American advocates of independence were commonly lampooned in Great Britain for what was termed their hypocritical calls for freedom at the same time that many of their leaders were planters who held hundreds of slaves Samuel Johnson snapped "how is it we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of the Negroes?" Benjamin Franklin countered by criticizing the British self-congratulation about "the freeing of one Negro" named Somersett while they continued to permit the overall slave trade. Phyllis Wheatley was a black poet who popularized the image of Columbia to represent America She came to public attention when her Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral appeared in 1773, Retrocession and the Civil War. 11 External links vte Constitutional Convention 1787 Main articles: Religious views of George Washington and American Enlightenment. At the outset of the Revolutionary War the Second Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania State House On account of British military actions the Congress was forced to relocate to Baltimore Lancaster Pennsylvania and then York Pennsylvania for a time before returning to Philadelphia. Upon gaining independence the Congress of the Confederation was formed and Philadelphia became the new nation's first seat of government Congress did not remain in the city long however for in June 1783 a mob of angry soldiers converged upon Independence Hall demanding payment for their service during the war Congress requested that John Dickinson the governor of Pennsylvania call up the militia to defend Congress from attacks by the protesters in what became known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783 Dickinson sympathized with the protesters and refused to remove them from Philadelphia As a result Congress was forced to flee to Princeton New Jersey on June 21 1783 and met in Annapolis and then Trenton before ending up in New York, Morrill Tariff A separate British force captured Alexandria on the south side of the Potomac River while Ross's troops were leaving Washington the mayor of Alexandria made a deal and the British refrained from burning the town.
Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry Main article: Slavery among Native Americans in the United States. The French detachment proved to be only about 50 men so Washington advanced on May 28 with a small force of Virginians and Indian allies to ambush them.[f] What took place was disputed but French forces were killed outright with muskets and hatchets French commander Joseph Coulon de Jumonville who carried a diplomatic message for the British to evacuate was mortally wounded in the battle French forces found Jumonville and some of his men dead and scalped and assumed that Washington was responsible. Washington placed blame on his translator for not communicating the French intentions. Dinwiddie congratulated Washington for his victory over the French. This incident ignited the French and Indian War which later became part of the larger Seven Years' War.
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