When Thirteen Became One is the story of the people involved in forming this new culture while fending off pressure from Great Britain until General Gage sent the royal troops into the countryside to bring the subjects back, leading up to the confrontation on April 19, 1775, when British and American soldiers exchanged fire in the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord.

For over a hundred and fifty years, the two cultures clashed. The British parliament demanded control of their “subjects” in this foreign land and placed more tariffs on goods. This story begins with a few families embracing a new culture based on religious tolerance, fair commerce trade, and self-government in 1620. These were the armed pilgrims with an ambition to self-govern, and who wrote the Mayflower Compact. All those who followed them contributed to this new culture, and the colonies became more robust. They began to challenge and torment parliament, who only considered them subjects.

When Thirteen Became One traces the development of this new American culture, telling the story of the people who helped create it as they continually opposed the British Empire. When Thirteen Became One is the telling of all the little stories that got lost in telling the big story of the American Revolution.