Year: 2021

 Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Andrew Zellers-Frederick on the Impeachment of Senator William Blount, the First in American History

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and JAR contributor Andrew Zellers-Frederick on the impeachment of Senator William Blount of Tennessee, the first conducted in American history, and a crucial episode in establishing the legal strength of the United States government over elected officials. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every […]

by Editors
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This Week on Dispatches: Brooke Barbier on Paul Revere’s Boston

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews writer and podcast host Brooke Barbier about historic sites in Boston that were familiar to Paul Revere. Join Brady and Brooke for a fascinating tour of what remains of colonial Boston. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, […]

by Editors
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Nineteenth-Century Remembrances of Black Revolutionary Veterans: New Jersey Soldier Oliver Cromwell

Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in 1849. She became a major conductor on the Underground Railroad, as well as an advocate for Women’s Rights. A year later the Compromise of 1850 included a controversial Fugitive Slave Law that compelled all citizens to help in the recovery of fugitive slaves. Free Blacks formed more Vigilance Committees […]

by John Rees
2
People Posted on

Incredible Insults and Hardships: The Hostage Experience of Ebenezer Sullivan

When twenty-three-year-old Capt. Ebenezer Sullivan nobly volunteered himself as a prisoner-exchange hostage in the last weeks of the Canadian invasion, he had no way to foresee the devastating trials and tribulations that he would face as a result of his courageous decision. At the time, he was one of almost five hundred Continentals captured by […]

by Mark R. Anderson
Espionage and Cryptography Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: William W. Reynolds on the British Naval Signals Missions of 1781

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews retired engineer and JAR contributor William W. Reynolds on how the Americans were able to obtain the British Naval Signals and pass them to French admiral de Grasse during the Yorktown campaign in 1781. Knowing an enemy’s signals could change the outcome of a battle. New episodes of […]

by Editors
Features Posted on

The Impeachment of Senator William Blount—the First in American History

It is easy to suggest that William Blount made no significant contribution to the development of the United States. His achievements, although not negligible, were only on par at best, and far less than many of his more famous contemporaries. Blount served in the North Carolina militia during the American Revolution, but with little acclaim […]

by Andrew A. Zellers-Frederick
Frontier Posted on

Review: Anatomy of a Massacre

Anatomy of a Massacre: The Destruction of Gnadenhutten, 1782 by Eric Sterner (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2020) Eric Sterner’s Anatomy of a Massacre: The Destruction of Gnadenhutten, 1782, offers readers a deeply insightful illustration of one of eighteenth-century America’s most tragic incidents of frontier violence. Concisely written and incredibly rich in primary research, this work supplies […]

by Megan King
Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Louis Arthur Norton on the Plight of the Seamen

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and JAR contributor Louis Arthur Norton on what happened to captured Continental Navy, states’ navies, and privateer sailors and officers when captured by the British. Most were interred onboard prison hulks where many perished, but others attempted to escape. New episodes of Dispatches are available for […]

by Editors
Features Posted on

Nineteenth-Century Remembrances of Black Revolutionary Veterans: Jacob Francis, Massachusetts Continental and New Jersey Militia

Philadelphia Blacks, under the leadership of well-to-do Robert Purvis, organized the Vigilance Committee to aid and assist fugitive slaves in 1837. Purvis’s wife, Harriett Forten Purvis, the daughter of successful Black businessman James Forten, led the Female Vigilant Society. Robert Purvis was referred to by some as the “President of the Underground Railroad.” Also that […]

by John Rees
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Nineteenth-Century Remembrances of Black Revolutionary Veterans: Edward Hector, Bombardier and Wagoner

Nat Turner launched a bloody uprising among enslaved Virginians in Southampton County in 1831 the same year that William Lloyd Garrison of Boston began publishing The Liberator, the most famous anti-slavery newspaper. In 1833, the American Antislavery Society, led by Garrison, was organized in Philadelphia. For the next three decades, the Society campaigned that slavery […]

by John Rees
Autobiography and Biography Posted on

Review: First and Always: A New Portrait of George Washington

First and Always: A New Portrait of George Washington by Peter R. Henriques (University of Virginia Press, 2020). With so many books already written about the Founding Fathers, some believe there is nothing new to be learned about those men. George Mason professor emeritus and George Washington scholar Peter Henriques shows us in First and […]

by Benjamin Huggins
Critical Thinking Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Serena Zabin on The Boston Massacre: A Family History

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian, author, and JAR Book-of-the-Year Award winner, Serena Zabin on her book, The Boston Massacre: A Family History. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now be easily accessed […]

by Editors
1
Features Posted on

Nineteenth-Century Remembrances of Black Revolutionary Veterans: Thomas Carney, Maryland Continental Soldier

John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish establish the first African American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, in New York in 1827. The paper circulated in eleven states, the District of Columbia, Haiti, Europe, and Canada. The same year, Sarah Mapps Douglass, a Black educator and contributor to The Anglo African, an early Black paper, established a school for […]

by John Rees
1
Arts & Literature Posted on

Review: Past and Prologue: Politics and Memory in the American Revolution

Past and Prologue: Politics and Memory in the American Revolution by Michael D. Hattem (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2021) In his new book, Past and Prologue: Politics and Memory in the American Revolution, Michael Hattem provocatively attempts to answer an age-old vexing question for the American Revolutionary Era. In the first half of […]

by Gene Procknow
Arts & Literature Posted on

The 2020 JAR Book-of-the-Year

The Journal of the American Revolution is pleased to announce The Boston Massacre: A Family History by Serena Zabin (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) as winner of the 2020 Journal of the American Revolution Book-of-the-Year Award. Honorable Mention is awarded to A Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution by David […]

by Editors
2
Constitutional Debate Posted on

Partly National, Partly Federal: James Madison, the Amphictyonic Confederacy, and the Republican Balance

Following the Constitutional Convention’s completion of the United States Constitution in the Fall of 1787, many of those involved in its creation embarked on a campaign to ensure its ratification among the several states. The most significant effort was the publication of the Federalist in New York, published anonymously in a long series of newspaper articles […]

by James A. Cornelius