“I often thought that the situation of a people in a bombarded city, was not much worse, and on some accounts not so bad; we had no respite night nor day.” Writing to a friend in his native Massachusetts, newspaper publisher John Fenno was trying to convey the effect of the 1793 yellow fever outbreak […]
The so called “whistleblower law” had a salty source. It did not emanate from the shrill sound of a boatswain’s pipe, but rather a Revolutionary War naval episode.[1] Its origin can be traced to the Continental Congress’s 1775 appointment of Esek Hopkins, formerly a merchantman and privateer, as commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy. As a […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews history teacher and JAR contributor Kevin A. Conn on his recent research on the Lenape and how their role in Pontiac’s Rebellion may have presaged the coming conflict between American colonists and Great Britain. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the […]
The Journal of the American Revolution, Annual 2020 is now available. Our sixth annual uniform volume is a jacketed hardback, with 356 pages, composed of thirty-seven articles, and retails for $35.00. Each annual volume presents a selection of the finest writing and research over the past year, weaving a common narrative thread that is impossible to […]
The Revolutionary War in the Carolinas after the fall of Charleston was a great arena of war with hundreds of small battlefields. Some were battles involving a few dozen men, Tory or Whig Americans fighting each other or Whigs fighting British regulars. Other engagements involved hundreds of men, with dozens of casualties. Today, most of […]
Tea in 18th Century America by Kimberly K. Walters. (K. Walters at the Sign of the Gray Horse, 2019) Best-selling author Lucinda Brant offers enthusiastic praise in her Foreword for Kimberly K. Walters’s Tea in 18th Century America, citing their shared interest in “all things 18th century.” Brant briefly describes the contents of the book and […]
During the American Revolution, many players were removed from the chess board of war as a result of capture. From individual soldiers and sailors to entire armies, captives fell into the hands of the enemy, the largest numbers usually after defeats. Negotiations to repatriate these men varied from fairly successful to complete failures. In fact, […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews attorney and JAR associate editor Katie Turner Getty on the use of smoke to fumigate refugees from Boston in 1775 in an attempt to stop the spread of the deadly virus, smallpox. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. […]
What most Americans know about the Revolutionary War they learned when they were in elementary or middle school. The curricular timing is fortunate in some ways, unfortunate in others. On the one hand, fifth or sixth graders are at the peak of their learning curve. They are delightfully curious, and they read and converse intelligently. […]
Journal of the Hessian Jäger Corps 1777-1779 by W. Steedman, translator, and Ian Saberton, translator and editor (Tolworth, Surrey, UK: Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd., 2018) The Disaffected: Britain’s Occupation of Philadelphia During the American Revolution by Aaron Sullivan (Philadelphia PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019) Recently this reviewer had the good fortune to tackle two books at once. […]
On Tuesday afternoon, September 16, 1777—five days after the Battle of Brandywine—George Washington and most of his 11,000-member Continental army stood atop the South Valley Hills in Chester County, Pennsylvania, ill-prepared to repel the approach of 14,000 British, Hessians and Loyalists composing Sir William Howe’s Crown Forces. Aside from skirmishing on the flanks, a fierce, […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews Museum of the American Revolution Associate Curator Matthew Skic on the development, installation, and writing the accompanying book for the recent exhibition, “Cost of Revolution, The Life and Death of an Irish Soldier.” Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American […]
Congratulations! You’ve been commissioned as an officer in the Continental Army, and General Washington has given you command of an important position near the front lines. You’ve assessed information gathered from patrols, deserters, prisoners, and local inhabitants, and you realize that something very important is about to happen. You must send a message to Washington […]
Revolutionary Brothers: Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Friendship That Helped Forge Two Nations by Tom Chaffin (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2019) There are countless streets, monuments, and other features in the United States named for the Marquis de Lafayette. However, despite this prevalence of tributes, Tom Chaffin asserts that most Americans know […]
When dealing with available sources to investigate questions related to historical events, the researcher has at his disposal a limited set from which to choose. Contemporaneous accounts, reports, maps, plats, legal filings, and location evidence exist in a more or less complete record. Nevertheless, linking the elements bearing witness to one event or another is […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews architect and JAR contributor Douglas R. Dorney, Jr., on his research about Capt. John La Boularderie De Treville, a South Carolina Continental artillery officer and British spy, and his surprising decision after the British surrender. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of […]
Typically, countries at war do not detain enemy prisoners in the backyards of their citizens. During the Revolutionary War Britain’s soon-to-be independent North American colonies proved an exception to this rule. For the fledgling nation, the action was a matter of necessity, one which forced host towns across the colonies to confront the fight for […]
East Florida only had one newspaper in the colony’s entire history. The newspaper went live during the final year of the American War for Independence. The East Florida Gazette, sometimes referred to as the East Florida Gazette Extraordinary, was founded in 1783 by Dr. William Charles Wells. Dr. Wells migrated to St. Augustine, the capital […]
Despite the rescission of the Stamp Act in 1766, many imperial controversies persisted in New York City. Leading among them were: The annual demands of the royal governor for funds to support the troops quartered in the town;[1] The continuing post-(French and Indian) war recession; The Townshend taxes of 1767, which of course distressed all the […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author and JAR contributor John Rees on the enlightening history of African American soldiers in the American Revolution, based on his book “They Were Good Soldiers:” African Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775–1783. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the […]
Queens County of Long Island, New York, had an overwhelming Loyalist population throughout the Revolutionary War period. After the war many Loyalists remained on the island and assimilated into the local population. It is estimated that a large majority of Long Islanders who were loyal and stayed in the United States after the war lost […]
Mary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington’s Mother by Craig Shirley (Harper, 2019) Rare indeed is the historian of early American history who is unfamiliar with George Washington. Lesser known, however, is the story of Mary Ball Washington, his mother. In Craig Shirley’s book, Mary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington’s Mother, Shirley […]
Col. Josiah Parker of Virginia was at a loss at what to do. He had just arrived outside the British outpost at Great Bridge in early March 1781 with 300 Virginia militia hoping to take the enemy garrison of 120 men, but upon an inspection of the works he determined that an assault would be […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author and JAR contributor Tom Shachtman on how wealthy Americans paid for and profited from the American Revolution, chronicled in his latest book, Founding Fortunes. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is a free podcast that puts […]
For a brief seven weeks, the Pennsylvania frontier village of Easton became the second largest community within the state. With an estimated 25,000 inhabitants, Philadelphia was the largest city in Pennsylvania (and North America); under normal circumstances, Lancaster was second with between 3,000-3,500 inhabitants followed by York with under 2,000.[1] In 1752 it was estimated that […]
A Redcoat in America: The Diaries of Lieutenant William Bamford, 1757-1765 and 1776 edited by John B. Hattendorf (Helion & Company, 2019) Writings of participants in the American Revolution are always welcome when they become widely available. John B. Hattendorf’s new contribution to this literature is especially interesting because it offers one individual’s perspectives on […]
In the early hours of October 4, 1777, the Maryland militia trudged southward along the Old York Road in eastern Pennsylvania. In the distance off to their right, the rumble of cannon fire punctuated just how behind schedule they were. The battle in which the militiamen were to participate had begun, yet they were still […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews teacher, author, and long-time JAR contributor Michael Cecere on Virginia’s “eighteen-months men,” militia who were drafted into the Continental Army in order to fill a shortfall in soldiers during a pivotal point in the war. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the […]
It is often a tradition among soldiers and sailors to give monikers to their commanders. American military history resounds with names like Gen.Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Gen.Lewis “Chesty” Puller, Gen. Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson, and so on. One such sobriquet, “Mad Anthony” for Gen. Anthony Wayne, has stuck on and off in the American consciousness for […]
The efforts of the American Provincial Congress at the beginning of the revolutionary war against Great Britain offer the perfect case study to understand how best to utilize information against an enemy during conflict. After the initial skirmishes at Lexington and Concord in April of 1775, the Provincial Congress sought to influence Great Britain’s political […]
Norman Desmarais, professor emeritus at Providence College, is one of America’s most important scholars of French involvement in the American Revolution. Desmarais has long researched and written extensively on the topic. His translation of the Gazette Françoise, the French-language newspaper published in Rhode Island by the French fleet that brought Rochambeau and his troops to […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author and expert on terrorism Jeffrey Simon on the Sons of Liberty and the use of propaganda and terrorism in the run-up to the American Revolution. Simon reassesses the role of the Sons of Liberty in light of modern research on political change. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles […]
The Journal of the American Revolution is pleased to announce Quarters: The Accommodation of the British Army and the Coming of the American Revolution by John Gilbert McCurdy as winner of the 2019 Journal of the American Revolution Book of the Year Award (Cornell University Press). The Honorable Mention is awarded to The Will of […]
On February 6, 1778, France signed two treaties with the United States, one of Amity and Commerce, the other, a defensive Alliance.[1] In them, France recognized the absolute sovereignty and independence of the United States. On March 10, the Foreign Minister of France, the comte de Vergennes, sent a dispatch that included a copy of the […]
What inspired you to start researching and writing about the Revolution? It was perhaps inevitable that I would end up studying the Revolution as I grew up in the Boston area and my dad started taking me to visit places like Lexington Green, Old North Bridge, and the Freedom Trail when I was three years […]
John Morgan and William Shippen, Jr. stood shoulder to shoulder in the crowd outside of old Westminster Hall on September 22, 1761. They were awaiting the appearance of the empire’s new king, George III, and queen, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz—their new king and queen. The two men were a few of the vast throng the likes […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews Dean Caivano, Lecturer of Political Science at California State University, Stanislaus, on the growing resistance to tyranny as colonists reacted to the prospects of their lives being reduced to a state of political and economic domination by Parliament and the Crown. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published […]
In the fall of 1771, the South Carolina rice merchant Henry Laurens sailed to Britain with his teenaged sons. They toured the countryside and settled in London, where Laurens conducted business and oversaw the loading of ships to America. He also wanted to give his sons an education, placing them with men who would help […]
In the wake of the Seven Years’ War in North America, the costly British triumph seemed complete. Thus, when a coda to the Seven Years’ War erupted in the interior of North America, it came as an unwelcome shock to the British Empire. War broke out anew, nominally led by the Ottawa chieftain Pontiac, who […]
