New York EXPLAINED
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1664–1783

The Colonial City & the Revolution

A century under the British crown that ended in revolution. The city gave America an early case for a free press, a panic that sent dozens to the gallows and the stake, a brutal seven-year occupation, and Washington’s tearful goodbye in a Pearl Street tavern.

A 19th-century painting of colonists and soldiers using ropes to topple a gilded equestrian statue of King George III at Bowling Green in 1776.
Johannes A. S. Oertel, 'Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, N.Y.C.,' c. 1859 (a later reconstruction). New-York Historical Society. Public domain.
  1. 1735

    August 4, 1735

    Zenger Acquitted, Press Freed

    A New York jury defied the judge and acquitted Zenger of seditious libel for printing criticism of the royal governor.

    The question before the Court... is not the cause of one poor printer, nor of New-York alone... It is the best cause. It is the cause of liberty.

    Andrew Hamilton, closing address to the jury defending printer John Peter Zenger; recorded in James Alexander’s "Brief Narrative" (1736)

    It didn’t change the law for decades. But it planted the idea that a jury could protect a printer who told the truth.

    Source: Historical Society of the New York Courts Read the full story
  2. 1741

    1741

    The Slave "Conspiracy" Trials

    On an island where the enslaved were perhaps a fifth of the population, a wave of arson fears triggered mass arrests and executions on evidence now regarded as coerced.

    After a series of fires, New York’s courts tried scores of enslaved and poor people for a plot to burn the city. By the judge’s own published record, about 30 people were executed — roughly 13 burned at the stake and 17 hanged — and some 70 more were sold out of the colony.

    Daniel Horsmanden, a presiding justice, "A Journal of the Proceedings in the Detection of the Conspiracy" (1744)

    Whether any plot existed is still debated. The fullest record we have was written by the judge who sent people to the stake.

    Source: Gilder Lehrman Institute Read the full story
  3. 1765

    October 19, 1765

    No Taxation Without Consent

    Nine colonies sent delegates to New York to draft the first unified protest against Parliament’s taxes, an early "no taxation without representation."

    It is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives.

    Declaration of Rights and Grievances, adopted by the Stamp Act Congress at New York’s City Hall, October 1765

    It was still deferential, affirming "all due subordination" to Parliament even as it denied Parliament’s power to tax. The break was a decade off.

    Source: Teaching American History Read the full story
  4. 1776

    July 9, 1776

    The King Comes Down

    Washington had the Declaration read to his army on the Common; that night a crowd toppled the gilded statue of George III at Bowling Green and melted much of its lead into musket balls.

    The declaration of Congress, shewing the grounds & reasons of this measure, is to be read with an audible voice. The General hopes this important Event will serve as a fresh incentive to every officer, and soldier, to act with Fidelity and Courage.

    George Washington, General Orders, New York, July 9, 1776

    Washington’s very next orders scolded the soldiers for the unauthorized vandalism. Even a revolution wanted discipline.

    Source: Founders Online (National Archives)
  5. 1776

    September 21, 1776

    Manhattan Burns

    Days after the British took the city, a fire destroyed perhaps a quarter of it, including Trinity Church.

    The appearance of the Trinity Church when completely in flames was a very grand sight, for the Spire being entirely framed of wood and covered with shingles, a lofty Pyramid of fire appeared... until the whole fell with a great noise.

    Capt. Frederick Mackenzie, British officer, diary, September 21, 1776

    Who set it was never settled. The British blamed rebel arsonists; Washington privately noted that Providence had done what Congress wouldn’t let him. St. Paul’s Chapel survived and still stands.

    Source: Diary of Frederick Mackenzie (Internet Archive)
  6. 1781

    1781

    Rebels, Turn Out Your Dead

    On rotting hulks in Wallabout Bay off Brooklyn, the British held captured American sailors in conditions so lethal that more Americans likely died on the prison ships than in all the war’s battles.

    Rebels! Turn out your dead!

    The morning cry of the guards aboard the prison ship Jersey, in a prisoner’s letter printed in the Continental Journal (Boston), August 23, 1781

    The dead were later gathered into the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument that still stands in Fort Greene Park.

    Source: Readex / America’s Historical Newspapers Read the full story
  7. 1783

    December 4, 1783

    Washington’s Farewell

    Nine days after the British sailed away on Evacuation Day, Washington said goodbye to his officers in the Long Room of Fraunces Tavern before leaving to resign his commission.

    With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.

    George Washington to his officers at Fraunces Tavern, as recalled by Benjamin Tallmadge, who was in the room ("Memoir," 1858)

    This is the only firsthand account, written by Tallmadge nearly fifty years later. The exact words are a soldier’s memory, not a transcript, but the tears were real.

    Source: Memoir of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge (Internet Archive)

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