On (Virtual) Display at the State Library

State of Massachusetts-Bay. In the House
of Representatives, January 20th, 1777...

At the beginning of each month we change the display case that is located in the reading room, and though the State Library is currently closed, we are taking this opportunity to virtually change the case and share a new item with our patrons. Featured this month is a broadside from our Special Collections Department. It was issued in 1777 and called for a supply of blankets to be provided in support of the defense of American states.

In 1777 the country was in the midst of the American Revolution. On January 20, 1777 the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a resolution that the state was required to provide aid for the Continental Army in the form of blankets. This resolution was printed as a broadside by Benjamin Edes, who also published the patriotic and influential newspaper The Boston Gazette and Country Journal. Once printed, the broadside was distributed throughout the Commonwealth with instruction for selectmen and Committees of Correspondence to share it with residents.

Faced with a supply shortage as winter set in, the resolution stated that Massachusetts was responsible for acquiring blankets for the Continental Army. The blankets were to be purchased, collected, and stored within individual towns and plantations until they were called up by the state, at which point they would be reimbursed from the public treasury. In total, the Commonwealth was required to supply 5,000 blankets, with each individual town or plantation assigned a specific number that they were responsible for providing. This broadside includes a listing of the towns and plantations and their required contribution, a number that  was seemingly based on population size. Look closely at the broadside to see that Boston - the largest town in Massachusetts - was required to provide the most at 461 blankets, while some smaller towns or individual plantations in Berkshire County and Cumberland County (now part of Maine) were only required to supply one or two blankets.

The need for blankets expressed in this broadside highlights a continuing issue that the Continental Army faced during the war. The Continental Army was still relatively new, having been formed by the Second Continental Congress in June 1775. Previously, military actions had been left to local militias, who were part-time servicemen called for temporary aid and action. The establishment of the Continental Army drew individuals from all thirteen colonies (then states, after 1776) for the purpose of the common defense. But as historian Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. writes in an essay on The Washington Papers website, “the Continental Congress’s efforts to equip and feed its army were inadequate from the start.” Supply issues like the January 1777 call for blankets were not new, and Grizzard’s essay goes into further detail on the topic. He explains that, “inadequate administrative procedures, a scarcity of money and the failure of credit, a weak transportation system, and a lack of manufacturing all combined with the natural obstacles of geography and weather to create frequent shortages of food, clothing, tents, and other military supplies throughout the war.” Despite some reforms, these challenges continued to plague the army throughout the war. Access the full article on The Washington Papers website here - and while you’re there, spend some time reading more of the correspondence of George Washington and his family.

Faced with a difficult national situation, this broadside shows that regardless of size, each town and plantation in the Commonwealth was called on to support the larger war effort. Click on the above image or access the document in DSpace to take a closer look at this document - be sure to find your own town and see the contribution they made in 1777.

By Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian