*** All JAR Articles ***

 Features Posted on

Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders

BOOK REVIEW:  Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders by Dennis C. Rasmussen (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021) I feel dutybound to confess something, before I tempt the reader further into this review of Dennis C. Rasmussen’s Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders. I am somewhat embittered—envious even. […]

by Geoff Smock
1
Features Posted on

The 2021 JAR Book Award Winner

The Journal of the American Revolution is pleased to announce The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton by Andrew Porwancher as winner of the 2021 Journal of the American Revolution Book-of-the-Year Award. Honorable Mention is awarded to Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic by Brad A. Jones. The award—an international award dedicated to nonfiction books specifically […]

by Editors
2
Law Posted on

The Resignation Revolution

The threat of resigning one’s military commission under protest is almost a matter of tradition. If your leaders made a decision you did not think was in the best interest of either yourself or your comrades, you offered up your resignation. It was a matter of honor. Should your resignation be received, you found yourself […]

by Stuart Hatfield
Diaries and Journals Posted on

Washington at the Plow: The Founding Father and the Question of Slavery

BOOK REVIEW: Washington at the Plow: The Founding Father and the Question of Slavery by Bruce A. Ragsdale (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2021) In Washington at the Plow: The Founding Father and the Question of Slavery, Bruce Ragsdale provides an in-depth examination of George Washington’s passion for agriculture and the way it changed his […]

by Kelly Mielke
2
Battles Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Kim Burdick on Cooch’s Bridge, Delaware’s Only Revolutionary War Battle

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews public historian and JAR contributor Kim Burdick on Cooch’s Bridge, an early action in the Philadelphia campaign and the only Revolutionary War battle to be fought in the state of Delaware. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, […]

by Editors
Autobiography and Biography Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Scott M. Smith on Robert Rogers and the American Revolution

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Scott M. Smith on Robert Rogers, a legend for his service during the Seven Years’ War, but during the American Revolution his role was far less glamorous. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, […]

by Editors
2
Culture Posted on

Blessing of the Flags

During the era of the American Revolution, French and Spanish regiments were comprised primarily of Roman Catholics who customarily have objects and implements blessed before their use to invoke God’s blessing, favor and protection on them. Small objects, like medals, are blessed with a simple prayer. Larger, more important objects and occasions are blessed in […]

by Norman Desmarais
Battles Posted on

March to Independence: The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, 1775–1776

BOOK REVIEW: March to Independence: The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, 1775-1776 by Michael Cecere (Yardley, Pa.: Westholme Publishing for Journal of the American Revolution Books, 2021) Historian Michael Cecere has written an overview of the coming of the Revolutionary War in the South, from the months immediately leading up to the outbreak of fighting to […]

by John R. Maass
7
Constitutional Debate Posted on

An Absent Clause: The Exclusion of Madison’s 16th Amendment

A separation of powers is a defining structural feature of the federal government established by the United States Constitution, yet an explicit statement of the concept exists nowhere in the document. If James Madison had had his way there indeed would have been a clause pronouncing the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches to be distinct […]

by Phoenix Dalto
3
Religion Posted on

The Brethren: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy In Revolutionary America

Book Review: The Brethren: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy in Revolutionary America by Brendan McConville (Harvard University Press, 2021) Recent scholarship on the Revolution has expanded the perspectives from which the conflict is viewed, but as Brendan McConville observes, the white yeoman population has been overlooked. In The Brethren: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy […]

by Kelly Mielke
5
Critical Thinking Posted on

The Frankford Advice: “Place Virginia at the Head of Everything”

Since James Thomas Flexner’s 1974 Pulitzer recognition for his biography of George Washington, one of the axioms of the American founding is that the general, George Washington, was the “indispensable man.”[1] The selection, therefore, of Washington as the commander of the Continental Army was undoubtedly among the most critical decisions in the history of the […]

by Richard Gardiner
Loyalists Posted on

The Taking of the Shuldham, 1781

The fabulous news of the victory at Yorktown was announced in the small town of Stamford, Connecticut, on the coast of Long Island Sound on October 27, 1781. Surely steeple bells clamored and there were prayers of thanksgiving at the Congregational meetinghouses. Soldiers stationed in Stamford were marched to a small hill half a mile […]

by Selden West
5
Diaries and Journals Posted on

Christmas Day: A Soldier’s Holiday?

Soldiers’ celebrations depended on circumstances, personal beliefs, and family or community traditions. David DeSimone notes in his article “Another Look at Christmas in the Eighteenth Century”: [From the seventeenth century the] celebration of Christmas was outlawed in most of New England. Calvinist Puritans and Protestants abhorred the entire celebration and likened it to pagan rituals […]

by John Rees
4
Critical Thinking Posted on

A Demographic View of the North Carolina Continental Line, 1775–1783

Many North Carolina soldiers served in both the North Carolina militia/state troops and one of the state’s Continental regiments. To complement my study of the demographics of the militia and state troops, this article presents a detailed look at North Carolina Continental soldiers who served only in the North Carolina Continental Line. The North Carolina […]

by Douglas R. Dorney, Jr.
Logistics Posted on

The Management of Sequestered Estates in South Carolina, 1780–1782

On September 16, 1780, while at the Waxhaws on the northern border of South Carolina, Lt. Gen. Earl Cornwallis, the British General Officer commanding in the South, issued a proclamation appointing John Cruden to be the province’s Commissioner for Sequestered Estates. The reasons behind the proclamation and the purposes of it, together with Cruden’s role, […]

by Ian Saberton
2
Constitutional Debate Posted on

The Constitutional Authority of the Continental Congress

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress declared America’s Independence from the British Empire. Approximately five years later, on March 1, 1781, Congress recorded Maryland’s procrastinated ratification of the Articles of Confederation and concomitantly gave them legal effect. The Articles of Confederation are generally regarded as America’s first Constitution, though in many respects they […]

by David Otersen
3
Logistics Posted on

Governor Jonathan Trumbull, Who Supplied Washington’s Suffering Army . . . and the French

Jonathan Trumbull, Senior is the most important governor in Connecticut’s long history. This is not only because of the many key contributions he made as a patriotic leader to his beloved state of Connecticut during the American Revolution, but just as importantly, what he contributed to help ease the suffering of soldiers under Gen. George […]

by Damien Cregeau
Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Woody Holton on His New Book, Liberty is Sweet

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews Woody Holton, distinguished historian, professor at the University of South Carolina, and JAR contributor, about his new book, Liberty is Sweet. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches […]

by Editors
6
Constitutional Debate Posted on

Daniel Shays’s Honorable Rebellion

BOOK REVIEW: Daniel Shays’s Honorable Rebellion: An American Story by Daniel Bullen (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2021) There is truth to the adage that history is told by the victors. It is no coincidence that we are taught that the rebellion named after Pelham, Massachusetts, farmer Daniel Shays was the event that led to the Constitutional Convention. Massachusetts […]

by Timothy Symington
3
Autobiography and Biography Posted on

The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of King George III

BOOK REVIEW: The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of King George III by Andrew Roberts (New York: Viking, 2021) In 1774, a colonial lawyer wrote an anonymous pamphlet summarizing the political relationship between Mother England and her North American colonies. He urged King George III to use his kingly prerogatives in support of […]

by Alec D. Rogers
Audiovisual Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Bridget Barbara on Yorktown Videography

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews video producer, history enthusiast, and JAR contributor Bridget Barbara on her recent visit to the Yorktown Battlefield, Colonial National Historical Park and the Yorktown Museum of the American Revolution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google […]

by Editors
6
Battles Posted on

The Fruits of Victory: Loyalist Prisoners in the Aftermath of Kings Mountain

The Battle of Kings Mountain was fought on October 7, 1780 in the upcountry of South Carolina near the border with North Carolina. As the gunsmoke dissipated and Patriot officers rallied their men, they found themselves victorious and in possession of the mountain-top; but still in danger. British General Charles, Lord Cornwallis and his army […]

by William Caldwell