The purpose of this collection is to make available to students and teachers a selection of primary historical sources – the material of the footnotes in the textbooks concerning the American Revolution – and thus to give the student something of the “feel” of historical research. Microfilm makes possible what cannot be done in volumes of printed “extracts” from historical documents: what appear here are photographs of the sources used by historians reproduced in their entirety; the raw materials of historical research.
Of course from the vast amount of such material covering a period of more than twenty years, in the archives of several countries, only a small sample could be selected, but the intention is to allow a balanced and comprehensive view of the Revolution to be derived from the collection by the inclusion of a variety of types of document, presenting several different perspectives, and in substantial and unedited chunks. Hence The Boston Gazette, the leading Whig newspaper during the development of the Revolutionary crisis, the Reports of the Proceedings of the British Parliament, documents illustrating the diplomacy of the Revolution, and both Whig and Tory pamphlets.
The collection is not meant to replace the standard books but to supplement them and therefore no attempt has been made to provide a linking text or to describe the events not reflected in these documents. The text provided serves to introduce the items in the collection and to facilitate their use. There is, strictly speaking, no beginning; it is possible to enter at any point using the guides provided.
Edited by Greg Palmer and Wallace Brown.
This microfilm, a collection of original documents selected from archives in Britain and the United States, containing primary historical sources concerning the American Revolution, is divided into four parts:
- Debates in the Parliament of Great Britain on the American Revolution, 1765 – 1783; including the Stamp Act, the Tea Duty Bill, the Olive Branch Petition, and the Treaty of Peace in 1783
- The Boston Gazette for the main period of the Revolution, covering the years 1761 – 1776
- The Diplomacy of the American Revolution – documents selected from B.F. Stevens’ facsimiles of manuscripts in European archives relating to America, 1773 – 1783
- Documents, pamphlets and broadsheets of the Revolution, by Franklin, Jefferson, Washington etc.
6 reels of 35mm positive roll microfilm
Reference: ARC
Also digitally available – please enquire for details.
Contents
Part 1
The Parliamentary history of England from the earliest period to the year 1803. Published under the superintendence of T.C. Hansard.
The proceedings of the British Parliament were not systematically reported during the period of the American Revolution; it was not until 1803 that William Cobbett began his Parliamentary Debates which eventually became the official record. To remedy the absence of an earlier record, Cobbett, in collaboration with the printer T.C. Hansard, compiled the Parliamentary History using the official journals in which the transaction of business was recorded, and filling in the narrative of the proceedings from the imperfect private accounts that had been printed, reports published in periodical and notes of debates made by members present. The Parliamentary History is thus not a verbatim account, but a reconstruction and is not entirely reliable. But it is the best source existing and the extracts following are taken from it.
| Reel | Volume | Description |
| 1 | XVI pages 34 – 40 | Proceedings on the American Stamp Act. 13 February 1765 |
| 112 – 206 | The debates and proceedings in the Commons and the Lords concerning the repeal of the Stamp Act. 14 January – 17 March 1766 | |
| 331 – 341 | Speech by Thomas Pownall on the Bill to suspend the Assembly of New York. 15 May 1767 | |
| 362 – 376 | Debate in the Lords on the Land Tax. Ways and Means (Budget) for 1767. (Townshend Duties). 2 June 1767 | |
| XVII pages 840 – 841 | Resolution to allow the East India Company to export tea duty free. 27 April 1773 | |
| 1159 – 1325 | Debate in the House of Commons on the Coercive Acts. 10 March – 11 May 1774 | |
| 1350 – 1357 | Debate in the Lords on the Coercive Acts. Debate in the Lords on the Quartering Acts. 18 & 27 May 1774 | |
| XVIII pages 74 – 305 | American Papers. Debates in both Houses on Lord Chatham’s motion to settle the troubles in America. Debates on petitions from merchants in Bristol and London for reconciliation with America. 19 January – 13 February 1775 | |
| 319 – 358 | Debate on Lord North’s prepositions for conciliating the differences with America. 20 February 1775. | |
| 379 – 400 | Further debate on the Acts for restoring trade with the American colonies. 24 February 1775 | |
| 421 – 461 | Debate in the Lords on the above Acts. 15 & 21 March 1775 | |
| 478 – 541 | Debate on Burke’s resolutions on America. 22 March 1775 | |
| 552 – 574 | Debate on Mr Hartley’s propositions on America. 27 March 1775 | |
| 593 – 606 | Debate on the Prohibitory Acts. 30 March 1775 | |
| 643 – 655 | Debates on the remonstrance of the General Assembly of New York. 15 May 1775 | |
| 684 – 693 | Debate in the Lords on the same. 18 May 1775 | |
| 895 – 936 | Debate in the Lords on the Petition from Congress (Olive Branch petition). 8 November 1775 | |
| 963-992 | Debate on Burke’s resolutions. 16 November 1775 | |
| 992 – 1000 | Debate on the Prohibitory Bill. 20 November 1775 | |
| 1005 – 1021 | Debate on the King’s Advisers on measures against America. 27 November 1775 | |
| 1028 – 1107 | Debate on the Prohibitory Bill. 1 – 21 December 1975 | |
| 1287 – 1297 | Wilkes’ speech on a motion for more equal representation of the people in parliament. 21 March 1776 | |
| XIX pages 485 – 532 | Debate on the failure of General Burgoyne’s expedition. 2, 3 & 5 December 1777 | |
| 549 – 560 & 563 – 592 | Debate on the expense of the war and the proposals for conciliation. 5, 10 & 11 December 1777 | |
| 694 – 708 | Debate on the employment of Indians in the American War. 6 February 1778 | |
| 762 – 815 | Debate on the Conciliatory Bills. 19, 23 & 25 February 1778 | |
| 834 – 870 | Debate on the Conciliatory Bills. 5 & 9 March 1778 | |
| 908 – 927 | Treaty with France, debate. 16 & 17 March 1778 | |
| 971 – 972 | Burke’s motion concerning the charge for scalping knives etc. 23 March 1778 | |
| 1080 – 1088 | Debate on a motion to allow the commissioners to negotiate the independence of America. 10 April 1778 | |
| XX pages 675 – 818 | Enquiry into the conduct of the war (Sir William Howe). 29 March 1779 | |
| XXII pages 1028 – 1052 | Debate on the proposition to end the war in America. 22 February 1782 | |
| 1064 – 1109 | Debate on a motion not to prosecute the war in America, and a motion to conclude a peace or truce with America. 27 & 28 February 1782 | |
| XXIII pages 305 – 322 | Debate on the provisional articles of peace. 13 & 18 December 1782 | |
| 354 – 358 | Provisional articles of peace | |
| 373 – 436 | Debate in the Lords on the Preliminary articles of peace. 17 February 1783 | |
| 436 – 493 | Debate in the Commons on the preliminary articles of peace. 17 February 1783 | |
| 1182 – 1187 | Copy of the Definitive Treaty of Peace between Great Britain and America |
Part 2
The Boston Gazette, a weekly founded in 1719, was acquired in 1755 by two friends since boyhood, Benjamin Edes and John Gill. The paper, always strong on local news, with the onset of the Revolution, became the leading radical Whig paper in Massachusetts and probably the whole thirteen colonies. Edes was a member of “the Loyal Nine”, a Boston group organized in 1765, who were behind some of the popular disturbances during the Stamp Act Crisis of that year.
The Gazette remained the organ of the Sons of Liberty, led by Sam Adams who frequently spent his Sundays planning Monday’s issue. Adams wrote much material under at least twenty-five different pen-names (in those days authors never used their real names). He also gathered news through the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence and similar Committees in other colonies which served a purpose similar to a modern press agency. Adams’ career as a “Pioneer in Propaganda” included a role as a pioneer newspaper man.
Under Adams’ influence the Gazette was the only American paper that really maintained the agitation against Britain during the period of comparative quiet, 1771 – 1773. The paper was especially vitriolic towards the Loyalists. Thomas Hutchinson complained that seven-eighths of the population of Boston read only “this infamous weekly paper, and so are never undeceived”. By mid-1174 Edes claimed a weekly circulation of 2000 – one of the highest of that period. Governor Francis Bernard cursed “the infamous… paper which has swarmed with libells of the most atrocious kind”, but he failed to get either the House of Representatives or a grand jury to take any action against it. The war ended the partnership of Edes and Gill – Edes was arrested during the British occupation of Boston – and the last issue of the paper appeared on 17 April 1775. Edes revived it at Watertown, Massachusetts from 5 June 1775 until 4 November 1776, but the great days of the Gazette were at an end.
The following skeleton guide gives the dates of the newspaper not the actual events.
| Reel | Date | Description |
| 2 | 5 January 1761 | Death of George II |
| 16 February 1761 | Writs of Assistance | |
| 11 January 1762 | James Otis protests the writs | |
| 7 February 1763 | Preliminary Articles of Peace between Great Britain and France | |
| 4 April 1763 | James Otis and the appointment of Hutchinson as Chief Justice | |
| 15 August 1763 | Pontiac’s Rebellion | |
| 19 December 1763 | The Proclamation Line | |
| 27 February 1764 | Paxton Boys | |
| 25 March 1765 | Virginia protests the Stamp Act | |
| 2 September 1765 | Riots in Boston | |
| 4 November 1765 | The Stamp Act Congress | |
| 3 | 14 April 1766 | Petitions from Stamp Act Congress to Parliament |
| 5 May 1766 | Timothy Ruggles and Stamp Act | |
| 26 May 1766 | Repeal of Stamp Act | |
| 8 September 1766 | Obituary of Jonathan Mayhew | |
| 21 September 1767 | Townshend Acts protested; new Board of Customs set up | |
| 2 November 1767 | Boston Town Meeting revived non-importation; Labrador Tea recommended | |
| 21 December 1767 | John Dickinson’s Letter from a Farmer in Pennsylvania begin publication | |
| 15 February 1768 | Massachusetts House of Representatives protests taxation without representation | |
| 13 June 1768 | John Wilkes about to enter prison | |
| 20 June 1768 | Hancock’s Liberty seized | |
| 27 June 1768 | Replies to the Massachusetts circular letter | |
| 10 October 1768 | British troops ordered from Halifax to Boston | |
| 5 June 1769 | Results of Massachusetts Provincial elections; Salem Town Meeting Protests British policies | |
| 12 June 1769 | The Virginia Resolves | |
| 12 February 1770 | List of breakers of non-importation | |
| 26 February 1770 | Address of Alexander McDougal to the inhabitants of New York | |
| 12 March 1770 | The Boston massacre | |
| 10 December 1770 | Vindex (Samuel Adams) begins criticism of trial of Captain Preston | |
| 4 | 3 June 1771 | Massachusetts provincial election results |
| 17 June 1771 | Regulator Civil War In North Carolina | |
| 22 June 1772 | Gaspee burned | |
| 23 November 1772 | Boston Town Meeting adopts radical statements by J. Adams | |
| 17 May 1773 | John Locke praised | |
| 7 June 1773 | Resolutions of Mendon Town Meeting | |
| 28 June 1773 | The Hutchinson Letters | |
| 6 December 1773 | Faneuil Hall meeting regarding tea | |
| 20 December 1773 | The Boston Tea Party | |
| 6 June 1774 | Harvard cancels commencement; “Coercive Acts” | |
| 26 September 1771 | First Continental Congress adopts the Suffolk Resolves | |
| 31 October 1774 | Non-importation | |
| 7 November 1774 | The “Association” | |
| 10 April 1775 | Letters of Novanglus begin | |
| 17 April 1775 | Last edition of the Gazette in Boston | |
| 5 June 1775 | Gazette printed at Watertown. More Hutchinson letters | |
| 12 June 1775 | Proceedings of the Second Continental Congress | |
| 24 July 1775 | “A Declaration… by the United Colonies… setting forth the Causes… of… taking up arms | |
| 22 July 1776 | The Declaration of Independence |
Part 3
Facsimiles of manuscripts in European archives relating to America. 1773 – 17B3. Edited by B.F. Stevens.
Many of the most important documents relating to the American Revolution are to be found in foreign archives. Benjamin Franklin Stevens, an American bibliophile and scholar who lived in England during the later years of the nineteenth century, spent much of his life locating and transcribing such documents. He published a selection of these, reproduced photographically from the originals as Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives Relating to America 1773 – 1783. These documents brought to the attention of scholars, two aspects of the Revolution that had hitherto been little studied; the diplomacy of the American alliance with France, and the consequent attempt by the British government to conciliate Congress before such an alliance could be concluded. The selection of documents that follows illustrates these events.
| Reel | Documents | Description |
| 5 | 148 | Plant for raising 20 million livres for Congress. Spring 1777. Auckland MSS |
| 149 | Memoir – Franklin, Dearie, Abbé Niccoli, to induce France to declare openly for America. Spring 1777 Auckland MSS | |
| 150 | Supplemental observations. Auckland MSS | |
| 346 | Memoranda by the Under-Secretary of State, William Eden. Auckland MSS | |
| 348 | Heads of an address to be brought before the House of Commons. (Eden) Auckland MSS | |
| 355 | First sketch of a conciliatory act (Eden). Auckland MSS | |
| 357 | Further sketch by the Solicitor-General Alexander Wedderburn. Auckland MSS | |
| 358 | Draft of a Bill by the Attorney-General, Thurlow. Auckland MSS | |
| 359 | Draft by Eden. Auckland MSS | |
| 360 | First draft of the Act with amendments by the Clerk for the House, Mr. Hatsell. Auckland MSS | |
| 361 | Amendments by the Attorney-General. Auckland MSS | |
| 363 | Printed Bill. Auckland MSS | |
| 368 | Amendments by the Solicitor General. Auckland MSS | |
| 379 | Hints by William Eden. Auckland MSS | |
| 380 | Hints by Richard Jackson. Auckland MSS | |
| 382 | Heads drawn up by Wedderburn with notes by Thomas de Grey. Auckland MSS | |
| 422 | Eden’s proposed alterations. Auckland MSS | |
| 438 | Vardill. Sketches of characters of Members of Congress. Auckland MSS | |
| 440 | Actual instructions bearing the sign manual and seal. Carlisle MSS, Castle Howard | |
| 595 English | Silas Dean – Memoire, “Proposed articles of a treaty with France”. 23 November 1776 | |
| 595 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | États Unis. Volume I, number 85, folio 289 | |
| 604 French with translation | Baron de Kalb, “Project…” 17 December 1776 | |
| 604 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | États Unis. Volume I, numbers 96 & 97, folio 304 | |
| 606 English | American Commissioners to Vergennes. Dean’s instructions from Congress. 23 December 1776 | |
| 606 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | États Unis. Volume I, number 104, folio 315 | |
| 614 French with translation | Memorial of the American Commissioners to the King of France. 5 January 1777 | |
| 614 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | États Unis. Volume II, number 11, folio 20 | |
| 649 English | Franklin and Deane – Proposals for a treaty of commerce. 1 March 1777 | |
| 649 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | États Unis. Volume II, number 62, folio 111 | |
| 660 English | Memoir relative to a loan of 2 million sterling. Silas Deane. 18 March 1777 | |
| 660 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | États Unis. Volume II, number 73, folio 133 | |
| 719 | Paul Wentworth to Silas Deane. General ideas for the preliminaries of an accommodation and perpetual union between Great Britain and the Colonies. 13 December 1777. Auckland MSS | |
| 862 French with translation | Beaumarchais to Vergennes. Proposal for assistance to America. 3 May 1776 | |
| 862 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | Angleterre. Volume 516, number 5, folio 11 | |
| 864 French with translation | Beaumarchais to Vergennes. Proposal for assistance to America. 8 May 1776 | |
| 864 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | Angleterre. Volume 516, number 18, folio 54 | |
| 904 French with translation | Beaumarchais to Vergennes, object to bind America to France. 12 November 1776 | |
| 904 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | Volume 519, number 23, folio 86 | |
| 1310 French with translation | Gérard de Rayneval, “Reflexions…”. April 1776 | |
| 1310 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | États Unis. Memoirs et Documents, Volume I, number 4, folio 59 | |
| 1316 French with translation | Vergennes “Considerations…” 12 March 1776 | |
| 1316 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | Volume I, number 9 | |
| 1319 French with translation | Cite de St. Germain – answer to Vergennes “Considerations…” 15 March 1776 | |
| 1319 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | Angleterre. Volume 515, folio 179 | |
| 1320 French with translation | “Reflexions…” March 1776 | |
| 1320 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | États Unis. Volume II, number 14, folio 28 | |
| 1328 French with translation | Beaumarchais to Vergennes, proposal for assistance to America. 26 April 1776 | |
| 1328 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | Angleterre. Volume 515, folio 389 | |
| 1451 French with translation | Vergennes’ reply to Franklin and Deane’s Proposals for a treaty of commerce. 1 March 1777. Auckland MSS | |
| 1678 French with translation | Instructions to Noailles to give the appearance of wanting peace in England. 16 September 1777 | |
| 1678 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | Angleterre. Volume 524, folio 466 | |
| 1762 French with translation | Willingness of the King of France to entertain propositions from the American commissioners. 6 December 1777 | |
| 1762 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | Angleterre. Volume 526, folio 183 | |
| 1824 French with translation | Promise of a treaty. 7 January 1778 | |
| 1824 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | Espagne. Volume 588, folio 22 | |
| 1835 French with translation | Considerations on the necessity of France declaring at once for America. 13 January 1778 | |
| 1835 France archives de Affaires Étrangères | Angleterre. Volume 528, folio 88 | |
| 1897 French with translation | Beaumarchais to Vergennes. Necessity of war with Britain. 16 March 1778 |
Part 4
Documents, pamphlets, and broadsides of the revolution.
The issues of the American Revolution were debated very largely-through the publication of pamphlets; more than four hundred were published in the American colonies in the year 1776 alone. They ranged from the texts of sermons, occupying a few pages, to erudite treatises; but what they had in common is that they were usually addressed to particular events. They trace therefore not the history of abstract ideas, but the reactions of contemporaries on both sides, to these events, and they provide also an insight into the motivations behind political actions.
| Reel | Description |
| 6 | Thomas Chandler, A friendly address to all reasonable Americans. 1774 |
| Thomas Chandler, The American Querist. 1774 | |
| Thomas Chandler, What think ye of Congress now? 1775 | |
| Michael Guillaume St. Jean de Crevecoeur, Letters from an American farmer, Ho III, What is an American? 1782 | |
| Benjamin Franklin, Rules by which a great empire may be reduced a small one. 1773 | |
| Philip Morin Freneau, The British prison ship: a poem in four cantos. 1781 | |
| Joseph Galloway, A candid examination of the mutual claims of Great Britain and the colonies. 1775 | |
| Francis Hopkinson, The battle of the kegs. 1778 | |
| Thomas Hutchinson, Letters sent to Great Britain by Governor Hutchinson and Lieutenant Governor Oliver. 1773 | |
| Charles Inglis, Letters of Papinian. 1779 | |
| Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the state of Virginia. 1894 | |
| William Knox, The interest of the merchants and manufacturers of Great Britain in the present contest with the colonies stated and considered. 1774 | |
| Daniel Leonard, Massachusettensis. 1775 | |
| Thomas Paine, The American crisis. 1792 | |
| John Trumbull, M’Fingal: a modern epic poem in four cantos. 1782 | |
| George Washington, Circular letter on his resignation as Commander in Chief. 1783 | |
| George Washington, Accounts of George Washington with the United States June 1775 to June 1783 | |
| Thomas Whately, Regulations lately made concerning the colonies and the taxes imposed upon them, considered. 1765 | |
| John Wilkes, The North Briton, number 45. 1763 | |
| Daniel Parker Coke, The Royal Commission on the losses and services of American Loyalists. Edited by H.E. Egerton. 1915 | |
| John Pownall, “Narrative of Events…”. 1770 |