J.L. Bell
Beyond the Thirteen: The American Colonies That Stayed with Britain
As Americans we speak of “the thirteen colonies,” but that includes only those colonies that rebelled in 1775. Britain’s empire in the western hemisphere included up to three dozen more colonies, depending on how one counts. Some were small islands while others were older, larger, and wealthier than the colonies that sent delegates to the Continental Congress. Most of those places were subject to the same new taxes that caused such problems along the north Atlantic coast. This talk will map the full boundaries of the British Empire in 1775, look at the Congress’s fraught relations with those other colonies, and explore why they didn’t join the move toward independence.
J.L. Bell was previously featured in History Camp Author Discussions and History Camp Boston, including . . .
[Broadcast on July 16, 2026; recorded earlier.]
J.L. Bell (boston1775.blogspot.com) is the author of The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War, the National Park Service report Gen. George Washington’s Home and Headquarters—Cambridge, Mass., and numerous articles. He maintains the Boston 1775 website, offering daily postings of history, analysis, and unabashed gossip about Revolutionary New England. Bell is slowly working on a book about the troubled first year of the Continental artillery regiment, including Henry Knox’s rise to command.
