Revolution and American Revolution. His work is considered a primary source for the study of the last days of the Roman Empire. He excelled as a lawyer and an orator but he considered his political career to be his greatest achievement. He put down a plot to overthrow the government and had five of the perpetrators executed without a trial.

A talented student, Cicero translated Greek philosophical tracts into Latin, thus attracting attention of Rome's elite. He studied to become a lawyer. Cicero was a great admirer of the Greek philosopher Plato, and studied under the head of Plato's school who visited Rome. A fellow student, Pomponius (nicknamed Atticus) became a lifelong friend. Cicero's letters to Atticus are among the most studied documents of ancient Rome. Cicero was a fearless young lawyer. In his first case, he defended a man accused of killing his father. Cicero risked being murdered by accusing an ally of the then-dictator of Rome of the crime. Nevertheless, Cicero's client was acquitted. However, Cicero subsequently went on an extended trip abroad, possibly to avoid retribution.

Later, in a series of dramatic trials, Cicero successfully prosecuted the governor of Sicily for plundering, and in the process became admired as the greatest orator in Rome. He was a staunch defender of the Roman Republic and even resisted an offer from Julius Caesar to form a triumvirate to rule the empire. In 63 BC, Cicero was elected to Consul, Rome's highest elected office.

During his one-year term, Cicero foiled a conspiracy to murder him and overthrow the republic. His vociferous speeches before the Roman Senate led to the hasty exodus from the city by a rival politician who was behind the conspiracy. The politician's allies were detained, and Cicero argued for a decree from the Senate declaring martial law, which he was granted. Under martial law, Cicero had the conspirators strangled. Five years later, another rival successfully sponsored a law threatening to exile anyone who had killed a Roman citizen without due process. Cicero knew the law was aimed at him and he left Rome, exiling himself in Greece. While he was in exile, he wrote to his friend Atticus about his ordeal.

Upon is return to Rome, Cicero became a popular leader in the Senate once again, but eventually made a bitter rival of Mark Antony, who argued to have him declared an enemy of the state. Cicero was hunted down as he tried to escape to Macedonia, and murdered. His head and hands were cut off and displayed in the Roman Forum. Mark Antony's wife is said to have pulled Cicero's tongue out of his severed head and jabbed it with a hairpin to revile his talent as an orator.

Cicero's speeches, writing in rhetoric and philosophy, and letters to friends and relatives have been preserved. Among the best known are On the Commonwealth (six books published between 54 and 51 BC), On The Laws (publication year unknown), On Duties (44 BC), and letters to Atticus (68-43 BC). Cicero was admired during the Dark Ages by Medieval philosophers, and his ideas led to the Renaissance. His On Duties was the second books (after Gutenberg's Bible) to be published after the invention of the printing press. John Adams wrote of him: "As all the ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher united than Cicero, his authority should have great weight."

Happy birthday, Conrad Richter

Conrad Richter

It is the birthday of writer Conrad Richter (1890) whose book The Town (1950) won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1951. The book was part of his The Awakening Land trilogy, a series that included The Sea of Grass (1936) and The Light in the Forest (1953). The series tells the stories of pioneers settling in the Ohio Valley and Pennsylvania after the American Revolution. All were adapted for film.

Richter was born in a small Pennsylvania town and grew up in the region. He became editor of a weekly newspaper there when he was 19 years old. Later he worked as the private secretary for a wealthy manufacturing family in Cleveland. And still later, he founded a magazine for youths. Richter wrote stories for pulp magazines in the1930s.

Tales of pioneer descendants and a chance meeting inspired him to write the novels about his homeland. In 1928, he moved to New Mexico because of his wife's health. A neighbor who was originally from Ohio lent him a couple of thick books that contained first-hand accounts of Ohio pioneers. Richter was fascinated and became absorbed in them. Eventually, he traded with the neighbor two of his own books for the history books.

His main character, Sayward Luckett Wheeler, is considered one of the best depictions of pioneer women in literature. His portraits of frontier America are regarded as among the most accurate ever published.

Richter had a special connection with the people in his novels. "My father, grandfather, uncle, and great uncles were preachers," he once wrote, "Their fathers, however, had been tradesmen, soldiers, country squires, blacksmiths, and farmers, and I think that in my passion for early American life and people I am a throwback to these."

Addison's play inspired American Revolution

Joseph Addison

It is the birthday of English essayist and playwright Joseph Addison (1672), whose play, Cato (1712), is believed to be a literary inspiration for the American Revolution. The play, which concerns the Roman statesman's final days, was popular in Britain, Ireland, and the American colonies. George Washington is said to have performed it for the Continental Army at Valley Forge. Scholars note that Patrick Henry's famous proclamation, "Give me liberty or give me death" is certainly a reference to a line in the play as is Nathan Hale's vow "I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." Indeed, George Washington wrote in a letter praising Benedict Arnold (an act he no doubt later regretted) that "It is not in the power of any man to command success; but you have done more—you have deserved it," which scholars believe is a reference to "Tis not in mortals to command success; but we'll do more, Sempronius, we'll deserve it." The play is set at Utica as Cato the Younger awaits the arrival of Julius Caesar after Caesar's victory at Thapsus. Cato struggles with his personal beliefs in individual liberty and republicanism in the face of Caesar's tyrannical rule. In the end, Cato kills himself rather than live under Caesar's despotism. Addison also was known as an essayist. He helped his childhood friend Richard Steele start The Spectator, a daily sheet intended to make the discussion of philosophical issues accessible to the educated public in coffeehouses, clubs and at tea. The publication had a press run of about 3,000 copies but Addison estimated that the readership was far greater—about 60,000—because readers devoured them in subscribing coffeehouses. Maybe they also found Addison's work accessible because of his relaxed conversational writing style. Indeed, he earned the censure of renowned writers of the day for consistently ending a sentence with a preposition.

She left her print on Colonial America

Anne Catherine Green, painted by Peale

Anne Catherine Green is the sort of woman they ought to make a movie about – a widow left with 14 children and a struggling printing company in Colonial America supports the rebellion, saves her late husband’s business and achieves success in her own right.

When Green’s husband, Jonas, died in 1767, she carried on her husband’s printing business, including publishing the Maryland Gazette, a newspaper that carried notable attacks on British policy in the tumultuous days before the American Revolution. She also was the Maryland colony’s official printer, producing books, pamphlets, almanacs––and money. Colonies printed their own money then and Green was contracted to print currency for Maryland.

An example of Green’s printing is part of a framed display of authentic American colonial currency that is part of the collection of rare and unusual items at Lighthouse Books, ABAA. (It appears in the slide show above.) Interestingly, the Sixth of a Dollar note includes the legend “Printed by A.C. And F. Green.” By law in male-dominated Colonial America, the name of the man who printed the currency had to appear on it. Green added the name of her son, Frederick, to the note to make it legal.

Upon her husband’s death, Green began tightening up the lax receivables in the printing business and paid off her husband’s creditors within three years. When her husband died, Green added the name of her oldest son, William, to the masthead of the Maryland Gazette, but then he died in 1770. After that, Frederick, helped with the newspaper and the printing business. Only six of Green’s 14 children lived to become adults.

Anne Catherine became prominent and successful in the Maryland colony. She commissioned a portrait by Charles Willson Peale, the prolific artist who painted such American luminaries as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and John Hancock. In the portrait, the words “Annapolis printer to …” appear on a paper she holds. It is a reference to the act by the Maryland legislature choosing her to succeed her husband as the colony’s official printer.

The American colonists had a tough time with money––mainly they didn’t have enough of it, and the British Parliament wasn’t doing anything to help. Early on they just traded things: you had beaver pelts you exchanged them tobacco and musket balls.

Colonists liked gold and silver coins but most of them came from Spain and Portugal, and were brought in by pirates. Massachusetts even minted coins briefly but finally the various colonies got around to printing money. Massachusetts also issued the first American paper money in 1690––to pay soldiers to fight the French in Canada.

By the time of the American Revolution, colonists had gotten a lot better at printing money. The slide show above depicts the various colonial notes in the display of early American currency. A description of them follows:

New Jersey Colonial Note of 1764
Fifteen shilling note printed by James Parker in the hamlet of Woodbridge. The King’s Arms were prominent.

Delaware Colonial Note of 1776
Although printed January 1, 1776, this note bears the King’s Arms. Two signers of the note, McKinley and Collins, became governors of the new state of Delaware. The third signer, B. Marlowe, deserted to British loyalists in New Jersey by rowing across the Delaware before he signed all the bills. Rebel James Sykes completed the signing assignments.

Continental Currency 1775 and 1779
First and last Continental notes. The Latin phrase is translated: “Either death or an honorable life on the first notes. The Latin on the 1779 note translates “The end is in doubt.” This note is the only one to be printed in red and black. All Continentl issues were printed by Hall and Sellers in Philadelphia and this paper money depreciated so rapidly that the phrase “Not worth a Continental” became common.

Pennsylvania Colonial Notes of 1760
All Pennsylvania issues from 1723-1764 were printed by Benjamin Franklin and David Hall. One note is signed by Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress and the original signer of the Declaration of Independence, along with John Hancock that was sent to George III. “Death to Counterfeiters” was a phrase on most paper money but did not discourage such practices.

Delaware Colonial Note – June 1, 1759
The early issue of “The Three Lower Counties” (of Pennsylvania) printed by Benjamin Franklin and David Hall. When creased money was torn, the pieces were held together with a pin, hence, the term “pin money” originated. This paper currency was printed to raise money for the colonists’ participation in the French and Indian War.

Pennsylvania Colonial Notes of 1773
Printed by Hall and Sellers, this money bears the Penn family coat of arms.

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