The British didn’t see themselves as invaders in 1776, but they showed up, just the same, with the largest invasion force they had ever mustered—400 ships carrying 32,000 troops, enough to block off America’s key waterways and starve it of military supplies. The flotilla was led by Admiral Richard Howe, who’d earned the nickname “Black Dick” because he was said to smile only when a lot of people were about to die. With help from Loyalists on the ground, Black Dick would teach a violent lesson to the “rascally banditti” and “firebrands of sedition” who had taken up arms against the sovereign.1
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