Year: 2018

Reviews Posted on

The Hessians: Journal of the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association

In recent decades, scholarship on the American Revolution has grown to include those largely excluded from the main narrative. Women, Native Americans, those of African descent (enslaved and otherwise), and especially loyalists have all been the subject of the some of the best and most recent studies. For example, Kathleen duVal’s Independence Lost: Lives on […]

by Alec D. Rogers
Politics Posted on

JOIN, OR DIE: Political and Religious Controversy Over Franklin’s Snake Cartoon

On May 9, 1751, Benjamin Franklin published a satirical article in the Pennsylvania Gazette commenting on British laws that allowed convicted felons to be shipped to the American colonies. As an equal trade, Franklin wryly suggested that the colonists should send rattlesnakes to Great Britain and carefully distribute them among “Places of Pleasure.”[1] Although these […]

by Daniel P. Stone