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Population of the American colonies: about 275,000 people. Boston has 7,000 people and New York 5,000.
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Benjamin Franklin leaves Boston for Philadelphia, a trip that he chronicles in his Autobiography.
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Franklin purchases and publishes the Pennsylvania Gazette, which later becomes The Saturday Evening Post.
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Franklin's Junto club establishes the Library Company of Philadelphia, the first circulating library in the US.
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Benjamin Franklin begins publishing Poor Richard's Almanac.
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Benjamin Franklin publishes New Experiments and Observations on Electricity.
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Thomas Paine, Common Sense
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Franklin's Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America
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The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
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Adultery was an extremely risque subject,
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The Supreme Court upholds the "separate but equal" doctrine.
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Laws restricting the travel of slaves and banning miscegenation are enacted in New York, Massachusetts, and Virginia