Title page from The Plea of the Colonies, on the Charges Brought Against Them

The Plea of the Colonies, on the Charges Brought Against Them

Some scholars propose Hugh Williamson as a possible author for this pamphlet that argues that the British government has pushed the Americans “ into the very bowels of a civil war.” The author further suggests that peace requires a change of the governing party in Britain rather than complete submission from the Americans. The pamphlet’s lively contemporary description of the Boston Tea Party and other famous precursors of the Revolution are of particular interest even to casual readers.

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The text of these 18th century pamphlets has been converted by machine from scanned PDFs of the original microfilm copies. While the text has been machine-proofed, transcription errors may still remain. For example, the 18th-century long S, ſ , may be rendered as “f,” some words may be incorrectly transcribed, and there may be repeated words or phrases.