Mirabilis Member Years

There shall be initially 410 Mirabilis Members. Mirabilis is latin for miracle. The Mirabilis Members will each be unique in that they will adopt a year in the great American story.

1730

Nine year boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland began. Known as “Cresaps War”

1731

Benjamin Franklin opens first public library in North America

1732

George Washington, future General and First President of the United States was born on his parent’s plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia.

General Oglethorpe granted a Royal Charter for the Colony of Georgia.

First mass held in first Roman Catholic Church in the colonies in Philadelphia.

Benjamin Franklin began publication of Poor Richard’s Almanac under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders.

1733

Philanthropist, Member of Parliament and General James Oglethorpe with 116 colonists arrived to settle the territory of Georgia

A religious revival, or “spiritual awakening,” began in the Congregationalist church where Jonathan Edwards was pastor in Northampton, Massachusetts. Simultaneous revivals occurred throughout New England, New York, New Jersey and elsewhere and collectively labelled many years later by historians, as “The Great Awakening.” The Calvinist content of the Gospel preaching was nothing new or surprising, but the scale of response had not been seen before in the colonies.

1734

German immigrant John Peter Zenger was arrested in New York for satirizing the Royal Governor he published in the New York Weekly Journal. A grand jury refused to indict. Zenger was then accused of libel and acquitted in a jury trial the following year, striking a significant blow for freedom of the press. Subsequent governors clamped down on freedom of the press, but Zenger’s challenge became enshrined in the 1st amendment.

1735

John Peter Zenger, on trial for libel, is acquitted by jury, thus advancing the cause of a free press in America.

The King’s Highway is completed from Boston, Massachusetts to Charleston, South Carolina.

1736

Preachers John and Charles Wesley, two of nineteen children in their family, arrived in Savannah, Georgia. On the voyage over, they met Moravian missionaries whose pietism deeply affected the Wesleys. As High-Church Anglicans, they had little success in ministry in Georgia and fled the colony after a public controversy. They would be transformed spiritually and methodologically in the following years and found the Methodist Church, one of the most prolific Protestant denominations.

1737

Richmond, Virginia is founded.

Benjamin Franklin is instrumental in founding the first metropolitan police force in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1738

Both Charles Cornwallis and Ethan Allen, British General and American General respectively, are born and will become antagonists in the War for American Indepenedence.

1739

Twenty-five year old evangelist George Whitefield arrived in America and began a preaching tour of the colonies, sermons of which were heard by multiple thousands of people and published in several colonies. Thousands of people professed conversion to Christ and many churches experienced unprecedented growth. Along with Jonathan Edwards and others, Whitefield was instrumental in what historians have termed “The Great Awakening.” The results of this mass movement were felt in every colony and had a transformative effect on the culture.

The “War of Jenkin’s Ear” also known as “King George’s War” begins against Spain and France.

Slave revolt, the Stono Rebellion, breaks out in South Carolina. It is the largest slave revolt in American history and results in a slew of new laws restricting slave assembly, manumission, and more penalties against the harsh treatment of slaves.