WHYY News Celebrates America’s 250th
Revolutionary War reenactors recreate the Battle of Brandywine on the grounds of the Chadds Ford Historical Society. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
WHYY News reporter Peter Crimmins and visual journalist Emma Lee have spent a year visually documenting Philadelphia’s unique storylines amid the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, also known as the semiquincentennial. From British loyalists at the Battle of Brandywine to Delaware River oysters, this video series is a snapshot of the City of Brotherly Love’s Revolutionary War era.
The British army took control of Philadelphia in 1777. They had a whale of a time
The British army took control of the city of Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War, from September 1777 to May 1778.
As Philadelphia celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, those nine months are often referred to as the “dark days” of military occupation.
But from a British perspective, Philly was a really fun town.
How Native Americans came to Philadelphia in 1776 to navigate the American Revolution and almost won statehood
Native Americans fought for their own independence during the Revolutionary War, and eventually negotiated a 14th state with representation in Congress. But that never happened.
Follow the efforts of White Eyes, a Lenape Chief who made several trips to Philadelphia to petition Congress for land and sovereignty for his people.
How drinking in bars fueled American independence
A Man Full of Trouble is Philadelphia’s last remaining example of colonial bar culture that birthed the American Revolution.
History on a half shell: How Philadelphia was built on oysters
In 1776, Philadelphia’s population of about 35,000 consumed millions of oysters a year. The colonial city was riddled with taverns and street vendors who sold oysters on the half shell. Residents could wade into the Delaware River, before it became industrialized, and pull oysters out of the water by hand.
The Revolutionary War was a civil war: British loyalists at the Battle of Brandywine in Chadds Ford
The Battle of Brandywine in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, in 1777 was the largest and longest land battle of the Revolutionary War, and it may have been the loudest.
“The firing was so intense that Congress, all the way in Philadelphia, could actually hear the cannon fire,” said Randell Spackman, president of the Chadds Ford Historical Society, which stages a re-enactment of the Battle of Brandywine every year.
America’s founders had specific ideas about the ‘pursuit of happiness.’ Now they have been put to music
The Constitution Center’s Jeffrey Rosen wrote songs about the moral philosophy behind the Founding Fathers’ signature phrase.
Chester Springs preserves the site of the only military hospital built during the Revolutionary War
The Historic Yellow Springs campus in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, has a monument to the Revolutionary War’s greatest threat.
Disease was a far greater killer than combat. An estimated 6,800 American soldiers were killed in action, but 17,000 died from afflictions including typhoid, dysentery, smallpox and the flu.
When Gen. George Washington set up a winter encampment at Valley Forge in 1777, he tried something different. He commissioned the first and only purpose-built Continental Army hospital at Yellow Springs, a few miles away.