Month: July 2025

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The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

The Monmouth Campaign by the Numbers

A British cannonball decapitated James McNair, a Continental artillerist, at the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778. Thomas Bliss, another American cannoneer, was captured that day. Col. John Durkee, commanding Varnum’s brigade, escaped death that Sunday but his right hand was permanently disabled from a wound received in the morning. Col. Henry Livingston, commanding […]

by Gary Ecelbarger
Education Posted on

Teaching About the Black Experience through Chains and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing

Introduction It is estimated that over 25,000 Blacks served in the American Revolutionary War. Of these, 20,000, many who had escaped enslavement, served on the British side, largely due to Dunmore’s Proclamation that promised emancipation for “Negroes” who “joined his Majesty’s troops.”[1] An estimated 5,000 to 8,000 served on the American side, some as fighters, […]

by Linda J. Rice
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Autobiography and Biography Posted on

Joseph Warren, Sally Edwards, and Mercy Scollay: What is the True Story?

Joseph Warren was the embodiment of the American colonists’ struggle to secure their rights. In 1775 he was a widowed father of four young children and an esteemed Boston physician. He served as chairman of the Committee of Safety and president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. He authored the Suffolk Resolves, which was unanimously endorsed […]

by Janet Uhlar
Interviews Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: David Price on Abolitionist Lemuel Haynes

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author and JAR Contributor David Price on the life of Lemuel Haynes, clergyman and an abolitionist voice in the Revolutionary Era. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Sunday evening(Eastern United States Time), first on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. […]

by Editors
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The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

The 1779 Invasion of Iroquoia: Scorched Earth as Described by Continental Soldiers

Six indigenous nations in upstate New York—the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora—were joined in an alliance for mutual protection. Known as the Haudenosaunee, which means people of the longhouse, or the misnomer Iroquois, at the beginning of the American Revolution they assured the upstart patriots that they would adopt a neutral stance and […]

by Victor J. DiSanto
Politics During the War (1775-1783) Posted on

That Audacious Paper: Jonathan Lind and Thomas Hutchinson Answer the Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is commonly revered in modern America as the aspirational apotheosis of political and social egalitarianism, although in 1776, among English Tories and American Loyalists, it held no such distinction. Indeed, in 1776, by both Tories and Loyalists, the Declaration was considered vacuous political propaganda and was typically treated with scorn, derision, […]

by David Otersen