Rhode Island’s tradition of independence and dissent gave it a prominent role in the American Revolution. Rhode Island was the first of the thirteen colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown on May 4, 1776. It was also the last of the thirteen colonies to ratify the United States Constitution on May 29, 1790, once assurances were made that a Bill of Rights would become part of the Constitution.
That the flag of North Carolina shall consist of a blue union, containing in the center thereof a white star with the letter “N” in gilt on the left and the letter “C” in gilt on the right of said star, the circle containing the same to be one-third the width of the union. The fly of the flag shall consist of two equally proportioned bars; the upper bar to be red, the lower bar to be white; that the length of the bars horizontally shall be equal to the perpendicular length of the union, and the total length of the flag shall be one-third more than its width. That above the star in the center of the union there shall be a gilt scroll in semi-circular form, containing in black letters this inscription “May 20th 1775,” and that below the star there shall be a similar scroll containing in black letters the inscription: “April 12th 1776”. It bears the dates of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (May 20, 1775) and of the Halifax Resolves (April 12, 1776), documents that place North Carolina at the forefront of the American independence movement. Both dates also appear on the Great Seal of North Carolina.
The flag of the state of New York is the coat of arms on a solid blue background. The state seal of New York is the coat of arms surrounded by the words “The Great Seal of the State of New York.” The legislature changed the field of the flag from buff to blue by a law enacted on April 2, 1901.[2]
The shield displays a masted ship and a sloop on the Hudson River (symbols of inland and foreign commerce), bordered by a grassy shore and a mountain range in the background with the sun rising behind it.
The shield has two supporters:
Left: Liberty, with the Revolutionary imagery of a Phrygian cap raised on a pole. Her left foot treads upon a crown that represents freedom from the British monarchy that once ruled what is now New York as a colony.
Right: Justice, wearing a blindfold (representing impartiality) and holding scales (representing fairness) and a sword.
A banner below the shield shows the motto Excelsior, a Latin word commonly translated as “Ever Upward.”
The shield is surmounted by a crest consisting of an eagle surmounting a world globe.
Several European expeditions, including a group of Spanish Jesuits, explored the Chesapeake Bay during the 16th century. In 1583, Queen Elizabeth I of England granted Walter Raleigh a charter to plant a colony north of Spanish Florida. In 1584, Raleigh sent an expedition to the Atlantic coast of North America. The name “Virginia” may have been suggested then by Raleigh or Elizabeth, perhaps noting her status as the “Virgin Queen.” Initially the name applied to the entire coastal region from South Carolina to Maine, plus the island of Bermuda. Later, subsequent royal charters modified the Colony’s boundaries. The London Company was incorporated as a joint stock company by the proprietary Charter of 1606, which granted land rights to this area. The company financed the first permanent English settlement in the “New World”, Jamestown. Named for King James I, it was founded in May 1607. With the bankruptcy of the London Company in 1624, the settlement was taken into royal authority as an English crown colony.
New Hampshire was one of the thirteen colonies that rebelled against British rule during the American Revolution. By the time of the American Revolution, New Hampshire was a divided province. The economic and social life of the Seacoast region revolved around sawmills, shipyards, merchants’ warehouses, and established village and town centers. Wealthy merchants built substantial homes, furnished them with the finest luxuries, and invested their capital in trade and land speculation. At the other end of the social scale, there developed a permanent class of day laborers, mariners, indentured servants and even slaves.
In 1775, Colonel William Moultrie was asked by the Revolutionary Council of Safety to design a flag for the South Carolina troops to use during the American Revolutionary War. Moultrie’s design had the blue of the militia’s uniforms and the crescent, a symbol which also appeared on the militia’s uniforms. It was first flown at Fort Johnson. This flag was flown in the defense of a new fortress on Sullivan’s Island, when Moultrie faced off against a British fleet. Soon popularly known as either the Liberty Flag or Moultrie Flag, it became the standard of the South Carolinian militia, and was presented in Charleston, by Major General Nathanael Greene, when that city was liberated at the end of the war.
The palmetto was added in 1861, also a reference to Moultrie’s defense of Sullivan’s Island; the fortress he’d constructed had survived largely because the palmettos, laid over sand walls, were able to withstand British cannon.
Introduction: Maryland is located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. To the south and west Maryland borders Virginia,
While Plymouth, founded in 1620, wasn’t the first attempt at colonization in North America, not the first site settled by the British, Plymouth was the first European settlement in New England as the first settlement, Jamestown, was located farther south in what is today Virginia. However, Plymouth has an outsize importance in the real and mythical tales of the formation of what would become the United States for this was the site where the famous Pilgrims landed with their equally famous ship the Mayflower. Therefore it seems fitting that through an accident of timing this post will appear on the 4th of July Independence holiday.
Introduction: Connecticut is the fifth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States and therefore the fifth state to
Gold was discovered in the mountains of northern Georgia in 1829. Predictably this led to the Georgia Gold Rush culminating in the establishment of a federal mint in the mountain town of Dahlonega. This mint continued to operate until 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War. The Georgia Gold Rush brought an influx of white settlers into territory that was previously almost exclusively Cherokee. The white settlers put pressure on the government to take Cherokee lands, by force if necessary. In response to this pressure, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law in 1830. This resulted in the forced movement of many eastern Native Americans to reservations in present day Oklahoma, a territory and climate very different from the one left behind. Even though the Supreme Court ruled in 1832 that states we not permitted to redraw Indian territorial boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling and persisted in the relocation effort. President Jackson’s successor, Martin Van Buren, went further and ordered federal troops to gather the remaining Cherokee peoples and forcibly deport them west of the Mississippi River. This forced displacement, which resulted in the death of over 4,000 Cherokee people is today known as the Trail of Tears.