Brown’s Raid on Ticonderoga and Mount Independence
byThis story begins five weeks after Gen. John Burgoyne’s army forced the Americans to abandon positions on Lake Champlain in July 1777. On August…
Hell’s Half-Acre: The Fall of Loyalist Crean Brush
byOn October 18, 1777, New York provincial assemblyman, and tory, Crean Brush, penned his final will and testament from prison in Boston. After nineteen…
The JAR 2021 Book of the Year Award Finalists
byMany things remained slow and uncertain during 2021, but the publication of excellent new books on the American Revolution and founding era was not…
This Week on Dispatches: Scott M. Smith on Robert Rogers and the American Revolution
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Scott M. Smith on Robert Rogers, a legend for his service during the Seven Years’…
Charles Townshend: Architect of the Townshend Duties
byThe increasingly turbulent years preceding the American Revolution were fueled by an exchange of laws promulgated by Great Britain to maintain political and economic…
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Blessing of the Flags
byDuring the era of the American Revolution, French and Spanish regiments were comprised primarily of Roman Catholics who customarily have objects and implements blessed…
2
Undeceived: Who Would Write the Political Story of the Revolution?
byIn July 1783 John Jay, one of the Americans negotiating a treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, was sitting at…
March to Independence: The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, 1775–1776
byBOOK REVIEW: March to Independence: The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, 1775-1776 by Michael Cecere (Yardley, Pa.: Westholme Publishing for Journal of the American Revolution…
Jemima Howe: Two Competing Captivity Narratives
byJemima Howe (1724–1805), a pioneer woman of the early Vermont frontier wilderness, survived a 1755 abduction along with her seven children ranging from six…
Thaddeus Kosciuszko: “Patron Saint of West Point”
byIn Douglas S. Freeman’s biography of Robert E. Lee, he noted: Corps activities took a certain amount of Lee’s time that winter. Kosciuszko was…
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An Absent Clause: The Exclusion of Madison’s 16th Amendment
byA separation of powers is a defining structural feature of the federal government established by the United States Constitution, yet an explicit statement of…
2
The Brethren: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy In Revolutionary America
byBook Review: The Brethren: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy in Revolutionary America by Brendan McConville (Harvard University Press, 2021) Recent scholarship on the Revolution…
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The Frankford Advice: “Place Virginia at the Head of Everything”
bySince James Thomas Flexner’s 1974 Pulitzer recognition for his biography of George Washington, one of the axioms of the American founding is that the…
The Taking of the Shuldham, 1781
byThe fabulous news of the victory at Yorktown was announced in the small town of Stamford, Connecticut, on the coast of Long Island Sound…
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Christmas Day: A Soldier’s Holiday?
bySoldiers’ celebrations depended on circumstances, personal beliefs, and family or community traditions. David DeSimone notes in his article “Another Look at Christmas in the…
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A Demographic View of the North Carolina Continental Line, 1775–1783
byMany North Carolina soldiers served in both the North Carolina militia/state troops and one of the state’s Continental regiments. To complement my study of…
1
A Video Tour of Mount Vernon
byMount Vernon was George Washington’s lifetime project, from his inheritance of the property in the mid-1700s until his death in 1799. It was his prized…
The Management of Sequestered Estates in South Carolina, 1780–1782
byOn September 16, 1780, while at the Waxhaws on the northern border of South Carolina, Lt. Gen. Earl Cornwallis, the British General Officer commanding…
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The Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State for the Colonies, Second Year: November 1773 – August 1774
byDuring the three months that the Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State for the Colonies, was on holiday from August to November 1773, the…
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What Do Bond Prices Tell Us about the Early Republic?
byAmerica’s early finances were, in a word, messy. The states took on enormous debt to fund the Revolutionary War while the national government chartered…
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A Brief History of Benjamin Franklin’s Residences on Craven Street, London: 1757 – 1775
byIf one looked into Benjamin Franklin’s time on Craven Street, they might initially believe he lived at 36 Craven Street the entirety of his…
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How do you define “Founding Fathers”?
byHow do you define “Founding Fathers”? You can define it either broadly or narrowly. By consensus, most historians limit the narrow definition to six….
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Which side benefited the most from the Native Americans?
byWhich side do you think benefited the most from the Native American involvement in the war? Why? The British benefited the most, from one…
Hamilton: An American Musical
byReview of the Broadway musical Hamilton, now playing at the Richard Rodgers Theater on 46th Street in New York City. Let me confess at…
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9 Questions with Rick Atkinson
byLearning that one of the most acclaimed military writers of our time has turned his narrative expertise towards the American Revolution is exciting news…
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The American Vicars of Bray
byLoyalists, those Americans who openly supported the British Government during the American Revolution, have been largely assumed to have had unchanging allegiance during the…
America's Most Important History!
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The Constitutional Authority of the Continental Congress
byOn July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress declared America’s Independence from the British Empire. Approximately five years later, on March 1, 1781, Congress…
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North Carolina Colonel Joseph Williams in the Cherokee Campaign of 1776
by“We have every reason to believe,” proclaimed the North Carolina Council of Safety, that “the emissaries of [the British] government are making use of…
3
Cooch’s Bridge, Delaware’s Only Revolutionary War Battle
byOn December 5, 2018, the State of Delaware announced that it had acquired the historic property at Cooch’s Bridge, site of the only Revolutionary…
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Governor Jonathan Trumbull, Who Supplied Washington’s Suffering Army . . . and the French
byJonathan Trumbull, Senior is the most important governor in Connecticut’s long history. This is not only because of the many key contributions he made…