What ultimately convinced Americans that they must revolt in 1776 was not that they were naturally and inevitably republican, for if that were truly the case evolution, not revolution, would have been the eventual solution. Rather it was the pervasive fear that they were not predestined to be a virtuous and egalitarian people that in the last analysis drove them into revolution in 1776. It was this fear and not their confidence in the peculiarity of their character that made them so readily and so remarkably responsive to Thomas Paine’s warning that the time for independence was at hand and that delay would be disastrous. By 1776 it had become increasingly evident that if they were to remain the kind of people they wanted to be they must become free of Britain.
| Place | City | |
|---|---|---|
| American Independence Museum | Exeter | The museum focuses on the Revolution, colonial life, the Ladd, Gilman, and Folsom families. |
| Fort Constitution | New Castle | Originally named Fort William and Mary, colonists captured it 14 December 1774 in one of the first overt acts against England. |
| Fort Stark Historic Site | New Castle | Overlooking the Piscataqua River, Little Harbor, and the Atlantic Ocean, Fort Stark was named in honor of General John Stark, commander of New Hampshire forces at the Battle of Bennington (1777). |
| Governor John Langdon House | New Castle | Built in 1783 for Major John Langdon — merchant, shipbuilder, representative to Continental Congress, and Governor of New Hampshire. |
| Moffatt-Ladd House and Garden | Portsmouth | Georgian Mansion built 1760-63 by merchant John Moffatt; General William Whipple lived there during the war with his wife Katherine Moffatt Whipple. |
| Strawbery Banke Museum | Portsmouth | Living history museum dedicated to recreating colonial and early American life. |
| Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion | Portsmouth | Built 1720—60, home of New Hampshire's first royal governor, Benning Wentworth. |
The Creation of the American Republic, 1776—1787 (1969)