New York City

=== American Revolution ===
{{Further|American Revolution}}
[[File:BattleofLongisland.jpg|thumb|The [[Battle of Long Island]], one of the largest battles of the [[American Revolutionary War]], which took place in [[Brooklyn]] on August 27, 1776]]
The [[Stamp Act Congress]] met in New York in October 1765, as the [[Sons of Liberty]] organization emerged in the city and skirmished over the next ten years with British troops stationed there.<ref name="BoyerClark2009">{{cite book |first1 = Paul |last1 = Boyer |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=O7NsCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 |title = The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Volume 1: To 1877, Concise |first2 = Clifford |last2 = Clark |first3 = Sandra |last3 = Hawley |first4 = Joseph |last4 = Kett |first5 = Andrew |last5 = Rieser |publisher = [[Cengage Learning]] |year = 2009 |isbn = 978-1-111-78553-6 |page = 100 }}</ref> The [[Battle of Long Island]], the largest battle of the [[American Revolutionary War]], was fought in August 1776 within the modern-day borough of Brooklyn.<ref name="Reno2008">{{cite book |first = Linda Davis |last = Reno |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KvhogpG5154C&pg=PA3 |title = The Maryland 400 in the Battle of Long Island, 1776 |publisher = [[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |year = 2008 |isbn = 978-0-7864-5184-5 |page = 3 }}</ref> A British rout of the Continental Army at the [[Battle of Fort Washington]] in November 1776 eliminated the last American stronghold in Manhattan, causing [[George Washington]] and his forces to retreat across the Hudson River to [[New Jersey]], pursued by British forces.<ref>[https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/fort-washington Fort Washington], [[American Battlefield Trust]]. Accessed December 31, 2023. "Fought on November 16, 1776 on the island of Manhattan, the Battle of Fort Washington was the final devastating chapter in General Washington's disastrous New York Campaign.... Seeing how precarious the American position was, Howe launched a three-pronged assault on Fort Washington and its outer defensive works. The combined British-Hessian assault force of 8,000 men grossly outnumbered the fort's 3,000 defenders.... At 3:00 P.M., after a fruitless attempt to gain gentler surrender terms for his men, Magaw surrendered Fort Washington and its 2,800 surviving defenders to the British."</ref><ref>Schenawolf, Harry. [https://revolutionarywarjournal.com/washingtons-retreat-across-new-jersey-a-british-fox-chase/ "Washington's Retreat Across New Jersey: A British Fox Chase"], Revolutionary War Journal, August 5, 2019. Accessed December 31, 2023.</ref>

After the battle, in which the Americans were defeated, the British made the city their military and political base of operations in North America.<ref>[[Rohit Aggarwala|Aggarwala, Rohit T.]] [https://www.jstor.org/stable/90018770 "'I want a Packet to arrive': Making New York City the headquarters of British North America 1696-1783"], ''New York History'', Winter 2017. Accessed December 29, 2023. "One of New York City's key distinctions in the late colonial period was its role as the headquarters of the British Army in North America, almost continuously from 1755 to 1783."</ref> The city was a haven for [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] refugees and escaped slaves who joined the British lines for freedom newly promised by the [[British Crown|Crown]], with as many as 10,000 escaped slaves crowded into the city during the British occupation, which had become the largest such community on the continent.<ref>[https://www.amrevmuseum.org/revolution-stories/finding-freedom-deborah "Finding Freedom: Deborah"], [[Museum of the American Revolution]], May 4, 2018. Accessed December 31, 2023. "They ran to the British Army which offered freedom to enslaved people owned by rebel masters based on the 1779 Philipsburg Proclamation issued by British General Henry Clinton. Historians estimate that 10,000 enslaved people sought freedom by escaping to the British during the Revolutionary War."</ref><ref>Goulet, L.; and Tsaltas-Otoomanelli, Mary. [https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/black-loyalists-evaculation-zy4la "Black Loyalists In The Evacuation Of New York City, 1783"], [[The Gotham Center for New York City History]], November 15, 2023. Accessed December 31, 2023. "By 1783, New York City had become the largest fugitive slave community in North America.... Free and self-emancipated Black people entered New York City during the British occupation seeking protection."</ref> When the British forces [[Evacuation Day (New York)|evacuated]] New York at the close of the war in 1783, they transported thousands of [[freedmen]] for resettlement in [[Nova Scotia]], England, and the [[Caribbean]].<ref name="Hinks2007">{{cite book |first = Peter P. |last = Hinks |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3UXQs0uO0VMC&pg=PA508 |title = Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition |publisher = [[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |year = 2007 |isbn = 978-0-313-33144-2 |page = 508 }}</ref>

The attempt at a peaceful solution to the war took place at the [[Conference House]] on Staten Island between American delegates, including [[Benjamin Franklin]], and British general [[Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe|Lord Howe]] on September 11, 1776.<ref>Mattera, John. [https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/conference-house-park/dailyplant/19934 Conference House Park The Daily Plant : Thursday, September 7, 2006], [[New York City Department of Parks and Recreation]]. Accessed December 29, 2023.</ref> Shortly after the British occupation began, the [[Great Fire of New York (1776)|Great Fire of New York]] occurred, a large conflagration on the [[West Side (Manhattan)|West Side]] of Lower Manhattan, which destroyed nearly 500 buildings, about a quarter of the structures in the city, including [[Trinity Church (New York City)|Trinity Church]].<ref>Trinity Church bicentennial celebration, May 5, 1897, By Trinity Church (New York, N.Y.) p. 37, ISBN 978-1-356-90825-7</ref><ref>[https://baruch.cuny.edu/nycdata/disasters/fires-1776.html New York City (NYC) The Great Fire of 1776], [[Baruch College]]. Accessed December 29, 2023. "The fire started in a wooden building near White Hall Slip, called the Fighting Cocks Tavern, a fun house visited by the city's most disreputable residents. It was fanned by winds south west of the city and spread rapidly into the night, demolishing 493 buildings and houses in the process."</ref>