Month: May 2019

 Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Harlow Giles Unger on Robert Morris and the American Revolution

In this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews distinguished journalist and historian Harlow Giles Unger about Robert Morris and his critical role in financially supporting the American cause; in addition, Morris developed strategies and techniques of trade and investment at the core of capitalism that are still used today. As your host Brady Crytzer says, “Sit back, […]

by Editors
Constitutional Debate Posted on

The Annapolis Convention of 1786: A Call for a Stronger National Government

Speaking at South Carolina’s ratification convention in 1788, Charles Pinckney derided the Articles of Confederation as a “miserable, feeble mockery of government.” Pinckney was a young but significant figure at the Constitutional Convention along with his cousin Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. While coastal South Carolinians, rooted in Charleston, were likely to prevail in support of the […]

by Jason Yonce
2
Conflict & War Posted on

Operations of the Queen’s Rangers: Foraging in New Jersey, February–March 1778

“Of the forty or more battalions of Loyalists, which enlisted in the service of the Crown during the Revolutionary war, none has been so widely celebrated as the Queen’s Rangers.”—James Hannay.[1] The Queen’s Rangers, named in honor of King George III’s wife Queen Charlotte, were mustered into service in August 1776 on Staten Island. It […]

by Joseph E. Wroblewski
1
Critical Thinking Posted on

Grappling with Imperium in Imperio: Indivisible Sovereignty in Joseph Galloway’s British Empire

Although by 1775 hostilities between Great Britain and the American colonies had commenced, there were still those within the colonies who believed that the relationship between the two parties could be restored. Joseph Galloway’s 1775 pamphlet A Candid Examination of the Mutual Claims of Great Britain, and the Colonies: With a Plan of Accommodation on […]

by Tristan J. New
1
Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Geoff Smock on Alexander Hamilton’s Childhood in the Caribbean

In this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor and Seattle-area middle school history teacher Geoff Smock about how Alexander Hamilton’s difficult childhood experiences in the Caribbean helped shape his future political ideology. As your host Brady Crytzer says, “Sit back, relax, and enjoy the interview. . . .” New episodes of Dispatches are available […]

by Editors
5
Features Posted on

The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775–1777

The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775–1777 by Rick Atkinson (Henry Holt and Co., 2019) New books on the American Revolution often focus on anything other than the military campaigns from 1775 to 1781. Journal of the American Revolution award winners, for instance, have featured the roles of individuals, Native Americans, and […]

by Alec D. Rogers
Letters and Correspondence Posted on

Catharine Macaulay, England’s First Female Whig Historian: the War Begins, 1775

By the end of 1774, Catharine Macaulay had met Benjamin Rush, Arthur Lee, Richard Marchant, and Benjamin Franklin, and had corresponded with John Dickinson, James Otis, Jr., John Adams, William Livingston, Richard Henry Lee, Abigail Adams, Ezra Stiles, Mercy Otis Warren, and Samuel Adams. The number of Americans that Macaulay had met was about to change. […]

by Bob Ruppert
4
Letters and Correspondence Posted on

Eyewitness to the British Retreat from Lexington: The Timothy Pickering Letter

A newly appointed colonel in the Essex County militia, Timothy Pickering led some 700 men of the Salem and Essex militia toward Boston, Massachusetts, to intercept the British as they retreated from Lexington on April 19, 1775. Pickering had his chance late that day to attack the British troops near Medford, Massachusetts, but, with the […]

by Samuel K. Fore
4
Features Posted on

Southern Gambit: Cornwallis and the British March to Yorktown

Southern Gambit: Cornwallis and the British March to Yorktown by Stanley D.M. Carpenter (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019) In his recent book, Stanley Carpenter produced a thoughtful analysis of the British southern strategy during the American Revolution. A professor at the Naval War College, he evaluates enduring concepts and elements of warfare framed in contemporary language […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
1
Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Todd Braisted on Discovering Barnard E. Griffiths, Queen’s Ranger, Emancipated Slave

Dispatches can now be easily accessed on the JAR main menu. Host Brady Crytzer discusses historian Todd Braisted’s remarkable discovery of a slave who was emancipated by John Graves Simcoe, commander of the Loyalist regiment, Queen’s Rangers, who went on to distinguish himself in battle, and ended up as a free man with a pension […]

by Editors