*East India House by Thomas Shepherd c.1828

Excerpts from: Americanism Redux: March 30, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago today, in 1773

Today, 250 years ago, you’re on Leadenhall Street in east London, England, about to enter the headquarters of the East India Company, the EIC. Good luck getting anyone to stop and talk with you. Everyone is in a rush. Unless you’re connected somehow to the British Prime Minister, Lord North, or to a voting member of the House of Commons or House of Lords, or to the family or friends of King George III, no one wants to use their time today in hearing your thoughts and or ideas. . .

There are meetings all over this imperial city. A fear or sense of frenzy is in the air. For the past few months nearly thirty banks have closed across Europe, including England. A credit scare and a credit crisis took them down. . .

Will the pillars of the EIC crack next? That’s what everyone wants to avoid. The EIC has a monopoly on the millions of acres in India, part of the British Empire. But the company teeters on bankruptcy. If it goes insolvent, Lord only knows the effect on the British economy, especially the people who work with money, finances, trade, and land values. Lord only knows. . .

So, we’re neck-deep in a gigantic economic problem—with both perceived and real aspects—that another era will call “too big to fail.”. . .

There’s a real marriage in the deep woods near the Virginia-North Carolina border where husband Dan and wife Abigail celebrate the one-day anniversary of their wedding as the Morgans. It’s official for them after having been partners and parents together for several years. It’s not clear how the ten enslaved black people living with them see the situation. . .

Further west, it’s another newlywed couple. A black man named Jeanne Baptiste Pointe de Sable says yes in the vows to marry his new wife, Catherine. Jeanne is son of an enslaved Haitian woman. Catherine is from a local Native tribe. They’re excited to start a family—as the Morgans have already done—. . .

Further, further west is Fray Diego Ximenez, a procurator in the province of Sonora, Mexico, New Spain. He’s part of what’s become a trend here of late—writing out his ideas for the better colonial, imperial administration of a place seized by a European power. . .

Two Virginians who’ve been involved in the push to assert colonial rights are doing other things today. A package is a day away from Thomas Jefferson’s plantation called Monticello in Virginia. Inside the package are cuttings of Green Gage Plums. Jefferson is eager to try the new type of fruit in his orchards. . .

George Washington thinks through the wisdom of buying land in a place called Florida. He’s concerned about a British imperial law—the Proclamation of 1763—and its attempt to regulate land ownership west of the Appalachian Mountain chain. . .

A thousand miles up the coast is the ship “Pachett”, sailing west toward New York City. On board the vessel is ship master Hugh Fallon. In his pocket is a document. On the document is legal phrasing that binds passenger James Mahoney to Fallon for a four-year term of servitude, a form of forced labor. . .

The Pachett has crossed paths today with another ship headed in the opposite direction, toward England. On board is a booklet written by Samuel Mather of Boston. Mather has sent his writings to Benjamin Franklin in London. Mather’s booklet, entitled “An Attempt To Shew That America Must Be Known To The Ancients”, presents the theory that a thousand years ago Europeans were already here in the New World, courtesy of a global flood. . .

In Aberdeen, Maryland, Joseph Presbury looks forward, not backward. Today he finalizes a gift of one acre to be used in building one of the first Methodist churches in the colonies. . .

These nine stories, 250 years ago today, span a range of life—relationships, ambitions, daily tasks, personal plans. In the day they occur, each seems a complete step in a bigger race. But in fact, each step is a closer move toward a new choice. Nothing stops, apart from the day that ends when the sun descends.

Read the full article…

*PHOTO CREDIT: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons>

By Dr. Dan Miller