[caption id=“attachment_4180” align=“alignright” width=“410”]Battle of Springfield, New Jersey in 1780[/caption] In the year of 1780, the legislature of Pennsylvania votes to approve the Act for the Gradual Emancipation of Slaves (Mar 1), Charleston in South Carolina is taken by British forces (May 12), the Continental Army defeats the British in New Jersey (Jun 23), French soldiers arrive in Newport, Rhode Island to reinforce the colonists in the American Revolutionary War (Jul 11), the French King Louis XVI abolishes the use of torture in extracting confessions (Aug 24), the American War of Independence (1775–1783) goes on - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading