New York Provincial Congress

Rouse, Brave Citizens: An Appeal to New Yorkers to Support Revolution

September 10, 2026 by Dr. Bruce W. Dearstyne 1 Comment

In December 1776, the American Revolution was just getting started and New York was in crisis. New York’s delegates to Philadelphia had signed the Declaration of Independence in July 1776.

But by the end of the year, though, New York was in peril – Long Island and the city of New York had been occupied by the British, the Westchester County region was not in control of either side, and British authorities were appealing to New Yorkers to abandon the rebels and support the Crown. [Read more…] about Rouse, Brave Citizens: An Appeal to New Yorkers to Support Revolution

New York & The Struggle to Finance the Revolutionary War

August 27, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

One of the earliest acts of the New York Provincial Congress was the promise on May 24, 1775, to repay all monies advanced for the resistance to British domination. When the old colonial government was gradually superseded in 1774 and 1775 by an extra-legal government of committees and congresses chosen by the people, these bodies were met immediately by the problem of financing both the political activities and the military operations. The latter began with the plans to seize Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point, shortly after the colonists had been electrified by the news of Lexington and Concord. [Read more…] about New York & The Struggle to Finance the Revolutionary War

New York’s Response to the Declaration of Independence

July 3, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Conscious of the new political status which the Province of New York had attained by the adoption of the text of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4th, the deputies of the New York Provincial Congress voted unanimously on July 10th:

“That the style or title of this House be changed from that of the Provincial Congress of the Colony of New York to that of the Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York.” [Read more…] about New York’s Response to the Declaration of Independence

New York’s Uncertainty Over The Declaration of Independence

July 2, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

At the outset of the emerging American Revolution there was no intent to overthrow the established social order, nor to subvert the government of the British Empire.

Most colonists wanted self-government, self taxation and direct representation within the empire, and professed to stand for their old and recognized rights as men and as Englishmen under the British constitution, which they believed a blind parliament and an obstinate ministry were violating. [Read more…] about New York’s Uncertainty Over The Declaration of Independence

New York’s Revolutionary Provincial Congresses 1775-1776

June 26, 2026 by Guest Contributor 2 Comments

By May 1775 civil war between the American colonies and the British government had begun. The Battles of Lexington and Concord, and the seizures of Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point told the story of an appeal to arms.

Town, county, city and state committees, as representatives of the people, assumed the functions of government, took the initiative in opposing the objectionable acts of the British parliament, and gradually, perhaps more or less unconsciously, prepared the people for the Revolutionary War. [Read more…] about New York’s Revolutionary Provincial Congresses 1775-1776

New York’s Provincial Congress: From Association to State Government

June 11, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

The New York Provincial Congress on May 26, 1775, appointed a “standing committee of correspondence” and the next day ordered all the counties in the Province of New York to name committees for the counties, towns and districts and to have the “general association” signed, in order to execute the orders of the Second Continental Congress.

Every citizen was to be invited to sign the “association” and by July 1775, all the non-signers (loyalist, or otherwise) were to be reported to the Provincial Congress. [Read more…] about New York’s Provincial Congress: From Association to State Government

The American Revolutionary Committee System: 1765-1775

June 8, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

During the controversies over the enforcement of the Navigation Acts, the Sugar Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act of 1765, committees were created in New York to correspond with those of other colonies and to contrive means of opposing those measures. Similar committees were organized elsewhere.

The Townshend Acts of 1767 reawakened the disturbance occasioned by the Stamp Act and furnished a renewed occasion for protests through committees. [Read more…] about The American Revolutionary Committee System: 1765-1775

New York’s Revolutionary Committee Records: Correspondence, Safety & Conspiracies

June 4, 2026 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

For a century and a half prior to the American Revolution the people of New York had been accustomed to act through representative committees in order to win one concession after another for self-government.

During the Dutch period the Twelve Men (a committee chosen in 1641 by the residents to advise Willem Kieft on relations with Native Americans), the Eight Men (Remonstrance of the Eight Men, 1644), the Nine Men (Remonstrance of the Commonality, 1649, led by Adriaen van der Donck), and other groups, wrested rights for the people from autocratic New Netherland governors and the West India Company. [Read more…] about New York’s Revolutionary Committee Records: Correspondence, Safety & Conspiracies

Fire and Freedom: The American Revolution in New York

March 27, 2026 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Many of the American Revolution‘s key moments can be traced to New York: city crowds rioted against colonial taxation and George Washington spent one-third of the war in and around the soon-to-be “Empire State.”

Beyond these well-known players and moments, however, lies a trove of new information on New York’s hidden revolutionary stories. Fire and Freedom: The American Revolution in New York (Three Hills / Cornell University Press, 2026) showcases New York’s central role in the revolution and highlights the stories of people and events previously hidden from popular view. [Read more…] about Fire and Freedom: The American Revolution in New York

Revolutionary Veteran Land Bounties & Settling Warren County

March 8, 2026 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

Payment and incentives for enlistment in the American Revolutionary War, both in the Continental Line regiments and local militia units, were a problem from the beginning.

The Continental Congress did not have a hard specie (gold or silver coinage) source to pay soldiers, instead relying on paper money. That paper money, without any source of backing, soon became worthless. A method of rewarding soldiers for service had to be found. [Read more…] about Revolutionary Veteran Land Bounties & Settling Warren County

Captain Bernard Romans and the Capture of Fort George

February 16, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Just who was Captain Bernard Romans, the man who captured of Fort George in 1775? Where was he from, and how did he end up at Lake George?

Bernard Romans, (ca.1720-1783) was a surveyor, cartographer, naturalist, engineer, and soldier. His surveys and mapping of the Alabama coastline along with Eastern and Western Florida provided the first look at the land and the flora and fauna that the British had acquired at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763. [Read more…] about Captain Bernard Romans and the Capture of Fort George

1775 Articles of Association: One Long Island Community’s Experience

February 13, 2026 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

The residents of Huntington, on Long Island, were quick to react to the first battle of the American Revolution when the local militia in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts successfully repulsed a British attempt to seize their arms on April 19, 1775.

A week later in the city of New York, the Committee of Sixty, which had been created the previous November, expressed its opinion “That at the present alarming Juncture, it is highly adviseable [sic] that a Provincial Congress be immediately summoned.” [Read more…] about 1775 Articles of Association: One Long Island Community’s Experience

Revolutionary New York in Eight Documents

September 17, 2025 by Dr. Bruce W. Dearstyne Leave a Comment

Readers of New York Almanack can expect to see lots of coverage of events related to the America 250 commemoration over the next year or so. The events and programs are likely to be mostly based around major events, such as the Battle of Saratoga.

But there might be another way to gain perspective on the American Revolution in New York, one that focuses on some original documents. A few revealing documents are noted below. They illustrate a pattern that will recur in New York history: our state sometimes hesitates but then assumes a leadership role in effecting change. [Read more…] about Revolutionary New York in Eight Documents

1775: New York City Revolutionaries Seize British Arms

August 12, 2025 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

In the early part of the year 1775 a state of uneasiness and expectancy pervaded the City of New York. Trade was prostrate. The merchants met at the Exchange or at the Coffee House and nervously talked over the situation, for which there seemed to be no remedy; while they looked out on the quiet docks, now almost deserted.

They were calmly waiting for something to happen, and it came in the news of the battle of Lexington. This was the crisis which produced a decided change in conditions. The dissatisfied people now showed that they had lost all respect for English rule. [Read more…] about 1775: New York City Revolutionaries Seize British Arms

What Really Happened on the Fourth of July

July 4, 2025 by James F. Sefcik 1 Comment

On April 19, 1775, British Regulars and American minutemen fought at Lexington and Concord. There were casualties on both sides. A second battle was fought at Bunker Hill in June, the Continental Army with George Washington as commander was created, the British forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point were captured by the colonists, King George III declared his colonies to be in a state of rebellion in August, Canada was invaded, and in May 1776 Congress learned that Britain had employed Hessian troops to fight their American cousins.

Despite all that ensued, the Continental Congress still had not taken up the idea of independence, much to the dismay of the more radical delegates such as John and Samuel Adams and Virginia’s Richard Henry Lee. [Read more…] about What Really Happened on the Fourth of July

The Committee of Safety in Revolutionary America

January 28, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Committees of Safety grew from the Committees of Correspondence, which were organized before the American Revolution to establish, through the writing of letters, an underground network of communication among Patriot leaders in the Thirteen Colonies. The committees were instrumental in setting up the First Continental Congress, which convened in Philadelphia in September and October 1774.

Authorized by the First Continental Congress in late 1774 to enforce the Articles of Association, local leaders of these committees largely determined their structure and operation. [Read more…] about The Committee of Safety in Revolutionary America

Egbert Benson: New York’s first Attorney General

January 14, 2025 by Historical Society of the New York Courts 1 Comment

Egbert Benson (1746-1843), serving as New York’s first Attorney General from May 8, 1777, to May 14, 1788, was a pivotal figure in the state’s early legal history.

Appointed in the heat of the Revolutionary era, Benson’s role was essential in guiding New York through its transition from colonial rule to statehood. [Read more…] about Egbert Benson: New York’s first Attorney General

Mohawk Valley Preparations for the American Revolution

August 1, 2024 by Richard Williams 2 Comments

Samuel Adams, using the pseudonym “Valerius Poplicola,” wrote to the Boston Gazette on October 5, 1772: “Let Associations & Combinations be everywhere set up to consult and recover our just Rights.”

A few weeks later he presented his plan to oppose Britain’s “Plan of Slavery” at a meeting in Boston organized for that purpose. This was the birth of the “Committees of Correspondence” or “Committees of Safety” which spread throughout the colonies in early 1773. [Read more…] about Mohawk Valley Preparations for the American Revolution

Albany’s Abraham Ten Broeck: A Short Biography

May 15, 2023 by Peter Hess 1 Comment

Abraham Ten Broeck was born in 1734 to Dirck Ten Broeck (1686-1751) and Margarita Cuyler (1682–1783). Abraham was one of twelve children born to the couple. Abraham first-generation grandfather had come to America from Holland in 1626 on the same ship with Peter Minuit, the first Director General of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. [Read more…] about Albany’s Abraham Ten Broeck: A Short Biography

Records Reveal an Overlooked Hero of the Culper Spy Ring

November 7, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

In late 1777, Patriot and Long Island-native Selah Strong was arrested for what in present-day terms would be regarded as spying. While Selah’s spouse, Anna “Nancy” Strong, and his close friends would be considered part of George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring, only a few historians have included Selah as a member.

This network of spies operated during the Revolutionary War and smuggled information out of the British headquarters in New York City via British-occupied Long Island and across the Long Island Sound, eventually to the Commander-in-Chief himself. By re-examining primary sources for the first time in hundreds of years, Selah’s heroic role in the Culper Spy Ring finally comes to light. [Read more…] about Records Reveal an Overlooked Hero of the Culper Spy Ring

New York Provincial Congress

We Need Your Help Now More Than Ever

New York Almanack receives no public funds.

It’s supported only by readers like you.

Please give today (a monthly recurring gift is best)