He'd noted a clause in the embargo that said ships carrying munitions to American ports would be allowed an exemption to trade with American colonies, regardless of their affiliation with the British.Īs the Second Continental Congress met, Tucker schemed with Benjamin Franklin to help both of their causes. ![]() Bermuda relied significantly on American food imports, and he argued as much for his business as for his belly. The Continental Congress had announced an embargo against loyal British colonies, set to come into effect in September, and in July 1775, Tucker traveled to Philadelphia, where Congress met, to find some way out of it. It was a lucky problem for Henry Tucker, a Bermudan merchant eager to find new business. They needed gunpowder, however they could get it. Knowing their guns were close to becoming useless, the Americans began equipping themselves with wooden pikes and spears for hand-to-hand combat. The only American gunpowder mill, the Frankford Powder-Mill in Pennsylvania, wasn't producing enough to fight a war. ![]() The year prior, as tensions in the colonies worsened, George III banned the import of firearms and gunpowder from Europe, and had been confiscating them in a bid to disarm the rebellion. ![]() By July, after three months of skirmishes against the Redcoats, Washington's soldiers had only enough gunpowder for nine bullets per man. For most of 1775, Revolutionary troops under the command of George Washington had the British Army trapped in Boston, but it was hard to say who was at the mercy of whom.
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