(AMERICAN REVOLUTION PRELUDE) Lee Thomas Letter on the Powd

Sale 2432 - Lot 19

Price Realized: $ 2,500

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--PRELUDE.) Lee, Thomas. Letter on the Powder Alarm and life in blockaded Boston. Autograph Letter Signed to Dudley Woodbridge of Norwich, CT. 2 pages, 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, plus integral address leaf with no postal markings; marginal seal tear, minor wear. (MRS) Boston, 7 September 1774

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

In the wake of the Boston Tea Party and the closure of Boston by the Port Act, other colonists sent shipments of food to the blockaded city. Here, a Boston merchant describes the scene, and particularly the Powder Alarm on 1 September which demonstrated the colonists' resolve: "The Bostonians have a just sense of the kindness of our brethren in Connecticut, for the readiness they discover to afford their aid in the common cause of liberty, & they will be much encourag'd to persevere in their opposition to every attempt made on the rights of Americans. The assembly of peoples being collected at Cambridge was principally occasioned by the powder being taken from the magazine of that county, but they also intended & did effect the resignation of several of the new made counsellors who have engag'd never to act against the charter of this province. The like has been done in all other parts of the country, so that none hold their offices now but a few who have fled for refuge to Boston, which is now esteem'd by all the enemies to our cause to be the only place of safety for them. In consequence of these movements, the general is beginning to fortify this town & will act only on the defensive; more troops are sent for. A ship yesterday arrived at Salem with a parcel of tea, apprehend it will be sent back again." Provenance: sold by Walter Benjamin to the consignor, October 1979.