For Crown or Colony?
ESTIMATED TIME: 1-1.5 HOURSIt’s 1770. You are Nat Wheeler, a 14-year-old apprentice in Boston. As tensions rise among Patriots, Loyalists, and others, can you decide where your loyalties lie? Play online or download the iPad app.
Please note: On March 27, 2023, For Crown or Colony? was updated to improve the underlying technology, fix a few bugs and add some new content, including Nathaniel’s voiceover for all the Epilogue screens. If you encounter any issues while playing this version or want to share any feedback, please email us at missionus@thirteen.org.
Meet the Characters
Roll over a character to learn more.
Paul Revere
Revere runs a successful silversmith business in Boston, and counts many of the city's wealthy merchants as customers. He is a member of the Sons of Liberty who uses his skills as a master craftsman to create engravings in support of the Patriot cause.
Solomon Fortune
Solomon is a fictional free black man who works on the Boston waterfront. Born into slavery, he gained his freedom after years of working as a sailor, which has made him very knowledgeable about Atlantic commerce.
Royce Dillingham
A fictional ropemaker’s apprentice, the mischievous Royce is drawn to the Patriot movement by its talk of equality and protest. Street smart and tough, he views Nat as a provincial country bumpkin, but it also somewhat jealous of Nat’s more privileged apprenticeship with Benjamin Edes.
Martha Edes
The wife of Benjamin Edes, Martha is interested in matters beyond her small household. As a member of the Daughters of Liberty, she take a leadership role in organized consumer boycotts. She expects Nat to support the patriot cause, and be an eager contributor to the Edes household and printing business.
Benjamin Edes
The master printer of the Boston Gazette and a member of the Sons of Liberty. Edes is a fervent Patriot, and unhappy with the military occupation of Boston and new taxes imposed by England. He is committed to using his printing press to oppose the Crown. A strict master who expects obedience and performance from his apprentices, he also serves as a possible mentor and role model for Nat.
Nathaniel “Nat” Wheeler
The fictional son of a middling farmer, fourteen year-old Nat is forced to leave the farm because there is not enough land to share with his older brother, Samuel. He has been given the opportunity to serve as an apprentice in the print shop of Benjamin Edes in Boston. Nat has spent his entire life near his family’s farm in Uxbridge, MA, and is unaware of the ways of the world.
Constance Lillie
The fictional niece of a Loyalist shopkeeper, Constance is content with the status quo, and enjoys the “finer things” (British clothes, fabrics, and books). She agrees with her uncle that the Sons of Liberty should not interfere with the livelihoods of merchants who import goods from England. Sophisticated and kind, she has been accompanied to Boston by her terrier, Thimble, who has recently gone missing.
Phillis Wheatley
Born in West Africa, Wheatley was kidnapped and enslaved at the age of seven. John Wheatley purchased Phillis at a slave auction in Boston as a personal servant for his wife. Now age 16, Phillis is poised, well-spoken, and pious. She learned to read and write, and writes poems that support the ideals of virtue and liberty also espoused by the Patriot cause. However, she is having a hard time finding local patrons who would support their publication.
Hugh White
A private in His Majesty’s army, Hugh arrived in Boston eighteen months ago along with the rest of the Twenty-Ninth regiment. At first, Hugh was looking forward to the change of scenery, but it’s clear that most Bostonians do not want the troops here. The city’s inhabitants offer him nothing in the way of hospitality, and it seems like he spends most of his time dodging snowballs from apprentices and looking for extra work to supplement his meager salary.
Grace Wheeler
The fictional Grace Wheeler is Nat’s mother and Daniel’s wife. Heartbroken by the disappearance of her eldest son, Christopher, during the French and Indian War, Mrs. Wheeler is extremely anxious about sending off her youngest son Nat to his Boston apprenticeship.
Daniel Wheeler
The fictional Daniel Wheeler is a farmer from Uxbridge, MA, determined to secure a happy and prosperous life for his three sons. His oldest son, Christopher, ran off to fight in the French and Indian War, and has not been seen or heard from for eight years. With his second oldest son, Samuel, set to inherit the farm, Mr. Wheeler has worked hard to secure his youngest son Nat an apprenticeship in a Boston print shop.
Paul Revere
Revere runs a successful silversmith business in Boston, and counts many of the city's wealthy merchants as customers. He is a member of the Sons of Liberty who uses his skills as a master craftsman to create engravings in support of the Patriot cause.
Solomon Fortune
Solomon is a fictional free black man who works on the Boston waterfront. Born into slavery, he gained his freedom after years of working as a sailor, which has made him very knowledgeable about Atlantic commerce.
Royce Dillingham
A fictional ropemaker’s apprentice, the mischievous Royce is drawn to the Patriot movement by its talk of equality and protest. Street smart and tough, he views Nat as a provincial country bumpkin, but it also somewhat jealous of Nat’s more privileged apprenticeship with Benjamin Edes.
Martha Edes
The wife of Benjamin Edes, Martha is interested in matters beyond her small household. As a member of the Daughters of Liberty, she take a leadership role in organized consumer boycotts. She expects Nat to support the patriot cause, and be an eager contributor to the Edes household and printing business.
Benjamin Edes
The master printer of the Boston Gazette and a member of the Sons of Liberty. Edes is a fervent Patriot, and unhappy with the military occupation of Boston and new taxes imposed by England. He is committed to using his printing press to oppose the Crown. A strict master who expects obedience and performance from his apprentices, he also serves as a possible mentor and role model for Nat.
Nathaniel “Nat” Wheeler
The fictional son of a middling farmer, fourteen year-old Nat is forced to leave the farm because there is not enough land to share with his older brother, Samuel. He has been given the opportunity to serve as an apprentice in the print shop of Benjamin Edes in Boston. Nat has spent his entire life near his family’s farm in Uxbridge, MA, and is unaware of the ways of the world.
Constance Lillie
The fictional niece of a Loyalist shopkeeper, Constance is content with the status quo, and enjoys the “finer things” (British clothes, fabrics, and books). She agrees with her uncle that the Sons of Liberty should not interfere with the livelihoods of merchants who import goods from England. Sophisticated and kind, she has been accompanied to Boston by her terrier, Thimble, who has recently gone missing.
Phillis Wheatley
Born in West Africa, Wheatley was kidnapped and enslaved at the age of seven. John Wheatley purchased Phillis at a slave auction in Boston as a personal servant for his wife. Now age 16, Phillis is poised, well-spoken, and pious. She learned to read and write, and writes poems that support the ideals of virtue and liberty also espoused by the Patriot cause. However, she is having a hard time finding local patrons who would support their publication.
Hugh White
A private in His Majesty’s army, Hugh arrived in Boston eighteen months ago along with the rest of the Twenty-Ninth regiment. At first, Hugh was looking forward to the change of scenery, but it’s clear that most Bostonians do not want the troops here. The city’s inhabitants offer him nothing in the way of hospitality, and it seems like he spends most of his time dodging snowballs from apprentices and looking for extra work to supplement his meager salary.
Grace Wheeler
The fictional Grace Wheeler is Nat’s mother and Daniel’s wife. Heartbroken by the disappearance of her eldest son, Christopher, during the French and Indian War, Mrs. Wheeler is extremely anxious about sending off her youngest son Nat to his Boston apprenticeship.
Daniel Wheeler
The fictional Daniel Wheeler is a farmer from Uxbridge, MA, determined to secure a happy and prosperous life for his three sons. His oldest son, Christopher, ran off to fight in the French and Indian War, and has not been seen or heard from for eight years. With his second oldest son, Samuel, set to inherit the farm, Mr. Wheeler has worked hard to secure his youngest son Nat an apprenticeship in a Boston print shop.