Mary Stuart DAR Chapter

On Saturday, several members participated in the annual Quilts of Valor block sewing event at Varsity Vacuums and Stitches. We were honored to witness the presentation of a Quilt of Valor to a Vietnam Veteran. The chapter prepared and served lunch to the 50 participants gathered. The DAR supports projects like this as part of our mission to encourage Patriotism, Historic Preservation, & Education. Do you have a Patriot from the American Revolution in your family tree? Contact us for more information about joining today's DAR.

On This Day in History: December 19, 1777

Lafayette, Washington, and the Continental Army marched into Valley Forge not in defeat, but in defiance. Exhausted, hungry, and poorly supplied, these soldiers still carried the grit of men who had pushed the British to the brink.

What awaited them was a winter of brutal cold and relentless hardship — a test of endurance, unity, and sheer willpower. But from that frozen ground, they forged something extraordinary: a disciplined, determined fighting force that would help turn the tide of the Revolution.

in , 1765, the British enacted the Stamp Act, igniting a powder keg that would in time lead to revolution, , and—as Thomas Paine implored—begun the world over again.

In the aftermath of the French & Indian War, 's debt had doubled; and a tax on paper goods was meant to raise revenue and force the colonies to pay for their own defense. But after a century of relative self-rule, the Stamp Act instead led to “destructions, demolitions, and ruins caused by the rage of the colonies,” a contemporary wrote.

More importantly, the fervor forced the disparate colonies into collective action, beginning with the Stamp Act . A decade before the Declaration of Independence, the colonies argued in the “Declaration of Rights and Grievances” that taxes could only be levied by a body they elected representatives to.

merchants also signed a non-importation agreement, refusing to buy British goods until Parliament repealed the Act. Merchants and retailers across the colonies soon followed suit. The economic impact on British merchants was so drastic, they petitioned Parliament to repeal the Act—which it did.

But as an English writer foreboded: “The Americans imbibe notions of independance and liberty…If we yield to them in this particular, by repealing the Stamp-Act, it is all over; they will from that moment assert their freedom.”

Photo: Example of a Royal Stamp in