CHAPTER XXIII

THE SONS of LIBERTY at TURTLE BAY


Now in New York almost everybody was anxious to carry out the decision
of this First Continental Congress.

But the Assembly said that the Congress had not been a lawful gathering
and must not be obeyed. The colonists replied that they would do as they
thought best, no matter what the King's Assembly ordered.

You must know that some of the people supported the royal cause and were
called Royalists or Tories. The others were called Patriots or Whigs.
The English called the patriots rebels.

It had now come to be the year 1775, and matters in Boston where the
port had been closed were growing worse and worse. In the month of April
some British soldiers passing through Lexington shot down a number of
patriots. Messengers on horseback sped through the colonies carrying
news of this massacre. It was the first serious encounter of the
Revolution and the colonists realized that they were now at war with the
British. Men rushed to arms. Farmers left their homes. Professional men
hurried from the towns. Within a few days an army surrounded Boston and
penned in the British troops there.