March 13, 1776

Four months before the Declaration of Independence described the king’s “long train of abuses,” the Pennsylvania Gazette listed out thirty-six memories of British tyranny. Each one began with “Remember the…” and stretched from the Stamp Act a decade earlier to the recent burning of Norfolk, Virginia. At this moment when Philadelphians were waiting to learn the latest news from Boston, many of the memories referenced things that had happened in Massachusetts: “Remember the Massacre at Boston, by British Soldiers. Remember the Ruin of that once flourishing City, by their Means. Remember the Massacre at Lexington. Remember the Burning of Charlestown,” and so on.

The list used evocative language, including the “broken Promise” of British taxation and “the Shrieks and Cries of the Women and Children” when the British burned Falmouth. Much like the Declaration of Independence, this list also reflected fears of violence waged by Native Americans and the enslaved population of the colonies. from Lord Dunmore “Bribing” enslaved people to the British forces “hiring” Indigenous people “to murder your Farmers with their Families.” The call to Americans in 1776 concluded with a reminder to “never forget what you owe to yourselves, your Families, and your Posterity.”

The Pennsylvania Gazette
Printed by Hall and Sellers

AMERICANS!
REMEMBER the Stamp-Act, by which immense Sums were to be yearly extorted from you.
Remember the Declaratory Act, by which a Power was assumed of binding you in all Cases whatsoever, without your Consent.
Remember the broken Promise of the Ministry,* never again to attempt a Tax of America.
Remember the Duty-Act.
Remember the Massacre at Boston, by British Soldiers.
Remember the Ruin of that once flourishing City, by their Means.
Remember the Massacre at Lexington.
Remember the Burning of Charlestown.
Remember General Gage’s infamous Breach of Faith with the People of Boston.
Remember the Cannonading, Bombarding and Burning of Falmouth.
Remember the Shrieks and Cries of the Women and Children.
Remember the Cannonading of Stonington and Bristol.
Remember the Burning of Jamestown, Rhode-Island.
Remember the frequent Insults of Newport.
Remember the broken Charters.
Remember the Cannonade of Hampton.
Remember the Act for screening and encouraging your Murderers.
Remember the Connonade of New-York.
Remember the Altering your established Jury Laws.
Remember the Hiring Foreign troops against you.
Remember the Rejecting of Lord Chatham’s, Mr. Hartley’s and Mr. Burke’s Plans of Conciliation.
Remember the Rejecting of all your numerous humble Petitions.
Remember the Contempt with which they spoke of you in both Houses.
Remember the cowardly Endeavour to prevent Foreign Nations supplying you with Arms and Ammunition, when they themselves knew they intended coming to cut your Throats.
Remember their hiring Savages to murder your Farmers with their Families.
Remember the Bribing Negroe Slaves to assassinate their Masters.
Remember the Burning of Norfolk.†
Remember their obliging you to pay treble Duties, when you came to trade with the Countries you had helped them to conquer.‡
Remember their depriving you of all Share in the Fisheries you had equally with them spent your Blood and Treasure to acquire.
Remember their old Restrictions on your woollen Manufactures, your Hat-making, your Iron and Steel Forges and Furnaces.
Remember their Arbitrary Admiralty Courts.
Remember the inhuman Treatment of the brave Col. Allen, and the Irons he was sent in to England.
Remember the corrupt, putrified State of that Nation, and the virtuous, sound, healthy State of your own young Constitution.
Remember the Tyranny of Mezentius, who bound living Men Face to Face with dead ones, and the Effect of it, ||
Remember the Obduracy and unforgiving Spirit of the Tyrant, evident in the Treatment of his own Brothers.
Remember that an honourable Death is preferable to an ignominious life; and never forget what you owe to yourselves, your Families, and your Posterity.

* In Lord Hillsborough’s Circular Letter.
† This, and all the before-mentioned, were open defenceless Towns, which, by the Laws of War, should always be spared.
‡ Act of Parliament 14 Geo. III. laying a Duty of Three Pence per Gallon on all Spirits imported into Canada from Britain; and Nine Pence if from any of the North-American Colonies.
|| The Corruption of the one poisoned the other.