What a month! Fresh off one of our busiest months ever, Journal of the American Revolution welcomed nine new writers: Ian Saberton, Dennis Ness, Philip D. Weaver, Roger Smith, Phillip R. Giffin, Kelly Mielke, Charles H. Lagerbom, C. L. Bragg and Zachary Brown. We also began work on our 2017 hardcover edition—stay tuned for details next month. And last call […]
The Fourth Amendment The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to […]
A re-evaluation from a British perspective in the light of The Cornwallis Papers It was in 1975, when I was researching the American Revolution, that I came upon the Cornwallis papers in the UK National Archives. I was much surprised that, despite the passage of almost 200 years and the vast extent of literature on the […]
“Pennies make dollars” is a phrase that has been around a long time and we all know what it means. But, how many pennies does it take to make a dollar? Silly question you may say—it’s one-hundred, of course. That’s the right answer for today’s America, but that would not necessarily be the right answer […]
By the end of the war, James McKay had earned quite a reputation for severity against the Loyalists. So much so that, even in Georgia, site of the most vicious private fighting, McKay was sanctioned for brutality. Even with the sanction, many of the people defended his actions as appropriate while others agreed the vengeful […]
Mr. Duncan McDougall, a merchant from German Flats area of New York’s Mohawk Valley, joined Capt. Joseph Bloomfield’s company of the 3rd New Jersey Regiment on June 27, 1776, as a volunteer (with the pseudo rank of “cadet”).[1] This was well into the campaign year, so he was walking into an already functioning unit. McDougall […]
Prior to the end of 1776, there was no militia or minuteman company established in Colonial Pennsylvania. The Provincial government was ruled by the Quakers under the William Penn family in Pennsylvania, since its land grant in the 1600’s. [1] The Quaker religion, being pacifist, would not allow a person to bear arms or provide […]
One of the most enjoyable aspects of researching the history of the American Revolution is the process of looking beneath and/or beyond those events and factoids that survive simply because they are a “given.” “Givens” are the greatest indicators of opportunities to search for missing pieces to any historical puzzle and new questions are the […]
Young Samuel Webb was a legend in his time, a hero of the American Revolution.[1] Some said he was “raised with three silver spoons” engraved with the initials of his three prominent Connecticut families (Webb, Deane, and Saltonstall). Others said he was a good friend, an active, gregarious, and literate young man who wrote engaging […]
The Stamp Act of 1765 is closely associated with Lord George Grenville, First Lord of the Treasury and the Prime Minister of England. However, there were other members of the British Government who played a roll in the direct construction and enactment of the Act. Some of them were Charles Jenkinson, Senior Secretary of the […]
Book review: “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs:” Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of Imagination by Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2016). [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] Since the death of one of the Revolution’s foremost patriots and author of the Declaration of Independence, Americans have grappled with Thomas Jefferson’s legacy. Undoubtedly one […]
The last, dying words of many of history’s renowned figures were often inconsistently recorded. Those identified below from people who were famous during the Revolutionary War time period certainly demonstrate that fact. While some can be relied upon for accuracy, the literature reveals that for others various additions and omissions took place over time, and […]
In early morning fog on April 15, 1775, just days before the momentous clash at Lexington and Concord, two innocent-looking vessels appeared off Cape Jellison in Penobscot Bay a few hundred yards from Fort Pownal (present-day Stockton Springs, Maine). The fort’s gunner, Jonathan Lowder, looked out upon the waters and saw two schooners. They turned out […]
On May 10, 1769 Parliament had voted to repeal all of the Townshend Acts except one – the tax on Tea. It was another four years before this law became a catalyst for open rebellion. Why was this Act left in place when the others were repealed? In the 1760s, the United Company of Merchants […]
Book review: Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle, by Mark Edward Lender and Garry Wheeler Stone (University of Oklahoma Press, 2016). [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] The Battle of Monmouth, fought in New Jersey on June 28, 1778, between the American and British armies, has been the subject of several books, all […]
John Paul Jones tends to overshadow the study of the American Revolution at sea. While his accolades are well deserved, Jones earned many of them with John Peck Rathbun at his side. An American-born merchant captain who joined the Continental Navy at its beginning, Rathbun’s exploits are as daring as Jones’s, but less well known. […]
“What say you now, Sir Peter Parker!”[1] The high and mighty will sometimes do seemingly odd things in order to make a point. Like, for instance, having oneself rowed into a channel in front of Fort Moultrie to see if the water’s depth was sufficient to accommodate an attacking ship. The date was May 27, […]
Scalping, the removal of the scalp from the head often for use as a trophy, is usually regarded as a uniquely sanguineous Indian practice confined to America’s distant colonial past. However, little remembered today is the important role the practice played during the Revolutionary War. While traditionally seen by colonials as a symbol of Indian […]
