Print Media and Isaiah Thomas
by‘Tis to ye Press & Pen we Mortals owe All we believe & almost all we know: —George Fischer, The American Instructor: or, Young…
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Key to Victory: Foreign Assistance to America’s Revolutionary War
byHistorians have long appreciated that the colonies could not have won the American Revolutionary War against the most powerful nation in the world without…
This Week on Dispatches: Geoff Smock on the Teenage Thomas Jefferson
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews educator and JAR contributor Geoff Smock on his research into the teenage years of Thomas Jefferson,…
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Fake News of the Surrender of Quebec: A Video Contribution
byIn 1776, the Pennsylvania Evening Post printed a letter, allegedly from Paris, which reported that American commander Benedict Arnold had captured the last major British…
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Contributor Close-Up: Robert Davis
byWhat inspired you to start researching and writing about the Revolution? In 1974, Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia began a state internship program. I…
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Loyalist Slave-Owning Refugees in Postwar Jamaica
byThe two forces of paternalism and slavery shaped the lives of Loyalist slaveowners in the postwar British Empire. Historians rarely connect these forces in…
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Review: Valcour: The 1776 Campaign That Saved the Cause of Liberty
byValcour: The 1776 Campaign That Saved the Cause of Liberty by Jack Kelly (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2021) Scholarly focus on decisive military actions…
This Week on Dispatches: Richard J. Werther on King Gustav III of Sweden Recognizing the United States
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews researcher and JAR contributor Richard J. Werther on King Gustav III of Sweden’s recognition of an…
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Easy as Falling Off a Horse
byHorses have been used for transportation for thousands of years, but have caused countless injuries and deaths. There is a saying that the only…
Traders or Traitors? The New Jersey Shop License Law of 1780
byFollowing the campaign of 1776, New York City and environs were occupied by British forces. For the rest of the war, George Washington threatened,…
Five Women of British East Florida
byIn the male-dominated historical record of East Florida during the era of the American Revolution, a few women stand out as noteworthy. Most women…
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Review: Colonel Hamilton and Colonel Burr
byColonel Hamilton and Colonel Burr: The Revolutionary War Lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr by Arthur S. Lefkowitz (Stackpole Books, 2020) Students of…
This Week on Dispatches: John Rees on Remembrances of Black Revolutionary War Veterans
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews writer, researcher, historian, and JAR contributor John Rees on his series of articles about nineteenth-century remembrances…
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John Rutledge: Governor of South Carolina, 1779
byJohn Rutledge had been prominent in South Carolina politics virtually since establishing his Charleston law practice in 1761. He served in the General Assembly,…
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John Rutledge: President of South Carolina, 1776–1778
byJohn Rutledge was born into Charleston’s elite in 1739 and by April 1775 had established himself as a defender of English rights in the…
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John Rutledge: Delegate from South Carolina, 1765–1775
byJohn Rutledge is one of those members of the founding generation who often get overlooked. Yet, for every Jefferson, Adams, or Washington, there were…
Review: Valley Forge to Monmouth
byValley Forge to Monmouth: Six Transformational Months of the American Revolution by Jim Stempel (McFarland, 2021) Captivated by the short preface, it was evident this…
This Week on Dispatches: Todd Braisted on Benjamin Thompson’s Black Dragoons
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews researcher, writer, and JAR contributor Todd Braisted on loyalist Benjamin Thompson—later Count Mumford—and the provincial mounted regiment that…
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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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Virginia’s Independent Frontier Companies, Part 2 of 2
byThe Fifth Virginia Convention convened in Williamsburg in May 1776 with a weighty agenda before it. The 169-year-old colony declared its independence from Britain…
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Virginia’s Independent Frontier Companies, Part 1 of 2
byWhen the American Revolution began, the Virginia Colony faced not one military-territorial contest, but four. Its ousted Royal governor, Lord Dunmore, was in the…
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Nathanael Greene and the Challenge of Supplying the Southern Army
byA New England Quaker in his late thirties was not the ideal candidate for the job, according to the Continental Congress. Instead, Congress chose…
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Smells Like Teen Spirit: The Teenage Thomas Jefferson
byWithin the pantheon of Founding Fathers, only George Washington was more impenetrable than was Thomas Jefferson—then and now. The man who would come to…