J.L. Bell reports that while the upcoming HBO mini-series on our own John Adams might be riveting, possibly the most riveting scene of all never happened: A royal customs agent was not tarred and feathered here by a mob acting on the orders of John Hancock (although there was an actual tarring and feathering a year later; Adams represented a defendant in that case, which involved a ship that had been seized from Hancock).

J.L. Bell recounts how Boston Harbor almost became the site of the first submarine attack in history.

J.L. Bell reprints part of a flier Revolutionaries set into the wind in the hopes they would flutter down on Redcoats encamped in Boston in 1775 - and on deserters from the American side:

... The notion of provincial militiamen slipping off to the British lines surprises me, not because I see the American cause as obviously just and holy but because the countryside undoubtedly had more food and more opportunities for movement. One of the handbills that the provincials printed, shown above, even highlighted that difference. Yet some men saw better prospects inside Boston than outside. ...

J.L. Bell explains why he revised a Wikipedia entry that claimed Framingham was a "center of rebellion" during the years leading up to the Revolution: Basically, because it wasn't.

J.L. Bell reprints a report by Henry Greenleaf, whose father, William, was the first person to ever recite the Declaration of Independence at what is now the Old State House, back in 1776:

... As his voice was rather weak, he requested Colonel [Thomas] Crafts to act as his herald; they stood together at the front of the balcony, and my father read a sentence, which was immediately repeated by Crafts, and so continued to the end, when was the huzza. ...

The lion and unicorn [from the Town House] were burnt on the evening of the declaration on a bonfire, in front of the Bunch of Grapes [tavern], as were the king's arms from the Court-House, and all signs bearing emblems of royalty that could be found. ...

J.L. Bell attempts to squash the heresy that the two-if-by-sea steeple was actually at Old North Meeting-House in North Square.

J.L. Bell shows that conspiracy theories are hardly a modern phenomenon.

J.L. Bell discusses the patriots who died on April 19, including Edward Barber, of Charlestown, age 14.