March 2022 - Journal of the American Revolution

Critical Thinking Posted on March 31, 2022

The Use of the Declaration of Independence as a Military Recruitment Tool

The Declaration of Independence, viewed by thousands each year, is one of the most revered documents in American history. Housed in a hermetically sealed glass enclosed frame located in the National Archives, it contains principles “both universal and eternal,” that are said to form the bedrock for American democracy. The first celebration of its importance took […]

by Marvin L. Simner

Frontier Posted on March 29, 2022March 31, 2022

Under the Banner of War: Frontier Militia and Uncontrolled Violence

In 1777, the third year of the American War for Independence, little had gone in the favor of the Patriots especially in the borderlands. They controlled Fort Pitt and several other outposts, but they were far from the main fighting; the region was considered a backwater theater. British governor of Detroit Henry Hamilton issued a […]

by Timothy C. Hemmis

Books and Publications Posted on March 28, 2022April 11, 2022

These Distinguished Corps: British Grenadier and Light Infantry Battalions in the American Revolution

BOOK REVIEW: These Distinguished Corps: British Grenadier and Light Infantry Battalions in the American Revolution by Don N. Hagist. (Warwick, England: Helion & Company, Limited, 2021) Don N. Hagist, author of British Soldiers, American War: Voices of the American Revolution (2012) and Noble Volunteers: The British Soldiers Who Fought the American Revolution (2020), has given Revolutionary War […]

by Timothy Symington

Strategy Posted on March 24, 2022March 23, 2022

Hearty in the Cause: Defending Delaware Bay, Spring 1776

On June 30, 1775, the Pennsylvania General Assembly recognized the direct threat Philadelphia faced should the Royal Navy take control of the Delaware and acted to further strengthen their defenses with the creation of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety. By September this new committee implemented preliminary resolutions to inhibit the Royal Navy’s ability to reach […]

by Andrew Lyter

Arts & Literature Posted on March 23, 2022March 23, 2022

War at Saber Point by JAR Contributor John Knight Honored

The Fraunces Tavern Museum announced on March 22 that War at Saber Point: Banastre Tarleton and the British Legion by John Knight (Westholme Publishing) will be awarded the 2022 Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award Honorable Mention on April 25 at an awards banquet. The 2022 award was given to The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution […]

by Editors

Autobiography and Biography Posted on March 22, 2022March 21, 2022

John Greenwood: Adroit Multi-talented Patriot

This historical chronical is about an unusual multifaceted patriot: a musician, soldier, privateer, author, and dentist. On May 17, 1760, John Greenwood was born to Boston ivory artisan Isaac and Mary Greenwood. Before the lad turned thirteen years old, John was a witness to the so called “Boston Massacre” that killed eighteen-year-old Samuel Maverick, his […]

by Louis Arthur Norton

Arts & Literature Posted on March 21, 2022

This Week on Dispatches: Mark R. Anderson on the Fate of King George III’s Bust in Montreal

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews independent historian and JAR contributor Mark R. Anderson on the fate of King George III’s bust in Montreal in light of the more famous incident with the statue of the king in New York City at the start of the American Revolution. New episodes of Dispatches are […]

by Editors

Critical Thinking Posted on March 17, 2022March 14, 2022

A Great Englishman? British Views of George Washington, from Revolution to Rapprochement

In June 1921, George Washington, the victor of Yorktown, arrived in London. His journey across the storm-tossed Atlantic had not been without difficulty, and when he landed on British shores there were some concerns over his condition. But after a careful check and a clean bill of health he was able to proceed to the […]

by Sam Edwards

Culture Posted on March 16, 2022March 16, 2022

Benjamin Franklin’s East Florida Warning

On July 25, 1768, Benjamin Franklin set his friend, Charles-Guillaume-Frédéric Dumas, straight. Dumas, a man of letters who would later serve as an American diplomat in Europe, was interested in settling British East Florida. Franklin informed Dumas that his home in Philadelphia “being near 1000 Miles from Florida”[1] prevented his intimate acquaintance with that region. […]

by George Kotlik

Autobiography and Biography Posted on March 15, 2022March 14, 2022

The Last Royal Governors of the American Colonies

The last level of British authority at the colony level was the colonial governors. They came in various forms, military and civil, appointed and proprietary, and occasionally elected by the colonists. As British authority started to break down, the colonial governors were some of the most prominent people to be chased from their respective colonies. […]

by Richard J. Werther

Books and Publications Posted on March 14, 2022

A Bolingbrokean Argument Hidden in Hamilton’s Federalist 71

Alexander Hamilton penned most of the famous series of essays called the Federalist Papers. In Federalist 71, published in March 1788, he wrote this notable paragraph: It is a just observation, that the people commonly INTEND the PUBLIC GOOD. This often applies to their very errors. But their good sense would despise the adulator who […]

by Haimo Li

Diplomacy Posted on March 14, 2022March 21, 2022

This Week on Dispatches: Joseph Solis-Mullen on the First Partition of Poland on the Eve of the American Revolution

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Joseph Solis-Mullen on how the agreement between Austria, Russia, and Prussia to divide Poland in 1772 allowed France to confront Britain in the Americas without fear of a continental war. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) […]

by Editors

Battles Posted on March 10, 2022March 9, 2022

Did George Washington Swear at Charles Lee During the Battle of Monmouth?

The scene is one of the most famous in the annals of the American Revolutionary War. The commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, Gen. George Washington, confronts his second-in-command, Charles Lee, in the midst of a retreat by Continental Army forces during the Battle of Monmouth Court House on June 28, 1778. Washington arrives at the […]

by Christian McBurney

Critical Thinking Posted on March 9, 2022March 8, 2022

Women of the Revolutionary Era Who Should be better known—A Contributor Question

We regularly ask our contributors questions about the American Revolution and founding era. This month we’ve asked them to tell us about a woman associated with the 1765-1805 era who does not have a Wikipedia entry, but who should. Steven Park Hannah Thomas (1730-1819) was the first woman lighthouse keeper in what was about to […]

by Editors

Autobiography and Biography Posted on March 8, 2022March 7, 2022

Jonathan Trumbull: the Sixteenth “Pope” of Connecticut

In 1817, as popular sentiment finally forced Connecticut to adopt a new constitution separating church and state, Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams: “I join you therefore in sincere congratulations that this den of the priesthood [Connecticut] is at length broken up, and that a Protestant popedom is no longer to disgrace the American history […]

by Scott M. Smith

Interviews Posted on March 7, 2022

This Week on Dispatches: Kenneth E. Lawson on George Whitefield’s Influence on Chaplains in the American Revolution

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews retired US Army chaplain and JAR contributor Kenneth E. Lawson on the influence of Rev. George Whitefield’s teachings on colonial ministers, including those who became chaplains in the Continental Army. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, […]

by Editors

Arts & Literature Posted on March 3, 2022March 9, 2022

King George III’s Montreal Bust in a Pattern of Iconoclasm

Throughout history, changes in political order have often been accompanied by the destruction of the old regime’s images and monuments. The July 9, 1776 destruction of King George III’s New York City statue is the most famous and persistent image of such iconoclasm in the American Revolution. In that particular event, after a public reading of […]

by Mark R. Anderson

Arts & Literature Posted on March 2, 2022March 1, 2022

Will the Real Caelia Shortface Please Stand Up

Silence Dogood, Anthony Afterwit, Fanny Mournful, Caelia Shortface. Dickens’ characters? No. They’re just a few of the many evocative pen names Benjamin Franklin used to wittily present a controversial or libelous issue or two sides of an argument while remaining anonymous. As a sixteen-year-old apprentice at his brother’s paper, the New England Courant, Franklin was privy […]

by Edna Gabler

Diplomacy Posted on March 1, 2022February 27, 2022

From the First Partition of Poland to Yorktown

It is generally taken for granted that France was ready to jump into the war between Britain and the rebelling North American colonies on the side of the colonies as soon as the colonists showed themselves capable of giving the British a serious fight. After all, Britain had been a frequent antagonist to France, had […]

by Joseph Solis-Mullen

Month: March 2022