George Washington, General Orders before the Battle of Long Island, Headquarters, Highlands, New York, July 2, 1776; Fitzpatrick 5:211

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them." – George Washington, General Orders before the Battle of Long Island, Headquarters, Highlands, New York, July 2, 1776; Fitzpatrick 5:211

Portrait of sand by sand artist Orlando Adi