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Historical person
died 1776
Thomas Hickey was an Irish-born soldier who served in George Washington’s Commander-in-Chief’s Guard during the opening months of the American Revolutionary War. Arrested amid fears of mutiny and conspiracy in New York, he was convicted by court martial and hanged on 28 June 1776.
The surviving evidence clearly establishes the military prosecution, although later retellings sometimes make the alleged assassination plot more extensive than contemporary documentation supports. Hickey’s court martial and execution became a prominent episode in accounts of conspiracy and military discipline during the Revolutionary War.
In Laurie Halse Anderson’s Chains, Her dangerous position brings her close to the conspiracy against George Washington, the public execution of Thomas Hickey and a city divided between rebellion and loyalty.
Series
The Seeds of America trilogy follows Isabel and Curzon, two young people fighting enslavement while Britain’s North American colonies fight for independence. Beginning in New York in 1776, continuing through Saratoga and the Valley Forge encampment, and ending at Yorktown in 1781, the novels connect their search for…
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