Background
Letter · later printed text
To George Whitefield, 6 July 1749
Benjamin Franklin · July 6, 1749
Adapted. Shortened, or spelled the modern way. Same meaning.
Background: not shown on screen.
The mode has a wonderful influence on mankind; and there are numbers that perhaps fear less the being in Hell, than out of the fashion.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Franklin wrote to Whitefield from Philadelphia on 6 July 1749, aged 43. The source bank identifies this wording with an 1803 printing; the surviving manuscript is fragmentary.
- Intended audience
- His friend George Whitefield, a preacher concerned with the public's religious behavior.
- Purpose
- To tease the preacher about the influence of fashion on human conduct.
- Point of view
- The printer's dry observation about conformity is performed over a reconstructed tea table. The scene is not evidence of a recorded tea party.
Benjamin Franklin to George Whitefield, Philadelphia, 6 July 1749, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 3, p. 382.
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Autobiographical recollection
Not for Christ’s sake, but for your sake
Benjamin Franklin
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
The following Instance will show something of the Terms on which we stood. Upon one of his Arrivals from England at Boston, he wrote to me that he should come soon to Philadelphia, but knew not where he could lodge when there, as he understood his old kind Host Mr Benezet was remov’d to Germantown. My Answer was; You know my House, if you can make shift with its scanty Accommodations you will be most heartily welcome. He reply’d, that if I made that kind Offer for Christ’s sake, I should not miss of a Reward. And I return’d, Don’t let me be mistaken; it was not for Christ’s sake, but for your sake.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Franklin offered his home to Whitefield by letter; Whitefield invoked a religious reward.
- Intended audience
- The immediate correspondent, and later readers of Franklin’s memoir.
- Purpose
- To establish that the offer arose from affection for Whitefield.
- Point of view
- Franklin chooses a witty anecdote about his own motives. The date of the exchange is not fixed; we don't label it as a particular day in 1740. The doorway is a visual reconstruction.
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Section Fourty Five. Apostrophe typography normalized.
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Sworn statement
Burton’s allegation, as recorded by Horsmanden
Daniel Horsmanden, recording allegations attributed to Mary Burton · 1741
Adapted. Shortened, or spelled the modern way. Same meaning.
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That in their common conversation they used to say, that when all this was done, Caesar should be governor, and Hughson, her master, should be king.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- An indentured servant, about sixteen, was questioned after fires and allegations of conspiracy. This passage is a later deposition, not her initial 4 March burglary testimony.
- Intended audience
- The investigating court and later readers of the judge’s published defense.
- Purpose
- The deposition alleges a planned reversal of political authority; the publication attempts to vindicate the prosecution.
- Point of view
- The full passage preserves Horsmanden’s third-person account, including “her master.” The performance excerpt cuts that parenthetical with an ellipsis and reenacts the printed record. It is not evidence that Burton spoke this sentence in these exact words. We don't endorse the allegation.
Daniel Horsmanden, A Journal of the Proceedings in the Detection of the Conspiracy (1744), later published as The New-York Conspiracy, deposition no. 1; 1810 edition, archive.org newyorkconspirac00hors. Wording and distinction from the 4 March burglary deposition.
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Resolutions
The reward included freedom and necessaries
New York Common Council, transcribed by Daniel Horsmanden · September 2, 1742
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
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It was ordered, that the mayor should issue his warrant to the treasurer to pay to Mr. Moore, for Mary Burton's use and benefit, the sum of eighty-one pounds, which with the sum of nineteen pounds before paid by the corporation for the freedom and other necessaries to and for the use of the said Mary, made in the whole the sum of one hundred pounds, in full of the reward offered.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The city settled the promised reward the year after the prosecutions.
- Intended audience
- Council officials and readers of Horsmanden’s account.
- Purpose
- To authorize and record payment of the balance.
- Point of view
- An official financial action reported by a judge who defended the proceedings. The modern transcription supplies the bracketed year. We say the year aloud and don't show coins being paid in the spring 1741 courtroom.
Horsmanden, Journal of the Proceedings (1744), conclusion, entry “THURSDAY, SEITEMBER 2 [1742]”. Famous Trials transcription. Freedom was not an additional gift.
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Spiritual memoir
Cole sees the young Whitefield
Nathan Cole · October 23, 1740
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
When I saw Mr. Whitfield come upon the Scaffold he Lookt almost angelical; a young, Slim, slender, youth before some thousands of people with a bold undaunted Countenance…
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- A Kensington farmer recalls riding with his wife to hear Whitefield at Middletown.
- Intended audience
- Readers of Cole’s account of his conversion.
- Purpose
- Describe the movement of the crowd and the preacher’s force as Cole experienced them.
- Point of view
- An intensely committed convert remembers the event after many years; we don't certify his crowd estimate as a count.
Nathan Cole, “The Spiritual Travels of Nathan Cole,” edited by Michael J. Crawford, William and Mary Quarterly 33 (1976), p.93; manuscript spellings retained, omissions marked.
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Reported news, adapted into direct speech
The messenger’s news — adapted from Cole
Nathan Cole; our direct-address adaptation · October 23, 1740
Adapted. Shortened, or spelled the modern way. Same meaning.
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Then one morning all on a Sudden, about 8 or 9 o’clock there came a messenger and said Mr. Whitefield preached at Hartford and Weathersfield yesterday and is to preach at Middletown this morning [October 23, 1740] at ten of the Clock. I was in my field at Work.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- At about eight or nine in the morning Cole heard news of Whitefield’s announced ten-o’clock sermon.
- Intended audience
- Cole’s later readers; the reconstructed shout addresses people in the field.
- Purpose
- Carry the urgent reported news in a speakable direct address.
- Point of view
- Reported by Cole years later. “Wethersfield” normalizes the printing’s “Weathersfield”; “he preaches” adapts “is to preach”; “ten o’clock” adapts “ten of the Clock.” The bracketed date in the website is editorial and is omitted.
Nathan Cole, account of 23 October 1740, in George Leon Walker, Some Aspects of the Religious Life of New England (New York: Silver, Burnett, 1897), 89–92; modernized extract, History Matters, “A Spiritual Awakening”.
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Spiritual memoir
Riders in the cloud
Nathan Cole · October 23, 1740
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
…men and horses Sliping along in the Cloud like shadows…
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- A Kensington farmer recalls riding with his wife to hear Whitefield at Middletown.
- Intended audience
- Readers of Cole’s account of his conversion.
- Purpose
- Describe the movement of the crowd and the preacher’s force as Cole experienced them.
- Point of view
- An intensely committed convert remembers the event after many years; we don't certify his crowd estimate as a count.
Nathan Cole, “The Spiritual Travels of Nathan Cole,” edited by Michael J. Crawford, William and Mary Quarterly 33 (1976), p.93; manuscript spellings retained, omissions marked.
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Retrospective religious memoir
The thunder was horses
Nathan Cole · 1740 event
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
I heard a noise something like a low rumbling thunder and presently found it was the noise of Horses feet coming down the Road and this Cloud was a Cloud of dust made by the Horses feet…
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Cole recalls hearing Whitefield at Middletown on 23 October 1740; he dates his new birth to October 1741, not this day.
- Intended audience
- A retrospective account of spiritual experience for himself and readers of his religious testimony.
- Purpose
- To recount the disruptions through which he understood his conversion and later religious choices.
- Point of view
- A farmer and carpenter who became a Separate; remembered urgency and spiritual meaning are not a stenographic record.
Nathan Cole, “The Spiritual Travels of Nathan Cole,” manuscript signed November 1765; Michael J. Crawford, ed., William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 33, no. 1 (January 1976), 89–126, pp. 92–93; JSTOR 1921694.
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Autobiography
The remembered collection for the orphan house
Benjamin Franklin · Event c. 1739–1740
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
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As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers. Another stroke of his oratory made me asham'd of that, and determin'd me to give the silver; and he finish'd so admirably, that I empty'd my pocket wholly into the collector's dish, gold and all.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Franklin remembers deciding not to support Whitefield’s Georgia project and being persuaded to give everything in his pocket.
- Intended audience
- Readers of Franklin’s life story.
- Purpose
- To describe Whitefield’s persuasive power through a personal anecdote.
- Point of view
- A retrospective, self-deprecating account. The image is the same c01 asset, recalled out of chronological order. It connects the fundraiser to the later institution without claiming these particular coins bought a particular person. Whitefield’s separately recorded Black Philadelphia donors gave on 11 May 1740; they are not falsely relocated into Franklin’s collection.
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Whitefield and the collection, Project Gutenberg edition 20203. The silent shot recalls c01; no new words are assigned to Franklin.
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Autobiography
Franklin makes his newspaper’s reputation
Benjamin Franklin · 1729
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
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…some spirited remarks of my writing, on the dispute then going on between Governor Burnet and the Massachusetts Assembly, struck the principal people…
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Franklin recalls establishing a reputation after acquiring the Gazette.
- Intended audience
- Memoir readers.
- Purpose
- Explain how political reporting attracted influential readers.
- Point of view
- A retrospective and self-interested account; the surviving Gazette extract independently places the dispute in his newspaper.
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, early Pennsylvania Gazette discussion. Compare “Governor Burnet and the Massachusetts Assembly,”9October1729, Founders Online01-01-02-0043.
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Autobiography
The printer hears “half beasts and half devils”
Benjamin Franklin · Recollections of 1739–1740
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
…notwithstanding his common abuse of them, by assuring them they were naturally half beasts and half devils.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Franklin remembers Whitefield’s visits of 1739–1740 decades later in his Autobiography.
- Intended audience
- His family and a wider reading public interested in his life and example.
- Purpose
- Describe the preacher’s persuasive ability, Franklin’s practical inquiry, and their social and commercial relationship.
- Point of view
- An admiring religious skeptic and the preacher’s printer; a shaped retrospective account, not a contemporary transcript. We stage the memoir in his younger voice. Typographic apostrophes and terminal excerpt punctuation may differ.
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Part III, “Mr. Whitefield,” in Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Frank Woodworth Pine (Henry Holt, 1916), Project Gutenberg eBook 20203.
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Autobiographical recollection
Andrew Hamilton’s patronage of Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
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Among my Friends in the House I must not forget Mr Hamilton before mentioned, who was now returned from England & had a Seat in it. He interested himself*** for me strongly in that Instance, as he did in many others afterwards, continuing his Patronage till his Death.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The Assembly chose Franklin and Meredith as printers after they reprinted its address correctly; Hamilton advocated for them.
- Intended audience
- Readers of Franklin’s account of his early business.
- Purpose
- To acknowledge a patron’s continuing help.
- Point of view
- Franklin describes both his own skill and the political relationships behind his rise. The Assembly appointment and the later New Castle paper-money contract are distinct jobs; we don't conflate them.
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Sections Thirty and Thirty One, manuscript transcription. Nonspoken transcription asterisks omitted from the line and retained here; no words replaced.
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Correspondence quoted in a memoir
Franklin offers Whitefield his house
Benjamin Franklin
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
The following Instance will show something of the Terms on which we stood. Upon one of his Arrivals from England at Boston, he wrote to me that he should come soon to Philadelphia, but knew not where he could lodge when there, as he understood his old kind Host Mr Benezet was remov’d to Germantown. My Answer was; You know my House, if you can make shift with its scanty Accommodations you will be most heartily welcome. He reply’d, that if I made that kind Offer for Christ’s sake, I should not miss of a Reward. And I return’d, Don’t let me be mistaken; it was not for Christ’s sake, but for your sake.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Whitefield needs lodging for an expected Philadelphia visit after Benezet moves.
- Intended audience
- Whitefield originally; later Franklin’s memoir readers.
- Purpose
- Offer personal hospitality across religious disagreement.
- Point of view
- The memoir quotes Franklin’s own offer directly. The doorway is a dramatized visual treatment of correspondence, not a documented doorstep encounter.
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Whitefield friendship and lodging passage.
View original
Autobiographical recollection
Not for Christ’s sake, but for your sake
Benjamin Franklin
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
The following Instance will show something of the Terms on which we stood. Upon one of his Arrivals from England at Boston, he wrote to me that he should come soon to Philadelphia, but knew not where he could lodge when there, as he understood his old kind Host Mr Benezet was remov’d to Germantown. My Answer was; You know my House, if you can make shift with its scanty Accommodations you will be most heartily welcome. He reply’d, that if I made that kind Offer for Christ’s sake, I should not miss of a Reward. And I return’d, Don’t let me be mistaken; it was not for Christ’s sake, but for your sake.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Franklin offered his home to Whitefield by letter; Whitefield invoked a religious reward.
- Intended audience
- The immediate correspondent, and later readers of Franklin’s memoir.
- Purpose
- To establish that the offer arose from affection for Whitefield.
- Point of view
- Franklin chooses a witty anecdote about his own motives. The date of the exchange is not fixed; we don't label it as a particular day in 1740. The doorway is a visual reconstruction.
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Section Fourty Five. Apostrophe typography normalized.
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Autobiography
Psalms in every street
Benjamin Franklin · Recollections of 1739–1740
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seem'd as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Franklin remembers Whitefield’s visits of 1739–1740 decades later in his Autobiography.
- Intended audience
- His family and a wider reading public interested in his life and example.
- Purpose
- Describe the preacher’s persuasive ability, Franklin’s practical inquiry, and their social and commercial relationship.
- Point of view
- An admiring religious skeptic and the preacher’s printer; a shaped retrospective account, not a contemporary transcript. We stage the memoir in his younger voice. Typographic apostrophes and terminal excerpt punctuation may differ.
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Part III, “Mr. Whitefield,” in Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Frank Woodworth Pine (Henry Holt, 1916), Project Gutenberg eBook 20203.
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Memoir with an illustrative mathematical model
An illustrative reconstruction of Franklin’s semicircle
Benjamin Franklin; our geometric reconstruction · 1739
Adapted. Shortened, or spelled the modern way. Same meaning.
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Being among the hindmost in Market-street, I had the curiosity to learn how far he could be heard, by retiring backwards down the street towards the river; and I found his voice distinct till I came near Front-street, when some noise in that street obscur'd it. Imagining then a semicircle, of which my distance should be the radius, and that it were fill'd with auditors, to each of whom I allow'd two square feet, I computed that he might well be heard by more than thirty thousand. This reconcil'd me to the newspaper accounts of his having preach'd to twenty-five thousand people in the fields, and to the ancient histories of generals haranguing whole armies, of which I had sometimes doubted.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Franklin paced backward from the Court House until street noise near Front Street obscured Whitefield’s voice.
- Intended audience
- Students exploring what an estimate can and cannot establish.
- Purpose
- Let the viewer follow Franklin’s observation, geometric assumption, capacity calculation and scale comparison without inventing measured distances.
- Point of view
- The memoir supplies the method and “more than thirty thousand,” but no measured radius. Diagram positions and arcs are illustrative. Capacity is not an attendance count; buildings and street width are not subtracted in his ideal semicircle.
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Part III, “Mr. Whitefield,” in Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Frank Woodworth Pine (Henry Holt, 1916), Project Gutenberg eBook 20203. Semicircle and two-square-foot density from the quoted passage; diagram geometry is editorial and not to scale. Population comparison from Smith (1977), notes 3 and 7, citing Bridenbaugh.
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Book
Who burned the condemned Journals
John Peter Zenger / James Alexander · November 6, 1734, reported 1736
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
Afterwards about Noon, the Sheriff after reading the Numbers of the several Papers which were ordered to be burnt, delivered them unto the Hands of his own Negroe, and ordered him to put them into the Fire, which he did, at which Mr. Recorder, Jeremiah Dunbar, Esq and several of the Officers of the Garrison attended.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The burning preceded Zenger’s arrest by eleven days; the chapter marks this as a flashback.
- Intended audience
- Readers of colonial newspapers and pamphlets, and the British public.
- Purpose
- To expose the officials involved in suppressing the Journal.
- Point of view
- The defense identifies the coerced man only through his enslavement by the sheriff. His name, age, face and movements are not recorded. The court refused to order its officer; we don't say the hangman personally refused.
John Peter Zenger / James Alexander, A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (New York: John Peter Zenger, 1736), Evans-TCP N03372;. Burning of Journal nos. 7, 47, 48 and 49; the Court of Quarter Sessions refused to order its whipper to burn them.
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Dramatized staging / dialogue
Twelve Men: ask
Our writers, drawing on the Zenger trial account · August 4, 1735
Dramatization. Dramatized, based on the record.
Background: not shown on screen.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Present-day viewers taking part in the roleplay.
- Purpose
- Make the decision and the room legible without claiming an unrecorded exchange is historical testimony.
- Point of view
- No jury-room words or private tally survive in the cited account. These words and actions are invented staging; a player’s vote does not change the historical unanimous acquittal.
Dramatized · nothing said in the jury room is recorded Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
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Trial narrative · defense publication
Twelve Men: cause
Andrew Hamilton, as reported in the Brief Narrative · August 4, 1735
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
…it is not the Cause of the poor Printer, nor of New-York alone… It is the Cause of Liberty…
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Colonial and British readers of the defense pamphlet; jurors are the reported audience of the courtroom speeches.
- Purpose
- Present the defense’s account of arguments, rulings and the verdict.
- Point of view
- This is the defense’s published version, not an independent stenographic transcript. Ellipses mark cuts. Blocking, glances and timing are reconstructed.
Brief Narrative (1736), Rutherfurd reprint p. 238 Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
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Trial narrative · defense publication
Twelve Men: clerk
Our writers, drawing on the Zenger trial account · August 4, 1735
Adapted. Shortened, or spelled the modern way. Same meaning.
Background: not shown on screen.
Are you agreed of your Verdict? Is John Peter Zenger guilty of Printing and Publishing the Libels in the Information mentioned?
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Colonial and British readers of the defense pamphlet; jurors are the reported audience of the courtroom speeches.
- Purpose
- Present the defense’s account of arguments, rulings and the verdict.
- Point of view
- This is the defense’s published version, not an independent stenographic transcript. Ellipses mark cuts. Blocking, glances and timing are reconstructed.
Adapted from the clerk's question as reported, Brief Narrative (1736), Rutherfurd reprint p. 240 Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
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Trial narrative · defense publication
Twelve Men: confess
Andrew Hamilton, as reported in the Brief Narrative · August 4, 1735
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
…I do (for my Client) confess, that he both printed and published the two News Papers set forth in the Information,
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Colonial and British readers of the defense pamphlet; jurors are the reported audience of the courtroom speeches.
- Purpose
- Present the defense’s account of arguments, rulings and the verdict.
- Point of view
- This is the defense’s published version, not an independent stenographic transcript. Ellipses mark cuts. Blocking, glances and timing are reconstructed.
Brief Narrative (1736), Rutherfurd reprint p. 197 Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
View original
Dramatized staging / dialogue
Twelve Men: eleven
Our writers, drawing on the Zenger trial account · August 4, 1735
Dramatization. Dramatized, based on the record.
Background: not shown on screen.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Present-day viewers taking part in the roleplay.
- Purpose
- Make the decision and the room legible without claiming an unrecorded exchange is historical testimony.
- Point of view
- No jury-room words or private tally survive in the cited account. These words and actions are invented staging; a player’s vote does not change the historical unanimous acquittal.
Dramatized Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
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Trial narrative · defense publication
Twelve Men: fact
James DeLancey, as reported in the Brief Narrative · August 4, 1735
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
…the Jury may find that Zenger printed and published those Papers, and leave it to the Court to judge whether they are libellous…
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Colonial and British readers of the defense pamphlet; jurors are the reported audience of the courtroom speeches.
- Purpose
- Present the defense’s account of arguments, rulings and the verdict.
- Point of view
- This is the defense’s published version, not an independent stenographic transcript. Ellipses mark cuts. Blocking, glances and timing are reconstructed.
Brief Narrative (1736), Rutherfurd reprint p. 216 Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
View original
Trial narrative · defense publication
Twelve Men: huzzas
John Peter Zenger / James Alexander, as reported in the Brief Narrative · August 4, 1735
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
"…three Huzzas in the Hall, which was crowded with People…"
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Colonial and British readers of the defense pamphlet; jurors are the reported audience of the courtroom speeches.
- Purpose
- Present the defense’s account of arguments, rulings and the verdict.
- Point of view
- This is the defense’s published version, not an independent stenographic transcript. Ellipses mark cuts. Blocking, glances and timing are reconstructed.
Zenger's account, Brief Narrative (1736), Rutherfurd reprint p. 240 Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
View original
Trial narrative · defense publication
Twelve Men: liberty
Andrew Hamilton, as reported in the Brief Narrative · August 4, 1735
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
the Liberty—both of exposing and opposing arbitrary Power (in these Parts of the World, at least) by speaking and writing Truth.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Colonial and British readers of the defense pamphlet; jurors are the reported audience of the courtroom speeches.
- Purpose
- Present the defense’s account of arguments, rulings and the verdict.
- Point of view
- This is the defense’s published version, not an independent stenographic transcript. Ellipses mark cuts. Blocking, glances and timing are reconstructed.
Brief Narrative (1736), Rutherfurd reprint p. 239 Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
View original
Dramatized staging / dialogue
Twelve Men: look d
Our writers, drawing on the Zenger trial account · August 4, 1735
Dramatization. Dramatized, based on the record.
Background: not shown on screen.
DeLancey is not watching Hamilton. He is watching you.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Present-day viewers taking part in the roleplay.
- Purpose
- Make the decision and the room legible without claiming an unrecorded exchange is historical testimony.
- Point of view
- No jury-room words or private tally survive in the cited account. These words and actions are invented staging; a player’s vote does not change the historical unanimous acquittal.
Reconstructed blocking; no documentary words attributed. Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
View original
Dramatized staging / dialogue
Twelve Men: look h
Our writers, drawing on the Zenger trial account · August 4, 1735
Dramatization. Dramatized, based on the record.
Background: not shown on screen.
The old man waits, close enough to touch.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Present-day viewers taking part in the roleplay.
- Purpose
- Make the decision and the room legible without claiming an unrecorded exchange is historical testimony.
- Point of view
- No jury-room words or private tally survive in the cited account. These words and actions are invented staging; a player’s vote does not change the historical unanimous acquittal.
Reconstructed blocking; no documentary words attributed. Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
View original
Trial narrative · defense publication
Twelve Men: nocrime
Andrew Hamilton, as reported in the Brief Narrative · August 4, 1735
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
…and I hope in so doing he has committed no Crime.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Colonial and British readers of the defense pamphlet; jurors are the reported audience of the courtroom speeches.
- Purpose
- Present the defense’s account of arguments, rulings and the verdict.
- Point of view
- This is the defense’s published version, not an independent stenographic transcript. Ellipses mark cuts. Blocking, glances and timing are reconstructed.
Brief Narrative (1736), Rutherfurd reprint p. 197 Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
View original
Trial narrative · defense publication
Twelve Men: open
Our writers, drawing on the Zenger trial account · August 4, 1735
Adapted. Shortened, or spelled the modern way. Same meaning.
Background: not shown on screen.
Monday, 4 August 1735. You are the twelfth juror. In April this judge struck Zenger's own lawyers off the roll.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Colonial and British readers of the defense pamphlet; jurors are the reported audience of the courtroom speeches.
- Purpose
- Present the defense’s account of arguments, rulings and the verdict.
- Point of view
- This is the defense’s published version, not an independent stenographic transcript. Ellipses mark cuts. Blocking, glances and timing are reconstructed.
Disbarment order, 16 April 1735: Brief Narrative (1736), Rutherfurd reprint p. 188 Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
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Trial narrative · defense publication
Twelve Men: rebuke
Our writers, drawing on the Zenger trial account · August 4, 1735
Adapted. Shortened, or spelled the modern way. Same meaning.
Background: not shown on screen.
The Chief Justice tried to rebuke the cheering. It broke out again.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Colonial and British readers of the defense pamphlet; jurors are the reported audience of the courtroom speeches.
- Purpose
- Present the defense’s account of arguments, rulings and the verdict.
- Point of view
- This is the defense’s published version, not an independent stenographic transcript. Ellipses mark cuts. Blocking, glances and timing are reconstructed.
Reported in Rutherfurd (1904), p. 126, and Wilson, Memorial History of the City of New York II (1892); his words are not recorded Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
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Trial narrative · defense publication
Twelve Men: record
Our writers, drawing on the Zenger trial account · August 4, 1735
Adapted. Shortened, or spelled the modern way. Same meaning.
Background: not shown on screen.
The record says the Jury returned "in a small Time." What follows is what they said.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Colonial and British readers of the defense pamphlet; jurors are the reported audience of the courtroom speeches.
- Purpose
- Present the defense’s account of arguments, rulings and the verdict.
- Point of view
- This is the defense’s published version, not an independent stenographic transcript. Ellipses mark cuts. Blocking, glances and timing are reconstructed.
Brief Narrative (1736), Rutherfurd reprint p. 240 Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
View original
Trial narrative · defense publication
Twelve Men: silence
John Peter Zenger, as reported in the Brief Narrative · August 4, 1735
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
Here my Journeyman and two Sons… to give Evidence against me… were discharged, and there was Silence in the Court for some Time.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Colonial and British readers of the defense pamphlet; jurors are the reported audience of the courtroom speeches.
- Purpose
- Present the defense’s account of arguments, rulings and the verdict.
- Point of view
- This is the defense’s published version, not an independent stenographic transcript. Ellipses mark cuts. Blocking, glances and timing are reconstructed.
Zenger's own account, Brief Narrative (1736), Rutherfurd reprint p. 198 · the sons' walk is dramatized Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
View original
Trial narrative · defense publication
Twelve Men: truth
James DeLancey, as reported in the Brief Narrative · August 4, 1735
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
You cannot be admitted, Mr. Hamilton, to give the Truth of a Libel in Evidence.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Colonial and British readers of the defense pamphlet; jurors are the reported audience of the courtroom speeches.
- Purpose
- Present the defense’s account of arguments, rulings and the verdict.
- Point of view
- This is the defense’s published version, not an independent stenographic transcript. Ellipses mark cuts. Blocking, glances and timing are reconstructed.
Brief Narrative (1736), Rutherfurd reprint p. 206 Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
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Dramatized staging / dialogue
Twelve Men: twelve
Our writers, drawing on the Zenger trial account · August 4, 1735
Dramatization. Dramatized, based on the record.
Background: not shown on screen.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Present-day viewers taking part in the roleplay.
- Purpose
- Make the decision and the room legible without claiming an unrecorded exchange is historical testimony.
- Point of view
- No jury-room words or private tally survive in the cited account. These words and actions are invented staging; a player’s vote does not change the historical unanimous acquittal.
Dramatized Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
View original
Trial narrative · defense publication
Twelve Men: withdraw
John Peter Zenger / James Alexander, as reported in the Brief Narrative · August 4, 1735
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The defense published its account after Zenger’s acquittal. The scene places the viewer in a reconstructed jury seat.
- Intended audience
- Colonial and British readers of the defense pamphlet; jurors are the reported audience of the courtroom speeches.
- Purpose
- Present the defense’s account of arguments, rulings and the verdict.
- Point of view
- This is the defense’s published version, not an independent stenographic transcript. Ellipses mark cuts. Blocking, glances and timing are reconstructed.
Brief Narrative (1736), Rutherfurd reprint p. 240 Context: A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (1736), literal reprint in Livingston Rutherfurd, John Peter Zenger (1904), pp. 171–241.
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Newspaper instructions; later experiment narrative
The electric kite: what the 1752 account describes
Benjamin Franklin; later narrative by Joseph Priestley · October 19, 1752
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
As soon as any of the Thunder Clouds come over the Kite, the pointed Wire will draw the Electric Fire from them, and the Kite, with all the Twine, will be electrified, and the loose Filaments of the Twine will stand out every Way, and be attracted by an approaching Finger. … you will find it stream out plentifully from the Key on the Approach of your Knuckle.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- The printed instructions describe collecting charge from thunderclouds with a kite, twine, key and dry silk ribbon.
- Intended audience
- Readers following electrical experiments.
- Purpose
- To explain how the kite apparatus could demonstrate atmospheric electricity.
- Point of view
- Franklin’s newspaper text gives instructions; it does not itself say he performed them, name his companion, or specify a day. Priestley’s later account supports the father-and-adult-son staging. The visual is an explicit reconstruction: no direct lightning strike, no claimed exact field or time of day.
Benjamin Franklin, statement in the Pennsylvania Gazette, 19 October 1752, Papers of Benjamin Franklin 4:360. Joseph Priestley, The History and Present State of Electricity (1767), supplies the later story of Franklin and his son.
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Retrospective religious memoir
Mrs. Cole’s clothes
Nathan Cole (Mrs. Cole reported by him) · 1740 event
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
…my Wife said law our Cloaths will be all spoiled see how they look, for they were so Covered with dust, that they looked almost all of a Colour Coats, hats, Shirts, and horses.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Cole recalls hearing Whitefield at Middletown on 23 October 1740; he dates his new birth to October 1741, not this day.
- Intended audience
- A retrospective account of spiritual experience for himself and readers of his religious testimony.
- Purpose
- To recount the disruptions through which he understood his conversion and later religious choices.
- Point of view
- Mrs. Cole’s words survive only as her husband reported them. Her given name and a precise age are not asserted. “law” and “Cloaths” retained; terminal punctuation marks the excerpt’s end.
Nathan Cole, “The Spiritual Travels of Nathan Cole,” manuscript signed November 1765; Michael J. Crawford, ed., William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 33, no. 1 (January 1976), 89–126, pp. 92–93; JSTOR 1921694.
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Autobiographical manuscript · selected passages
Occom judges his treatment
Samson Occom · 1768
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
often Sat as Judge to reconcile and decide their Matters between them,
these Same Gentlemen, gave a young Missionary, a Single man, one Hundred Pounds for one year, and fifty Pounds for an Interpreter, and thirty Pounds for an Introducer, So it Cost them one Hundred and Eighty Pounds in one Single year, and they Sent too where there was no Need of a Missionary. Now you See what difference they made between me and other missionaries, they gave me 180 Pounds for 12 years Service, which they gave for one years Service in another Mission.
I believe, it is, because I am poor Indian,
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Occom's 1768 manuscript looks back on his work as a Mohegan teacher and minister among the Montauketts and on the support provided by the Boston commissioners.
- Intended audience
- Readers able to judge his service and the missionary establishment's treatment of him; we don't invent a named addressee for the manuscript.
- Purpose
- To give his own account of his labor, rebut charges of extravagance, and expose unequal treatment through a concrete financial comparison.
- Point of view
- A Mohegan Christian minister speaks from his own experience. The comparison is his pay of £180 for twelve years versus a whole mission's £180 for one year: £100 salary, £50 interpreter and £30 introducer. £15 is the annual average derived from his twelve-year total, not a claim that every payment arrived regularly. He did his own interpreting. Selected passages above are separated, not one continuous paragraph.
Samson Occom, autobiographical narrative (1768), Dartmouth College Library, Rauner Special Collections, MS 768517, The Occom Circle, diplomatic transcription; pay passage, leaves 12r–12v; closing judgment, leaf 13v. The Dartmouth catalog labels the manuscript undated; the conventional 1768 date is retained here.
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Autobiographical manuscript · selected passages
Occom compares twelve years with one mission year
Samson Occom · 1768
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
often Sat as Judge to reconcile and decide their Matters between them,
these Same Gentlemen, gave a young Missionary, a Single man, one Hundred Pounds for one year, and fifty Pounds for an Interpreter, and thirty Pounds for an Introducer, So it Cost them one Hundred and Eighty Pounds in one Single year, and they Sent too where there was no Need of a Missionary. Now you See what difference they made between me and other missionaries, they gave me 180 Pounds for 12 years Service, which they gave for one years Service in another Mission.
I believe, it is, because I am poor Indian,
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Occom's 1768 manuscript looks back on his work as a Mohegan teacher and minister among the Montauketts and on the support provided by the Boston commissioners.
- Intended audience
- Readers able to judge his service and the missionary establishment's treatment of him; we don't invent a named addressee for the manuscript.
- Purpose
- To give his own account of his labor, rebut charges of extravagance, and expose unequal treatment through a concrete financial comparison.
- Point of view
- A Mohegan Christian minister speaks from his own experience. The comparison is his pay of £180 for twelve years versus a whole mission's £180 for one year: £100 salary, £50 interpreter and £30 introducer. £15 is the annual average derived from his twelve-year total, not a claim that every payment arrived regularly. He did his own interpreting. Selected passages above are separated, not one continuous paragraph.
Samson Occom, autobiographical narrative (1768), Dartmouth College Library, Rauner Special Collections, MS 768517, The Occom Circle, diplomatic transcription; pay passage, leaves 12r–12v; closing judgment, leaf 13v. The Dartmouth catalog labels the manuscript undated; the conventional 1768 date is retained here.
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Document
Othello, enslaved by the chief justice
Editorial synthesis of Horsmanden and accounts of the 1741 trials · July 1741
Adapted. Shortened, or spelled the modern way. Same meaning.
Background: not shown on screen.
Othello, enslaved by Chief Justice James DeLancey, was among the men hanged.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- DeLancey’s own enslaved man was prosecuted during the same panic.
- Intended audience
- Present-day students.
- Purpose
- To name one victim and the relationship linking him to the judge from the previous chapter.
- Point of view
- The chief justice’s ownership is documented; we invent no words, confession or likeness for Othello and never picture his death.
Horsmanden, The New-York Conspiracy (1810 edition), July proceedings. Gilder Lehrman, “The Great Negro Plot of 1741”. The exact execution day is deliberately not asserted.
View original
Historical biography
Whitefield’s thirteen Atlantic crossings
Thomas S. Kidd · 31 October 2017
Adapted. Shortened, or spelled the modern way. Same meaning.
Background: not shown on screen.
Whitefield crossed the Atlantic thirteen times between Britain and America; he died in Newburyport during his last American visit in1770.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- A modern historian summarizes Whitefield’s transatlantic ministry.
- Intended audience
- General readers.
- Purpose
- Explain the geographic scale of the preacher’s work.
- Point of view
- Historical synthesis by his biographer, not Whitefield’s own statement. The thirteen crossings are distinct from seven American visits. The biographer’s count is corroborated by Whitefield’s 1769 letter to Wesley.
Thomas S.Kidd, “Who is George Whitefield?”,31October2017, paragraph beginning “Although it is impossible to count precisely.” Author of George Whitefield: America’s Spiritual Founding Father (2014). Primary letter corroboration: George Whitefield to John Wesley, aboard Friendship in the Downs, 12 September 1769; Wesley Works Editorial Project, John Wesley’s In-Correspondence (1766–70), editorial p. 98 / PDF page 101, https://wesleyworks.ecdsdev.org/editorial-docs/jw-in-correspondence-1766-70.pdf. The edition prints his statement about going across the Atlantic for the thirteenth time and cites Arminian Magazine 7 (1784), 273–274.
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Memoir reporting a letter; performance adapted
Whitefield’s lodging reply, as Franklin reported it
Benjamin Franklin, reporting George Whitefield
Adapted. Shortened, or spelled the modern way. Same meaning.
Background: not shown on screen.
The following Instance will show something of the Terms on which we stood. Upon one of his Arrivals from England at Boston, he wrote to me that he should come soon to Philadelphia, but knew not where he could lodge when there, as he understood his old kind Host Mr Benezet was remov’d to Germantown. My Answer was; You know my House, if you can make shift with its scanty Accommodations you will be most heartily welcome. He reply’d, that if I made that kind Offer for Christ’s sake, I should not miss of a Reward. And I return’d, Don’t let me be mistaken; it was not for Christ’s sake, but for your sake.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Whitefield wrote from Boston before a Philadelphia visit, seeking lodging because Benezet had moved to Germantown.
- Intended audience
- Franklin’s memoir readers, long after the exchange.
- Purpose
- To show the personal terms of a friendship that crossed religious disagreement.
- Point of view
- Franklin’s memoir reports the answer in indirect speech, not a surviving Whitefield letter. The performed direct address is explicitly adapted and labeled “as Franklin reported it.” The full text preserves the original indirect wording.
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Whitefield lodging exchange. Franklin reports Whitefield’s reply indirectly; the performance adapts its pronouns into direct address.
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Letter printed in collected works
Whitefield: “I have no doubt”
George Whitefield · Bristol, 22 March 1751
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
As for the lawfulness of keeping slaves, I have no doubt, since I hear of some that were bought with Abraham’s money, and some that were born in his house.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Georgia has permitted slavery; Whitefield writes after years of advocating its introduction.
- Intended audience
- The printed letter identifies its recipient only as Mr.B——.
- Purpose
- Defend slaveholding through biblical examples and economic claims.
- Point of view
- Whitefield’s earlier refusal to judge its lawfulness has become an explicit defense.
The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, vol.II (London,1771), LetterDCCCLXXXVII, to Mr.B——, pp.404–405; quoted sentence onp404.
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Book
Bail beyond the printer’s means
John Peter Zenger / James Alexander · 1736, recounting November 1734
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
I made Affidavit, That (my Debts paid) I was not worth Forty Pounds, (the Tools of my Trade and wearing Apparel excepted.) … it was Ordered that I might be admitted to Bail, my self in 400 l. with two Sureties, each in 200 l. and that I should be remanded till I Gave it. And as this was Ten Times more, than was in my Power to counter-secure any Person in giving Bail for me, I conceived I could not ask any to become my Bail on these Terms.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- New York officials prosecuted the printer of an opposition newspaper; the defense published its account after his acquittal on 4 August 1735.
- Intended audience
- Readers of colonial newspapers and pamphlets, and the British public.
- Purpose
- To show how bail kept the printer imprisoned.
- Point of view
- A defense publication in Zenger’s voice, shaped by his ally James Alexander; it preserves the opponents’ arguments through the defense’s report, not a neutral stenographic transcript.
John Peter Zenger / James Alexander, A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger (New York: John Peter Zenger, 1736), Evans-TCP N03372;. Bail paragraph; the three obligations are £400, £200 and £200.
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Resolutions
Alexander and Smith struck off the roll
New York Supreme Court, reported by Zenger and Alexander · April 16, 1735
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
That either we must go from the Bench, or you from the Bar: Therefore we exclude you and Mr. Alexander from the Bar. … It is therefore Ordered, That for the said Contempt, the said James Alexander and William Smith, be excluded from any farther Practice in this Court, and that their Names be struck out of the Roll of Attornies of this Court.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- After exceptions to the judges’ commissions were offered on 15 April, the court removed both lawyers on 16 April.
- Intended audience
- The lawyers, court officers and later readers of the trial narrative.
- Purpose
- To enforce the court’s authority over the bar.
- Point of view
- An exclusion order preserved in a defense account. John Chambers was appointed by the court afterward; we never claim Zenger had no counsel at trial. The gate closing and lawyers’ positions are dramatized.
A Narrative of the Case and Trial of John Peter Zenger (Lancaster: W. Dunlap, 1756), pp. (11)–(12), reprinting the court’s order attested by James Lyne;.
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Book
Hamilton came from Philadelphia to defend Zenger
John Peter Zenger’s published case narrative · trial 4 August 1735
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
Mr. Hamilton, who at the Request of some of my Friends, was so kind as to come from Philadelphia to assist me on the Trial, spoke. … The Information against my Client was sent me a few Days before I left Home.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Zenger’s friends requested Hamilton’s help in the New York libel prosecution.
- Intended audience
- Readers of the defense-side printed narrative.
- Purpose
- To recount the case and Hamilton’s intervention.
- Point of view
- The narrative supports the trip and defense, not an unannounced entrance. The harbor, horse and groom are plausible staging with no claimed route or arrival date. Hamilton says the information reached him before departure.
A Narrative of the Case and Trial of John Peter Zenger, Printer of the New-York Weekly Journal (Lancaster: W. Dunlap, 1756 reprint), Hamilton’s appearance and opening speech.
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Treaty
The Definitive Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Article IX
Great Britain, France and the Dutch Republic · 18 October 1748
Verbatim. The original words, unchanged.
Background: not shown on screen.
… Two Persons of Rank and Consideration, who shall remain there as Hostages, till there shall be received a certain and authentick Account of the Restitution of Isle Royal called Cape Breton, and of all the Conquests which the Arms or Subjects of his Britannick Majesty may have made before, or after the signing of the Preliminaries, in the East and West Indies. … Provided nevertheless, that Isle Royal, called Cape Breton, shall be restored with all the Artillery and warlike Stores, which shall have been found therein on the Day of its Surrender, conformably to the Inventories, which have been made thereof, and in the Condition that the said Place was in, on the said Day of its Surrender.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Signed at Aix-la-Chapelle on 18 October 1748 by Britain, France and the Dutch Republic, ending the war colonists called King George’s War.
- Intended audience
- The courts of Europe. New Englanders read the terms later, as a bargain made somewhere else.
- Purpose
- To end the war by handing back conquests on both sides: Cape Breton and Louisbourg to France, and French conquests in the East Indies, Madras among them, to Britain.
- Point of view
- A European settlement balancing imperial interests. Provincial troops under Pepperrell and Warren’s Royal Navy had captured Louisbourg together; the 1748 treaty required restoration, carried out in 1749.
The Definitive Treaty of Peace and Friendship between His Britannick Majesty, the Most Christian King, and the States General of the United Provinces, Concluded at Aix la Chapelle the 18th Day of October N.S. 1748 (London: Edward Owen, 1749), Article IX, pp. 20–22 (English beside the French). University of Pittsburgh Library System copy.
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Diary, modernized; unidentified cry
A cry during the Enfield sermon — modernized diary wording
Stephen Williams · July 8, 1741
Adapted. Shortened, or spelled the modern way. Same meaning.
Background: not shown on screen.
Before the sermon was done, there was a great moaning and crying out through the whole house. “What shall I do to be saved?” … The shrieks and cries were piercing and amazing.
Sourcing
- Historical situation
- Williams, minister of Longmeadow, attended Edwards’s Enfield sermon and recorded cries that interrupted it.
- Intended audience
- The diary’s original private readership; later readers encounter an edited transcript.
- Purpose
- To record the sermon’s extraordinary effect on the congregation.
- Point of view
- An observer sympathetic to the revival supplies the words. He does not identify who uttered this particular cry: assigning it to the cast’s enfield-woman is a performance reconstruction, not an identified witness.
Stephen Williams, diary, 8 July 1741, modernized extract; compare Wilson H. Kimnach, Caleb J. D. Maskell and Kenneth P. Minkema, eds., Jonathan Edwards’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”: A Casebook (Yale University Press, 2010), pp. 1–2. Manuscript spelling not established.
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Advanced Placement