Letter Volume Across the Revolutionary Period
Daily correspondence volume, plotted alongside major events of 1773–1783.
Drag to inspect any day’s letters · or hover the line
The line shows exactly how many letters were recorded on each day. Hover the line, or drag the slider below the chart, to see the count for any single day.
Note: letters are plotted by the date they were written, but news traveled only as fast as the postal system. News of an event could take days or weeks to spread through the colonies, let alone to cross the Atlantic, so surges in correspondence often trail the events that prompted them rather than lining up exactly.
Political Military Treaty Active war years