Hurricane of Independence: The Untold Story of the Deadly Storm at the Deciding Moment of the American Revolution

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Tony Williams

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Overview

The sleeper history hit of 2008, released in paperback to coincide with the heart of hurricane season

On September 2, 1775, the eighth deadliest Atlantic hurricane of all time landed on American shores. Over the next days, it would race up the East Coast, striking all of the important colonial capitols and killing more than four thousand people. In an era when hurricanes were viewed as omens from God, what this storm signified to the colonists about the justness of their cause would yield unexpected results.

Drawing on ordinary individuals and well-known founders like Washington and Franklin, Tony Williams paints a stunning picture of life at the dawn of the American Revolution, and of the weighty choice people faced at that deciding moment.

Hurricane of Independence brings to life an incredible time when the forces of nature and the forces of history joined together to produce courageous stories of sacrifice, strength, and survival.

Tony Williams taught history and literature for ten years and has a master's in American History from Ohio State University. He is currently a full-time author who lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, with his wife and children.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

In his first book, Williams sheds light on the obscure hurricanes that battered America's east coast all the way up to Newfoundland in September 1775. But this account promises more than it delivers: the first vaunted "storm at the deciding moment of the American Revolution" affected the colonies very little, while the second hurricane hit Canada and killed some 4,000 cod fishermen, but is tangential to the American uprising. Williams consequently presses the "storm of war" metaphor and fills out the book with lengthy descriptions of what was going on in various American cities hit by the hurricane. He is on surer ground in his discussions about how weather influenced political affairs and its potent religious symbolism. Were the storms evidence of God's desire to punish the rebels for their insolence toward King George III? If so, then why were the British prevented from attacking Dorchester Heights by a fierce storm, and why was Lord Cornwallis's plan to escape from Yorktown frustrated by a powerful gale? Thinner than his first, this book offers some illumination on the colonial worldview, but little on the Revolution. (Aug.)

Booklist

Williams provides an interesting sidebar to the opening of the American Revolution by recalling one of the
deadliest storms ever to hit the North American Atlantic coast, a hurricane that raced northward in
September 1775, drubbing several colonial capitals and causing severe losses. It was closely followed by
another-probably: whether they were one or two storms is still argued-that devastated the
Newfoundland fleet at the height of the cod season and caused more than 4,000 deaths. At a time when
natural disasters and astronomical phenomena were widely believed to be signs of divine will, people on
both sides of the developing colonial conflict wondered what God intended by this deadly portent.
Williams quotes diaries, letters, and other documents of the time, showing how both the well-known and
the well-nigh-forgotten reacted. He acknowledges, however, that the hurricane wasn't the most important
meteorological phenomenon that impinged upon the Revolutionary War. Still, his double tale of natural
disaster and epochal human events makes a good reading.
- Frieda Murray

More Reviews (2) Fewer Reviews

Kirkus

A first-time author tracks the 1775 hurricane that pummeled America's Eastern seaboard, echoing the patriotic storm in the colonies.

After forming over Africa's west coast, the Hurricane of Independence touched down on September 1 in New Bern, N.C., where it killed 200, and then proceeded to Norfolk, Williamsburg, Annapolis, Philadelphia, Newport and, having morphed into merely a violent rainstorm, on to New York City and Boston. Sometime around September 10 a second tempest (erroneously thought to be the tail end of the first hurricane) roared ashore in Newfoundland, killing thousands and devastating seaside communities and the British cod industry. Williams dubs this the "Codfishermen's Hurricane," and he uses the progress of both storms to examine the developments in the various colonial regions on the eve of the Revolution: the evenly divided Patriot/Tory town of Norfolk's fear of a British-inspired slave rebellion, the hurricane's destruction of the Annapolis statehouse dome, the drenching of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Washington's assumption of command of the Continental Army in Boston. But for the facts of the hurricanes themselves, Williams offers little new for even casual students of the Revolution, but he charmingly uses the hurricane as a window through which to view the psychology of the Enlightenment; the beginning of scientific inquiry and the demystification of popular superstition, captured in the persons of wealthy Virginia planter and amateur scientist Landon Carter, future Yale president Ezra Stiles and, of course, Benjamin Franklin; and the lingering suspicions among most that the hurricane reflected heaven's judgment on thepolitical upheaval. But what was God saying? Was the tempest a punishment against the tyrannical master or a rebuke to the rebellious subjects? In agreeable prose, Williams recovers the victims' speculation on the hurricane's meaning and its almost poetic commingling of the natural and moral worlds.

An unusual and affecting take on the American colonies at the precipice.

Kirkus Reviews

A first-time author tracks the 1775 hurricane that pummeled America's Eastern seaboard, echoing the patriotic storm in the colonies. After forming over Africa's west coast, the Hurricane of Independence touched down on September 1 in New Bern, N.C., where it killed 200, and then proceeded to Norfolk, Williamsburg, Annapolis, Philadelphia, Newport and, having morphed into merely a violent rainstorm, on to New York City and Boston. Sometime around September 10 a second tempest (erroneously thought to be the tail end of the first hurricane) roared ashore in Newfoundland, killing thousands and devastating seaside communities and the British cod industry. Williams dubs this the "Codfishermen's Hurricane," and he uses the progress of both storms to examine the developments in the various colonial regions on the eve of the Revolution: the evenly divided Patriot/Tory town of Norfolk's fear of a British-inspired slave rebellion, the hurricane's destruction of the Annapolis statehouse dome, the drenching of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Washington's assumption of command of the Continental Army in Boston. But for the facts of the hurricanes themselves, Williams offers little new for even casual students of the Revolution, but he charmingly uses the hurricane as a window through which to view the psychology of the Enlightenment; the beginning of scientific inquiry and the demystification of popular superstition, captured in the persons of wealthy Virginia planter and amateur scientist Landon Carter, future Yale president Ezra Stiles and, of course, Benjamin Franklin; and the lingering suspicions among most that the hurricane reflected heaven's judgment on the political upheaval. Butwhat was God saying? Was the tempest a punishment against the tyrannical master or a rebuke to the rebellious subjects? In agreeable prose, Williams recovers the victims' speculation on the hurricane's meaning and its almost poetic commingling of the natural and moral worlds. An unusual and affecting take on the American colonies at the precipice.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781402221231
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
Publication date: 8/1/2009
Pages: 302
Sales rank: 839,768
Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 1.00 (d)

Meet the Author

Tony Williams

Tony Williams taught history and literature for ten years, and has a Master's in American History from Ohio State University. He is currently a full-time author who lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, with his wife and children.

Read an Excerpt

Excerpt from Chapter One: Tempest Brewing

Throughout the summer of 1775, the sun scorched the desert sands of the Sahara. Easterly jets of wind raced a few miles up over the barren African terrain across thousands of bleak miles. As the winds hurtled toward the coastline, they became highly unstable and broke into pulsing waves. The waves stretched for up to a thousand miles and flew regularly over the shores of the coast every few days. The people of western Africa were left unawares of their existence except for the barest hint of a gentle breeze. But these winds eventually built into an explosive force half a world away.

The blowing winds jetted out over the blue waters of the Atlantic looking for just the right mysterious conditions to grow into a tropical depression. Some became troughs curving counter-clockwise because of the unfelt rotation of the earth. The infant storms needed desperately to feed on warm water if they were to survive.

The summer sun granted their wish, boiling the cauldron of equatorial Atlantic waters past eighty degrees. The heat sucked water right off the gently roiling ocean. It shot upward, cooling as it rose higher and higher. The vapor lifted miles into the air until it condensed into tiny water droplets that plummeted back toward the ocean whitecaps from whence they came.

Dark cumulonimbus clouds formed, menacing any sailors within sight. The intimidating thunderstorm hurled forked lightning bolts while thunder cracked raucously. Heavy downpours inundated hapless ships as the clouds were seemingly wringed all at once by Mother Nature.

Old, weather-beaten captains at the helms of their ships learned to expect theseregular storms off the coast of Africa. The winds provided the propulsion necessary to transport their invaluable consumer and human cargoes across the wine dark sea. Frightened slaves were chained together and packed aboard the holds of ships, soon to replace those who were worked to death under sadistic masters in the brutal climate of the Caribbean sugar islands.

Captains of slave ships calculated the profits that each piece of human property would bring-if they made it to the islands. When squalls erupted suddenly near the Cape Verde Islands, sailors likely were not surprised by this common occurrence, despite the troughs that deceptively hid the storms behind crystal clear weather for many miles in front of them. The storms dropped torrential rain on the soaked men and replenished the water that they had skimmed off the ocean. The storms were harrowing, and many men were lost at sea, but the vast majority of ships came through and continued on to their tropical destinations. As bad as they were, most thunderstorms were spent after a few hours. They soon were replaced by more storms, pounding against other ships sailing along the same path.

A few storms survived, however. The growing tempests gobbled up enormous amounts of warm water that was fed into a swirling vortex that spiraled 'round and 'round, its pressure steadily dropping.

The swirling storm bulged into a monster with a giant eye in the middle of it. It hobbled along patiently around ten miles per hour, paralleling the equator, drawing more ferocity before it struck.

The natives of the Caribbean had a healthy respect for hurricanes and an uncanny understanding of nature. According to their beliefs, the wicked god, Hunraken, annually victimized the island people, inflicting them with destructive winds and deadly floods.
The natives were terrified whenever he made an appearance. They beat drums, shouted curses, and did everything possible to thwart the god and drive him away. Sometimes they successfully frightened him off; at other times his fury could not be withstood and they suffered the consequences.

The natives depicted the fearsome deity on primitive carvings as a hideous creature with swirling arms, ready to whip his winds and claim his prey. Natives had acquired a great store of knowledge through centuries of experience. Pale foreigners who settled on the tropical paradises, though, did not have the same meteorological understanding despite their advanced technology. Hunraken, however, had no regard for skin color: All were quarry for his wrath. On August 25, 1775, the evil god's arms stretched out hundreds of miles, packing winds with furious gusts. The god's arms were bands of rain that engulfed the islands of Martinique. Fierce winds bent trees, littering the ground with their tropical fruit. Large waves of clear water collided against reefs and beaches. Buildings and homes were easily ripped apart and blown down. Two days later, the storm descended upon the island of Santo Domingo. Both islands experienced "much damage" as a result of the "violent gale." The dwindling native population kept its traditions alive by ritualistically fighting the god of winds. But the beating drums of the natives were not strong enough to weaken the storm, nor was the small landmass of the islands. Hunraken gorged himself on the tepid waters and increased in intensity.

Falling pressure raised the ocean beneath the storm into a small dome of water that was hurled against the shallow shoreline of any landmass. For every inch the pressure dropped, the ocean lifted a foot. The hurricane created swells that projected far out to lap against the sands of the North American coastline. But swimming was not yet a leisure sport, and no one gathered on beaches for long vacations. Sailors were the only witnesses to the hurricane that was beginning to make its way up the North American coastline. Even if Hunraken spared their lives, though, they could not outrun the storm to warn anyone of its impending arrival.

Author to Reader ix

Prologue: The Storm of Revolution xv

1 Tempest Brewing 1

2 Impending Doom on the Outer Banks 7

3 First Strike: The Hurricane of Independence Roars Ashore 19

4 Norfolk: An Attack on Both Sides 29

5 Tobacco and Gunpowder 51

6 Landon Carter: Diarist and Planter-Philosopher of the Northern Neck 61

7 The Streets of Annapolis 73

8 Lightning and Enlightenment 87

9 The Colonies Unite in Philadelphia Against British Tyranny 103

10 The Radical, the President, and the General in Philadelphia 119

11 Striking the Second Continental Congress 131

12 The Heroic Collegian: Hamilton in New York 137

13 Whither the Hurricane of Independence? 161

14 War Erupts 171

15 General Washington Battles the British and the Weather 189

16 Fishing for Cod during the Summer in Newfoundland 207

17 The Hurricane 223

Epilogue: The Providential American Victory 239

Endnotes 242

Bibliography 271

Index 283

Author Interview with Tony Williams 293

About the Author 297

Customer Reviews

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JTG

Posted October 27, 2008

Don't waste your time!

Begins with a promising start but then takes a nose dive into redundancy and boredom. Not really sure why I bought the book. I was expecting alot more and I felt disappointed with the end result. Would not recommend it to anyone seriously studing the American Revolution. It just seemed like the author was reaching for a story and nothing else.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Col-H

Posted August 1, 2011

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Disappointing.

While the title seems promising, the book fails to deliver. It begins with an interesting discussion of a hurricane that struck the southeast coast of the colonies at the early stages of the revolution. However, thereafter the story dissolves into seemingly unrelated short stories about the beginnings of the war without any connection or logic. Disjointed, slow, and very repetitious, this might have made a nice magazine article, but fails as a full length manuscript.
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Hurricane of Independence: The Untold Story of the Deadly Storm at the Deciding Moment of the American Revolution

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More About This Book

Overview

Related Subjects

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

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Kirkus

Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

Meet the Author

Tony Williams

Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

Customer Reviews

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Don't waste your time!

Disappointing.