1773 to 1775

Literature

She Stoops to Conquer, or, The Mistakes of a Night. Oliver Goldsmith. British. 1773. Play. Arranged marriage. Bashful Marlow thinks his future father-in-law is the impudent landlord of a village inn. His intended pretends to be a bar maid and a poor relative.

Gotz von Berlichingen. Goethe. German. 1773. Play. Powerful personality outmaneuvered by political adversaries; short, pithy scenes and changes in setting.

Society

1774. France's Louis XV dies. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette reign.

1774. First Continental Congress assembles at Philadelphia. All colonies except Georgia.

1774. Congress agrees to import nothing from Great Britain and to export nothing unless grievances redressed.

1774. Connecticut and Rhode Island prohibit further importation of slaves.

1774. News of Boston Tea Party reaches London. Parliament acts to bring colonists to heel.

1774. Boston Harbor closed June 1 until East India Co. is reimbursed for tea.

1774. American colonists send supplies to Boston.

1774. Other tea parties follow in New York; York, Maine; and Annapolis, Maryland.

1774. Joseph Priestley discovers Oxygen.

1774. English religious mystic Ann Lee introduces Shakerism into America. Denounces sex and consummated marriages. Preaches celibacy.

Literature

The Sorrows of Young Werther. Goethe. German. 1774. Novel. Epistolary. Gifted, artistic temperament. Loses himself in dreams and speculation. Commits suicide.

On American Taxation. Edmund Burke. British. 1774. Speech. Urged that duty on tea imported into American colonies be repealed. It wasn't.

Society

1775. American War of Independence's begins April 19 at Lexington and Concord.

1775. Royal Navy begins 11-month siege of Boston.

1775. Second Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia.

1775. Battle of Bunker Hill is victory for British, but they lose more men than the colonists.

1775. George Washington appointed commander- in- chief.

1775. American navy established. Congress authorizes construction of two swift sailing vessels.

1775. Thomas Paine comes to America from England where he has been a failure at all he's tried.

1775. American Abolition Society founded in Pennsylvania.

1775. Daniel Boone establishes Wilderness Road of 300 miles to Kentucky and Tennessee.

1775. American imports from Britain decline by 95%. English businessmen express displeasure.

1775. "Taxation No Tyranny" by Doctor Johnson is a tract against American colonies.