What inspired you to start researching and writing about the Revolution? Trained as a political scientist, I got interested in the Revolutionary period through the writings of Thomas Paine. As I taught a college course for years in early American political thought, I noticed that Paine was given credit by historians for his rebel-rousing (e.g., […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews graduate student and JAR contributor Mike Matheny about his fascinating research and article about how the record keeping of enlistments and other data was critical to the Continental Army’s success. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, […]
The efforts of a group of self-taught Patriot spies who would later become known as the Culper Spy Ring played an important role in winning independence from Great Britain. But their story still has many missing pieces, and unfortunately legend and even unsubstantiated speculation have filled the gaps. From experience in the French and Indian […]
The letters of Caroline Howe in the British Library have for the first time revealed the private life of her brother, Adm. Richard Lord Howe, the hero of the Glorious First of June and commander-in-chief of the British fleet in America, 1776-1778. Howe has so baffled naval historians that Sam Willis labelled him “obsessively secretive” […]
From 1765 to 1766, botanist John Bartram explored Florida, the new southern territory Britain acquired after the Seven Years’ War. William Bartram, his son, accompanied him on that expedition. Named King George III’s Royal Botanist and granted a £50 a year salary, John collected plants he shipped to Europe.[1] In late 1765, John found himself […]
When the vote came on Tuesday, July 26, 1781, before the House’s evening adjournment, it was Thomas Burke’s turn to hold the Executive office of North Carolina, beating out Samuel Johnson.[1] With the votes tallied, the legislature proclaimed to the Wake Court House in Raleigh that the, “the Honbl. Thomas Burke, Esquire” is requested in “attendance […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Charles Dewey, US Army National Guard Intelligence Office and a historical interpreter and educator at Fort Lee Historic Park, on his research into Abraham Bancker, an important agent in the American intelligence network around New York City. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free […]
In early May 1775, with the Revolutionary War not even one month old, western Massachusetts Patriot leaders and their Stockbridge Indian neighbors developed a plan to use diplomacy to neutralize a looming danger in the north. Stockbridge ambassadors would take a peace message from their community to the New England colonists’ traditional Native enemies in Canada. […]
“The sad story of colonial oppression commenced in the year 1764. Great Britain then adopted new regulations respecting her colonies, which, after disturbing the ancient harmony of the two countries for about twelve years, terminated in a dismemberment of the empire.”—David Ramsay, 1789 JAR contributor Ken Shumate’s new book, 1764: The First Year of the […]
When John Adams returned to Massachusetts after the session of the First Continental Congress, he was surprised to find that there was growing opposition to the radicals and the work of the Congress. It was led by a man who identified himself as “Massachusettensis.” On December 12, 1774 Massachusettensis published the first of a series […]
The Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston defines primary sources as “immediate, first-hand documents of a topic, from people who had a direct connection with it.” As students of history, many of us make frequent use of primary sources: muster rolls, pay rolls, returns, letters, maps, etc. Generally speaking, primary sources are our […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews researcher, author, and living history presenter Philip D. Weaver on New York’s Joseph McCracken, one of the many little-known personalities of the American Revolution who contributed to the American war effort. Weaver was able to piece together McCracken’s service record through pension applications of soldiers who served under […]
As night slowly gives into morning the salty breeze brings a mist across the suffocating sulphury air filled with fireballs. The fireballs pass each other in the sky like defined lanes of a road. Crashing into mounds of dirt. Ripping through structures of the small town. Igniting infernos and filling the air with choking smoke, […]
On December 23, 1777, a mere four days after his Continental army entered Valley Forge, George Washington wrote to the Continental Congress expressing the dire needs of his army. He specified that due to catastrophic shortages of shoes and clothes he had “no less than 2898 Men now in Camp unfit for duty.” He went […]
Fort Tryon Park, sixty-seven acres just north of the George Washington Bridge in Manhattan, is a bucolic refuge among the skyscrapers of New York City. Children climb in the Javits’ playground; teens toss snowballs in the Heather Garden; tourists queue to visit the medieval art on display at the Cloisters museum; a bundle of black […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews consultant, author, and JAR contributor Eric Sterner on the life of John Rutledge, governor, president, and congressional delegate of South Carolina, a career he explored over a series of three articles. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, […]
Most modern historical treatments of the American invasion of Canada disparage Brig. Gen. David Wooster for his leadership in Canada. A detailed examination of his command from January to May 1776, however, lends credence to an early biographer’s conclusion that “Gen. Wooster was censured by those who did not know the obstacles he had to […]
This month, we asked our contributors: If you could curate a museum exhibit about any aspect of the American Revolution and founding era, what would your subject be? Louis Arthur Norton I would curate an exhibition on the maritime history of the American Revolution, the contributions of the Continental Navy, the several state navies and […]
The settlers who chose to make their homes in the upper Ohio in the mid to late eighteenth century faced a wide variety of challenges to survive in this backcountry, ranging from the distance to centers of trade and population to the difficulty in practicing agriculture in old-growth forests. That this frontier, the area surrounding […]
War at Saber Point: Banastre Tarleton and the British Legion by John Knight (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2020) The American Revolution produced numerous well-known corps of light troops on both sides, some cavalry, some infantry, and some including both. While many are familiar with tales of Patriot riflemen under Daniel Morgan and dashing legion commanders […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews retired US Army officer Willam V. Wenger on his research into the contributions of France, Spain, and other countries to the American war effort, from munitions and soldiers to diplomatic assistance and loans. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States […]
The British evacuation of Philadelphia had been under way for several days. Given the honor to be among the last units to leave, the Brigade of Guards slept on their arms by the redoubts north of the city the night of June 17. At daybreak, they embarked on flatboats to cross the Delaware into New […]
The seventh Journal of the American Revolution Annual Volume is now available. Each annual volume highlights articles selected by our editorial board from the previous year as best representative of the journal’s mission and for their original contributions to scholarship of the era. The 2021 annual contains thirty-five articles, covering topics from the Lenape people […]
In the South, the American Revolution was largely a civil war, one between Whig supporters of American liberties and Loyalists or Tories, who remained attached to the crown. Both sides strove to encourage and maintain the support they had among the people, and to attract to their side the neutrals or uncommitted inhabitants. Historian John […]
“Few people know the predicament we are in,” wrote George Washington, while he expressed the Continental army’s dire circumstances.[1] By January 1776, just six months into the Revolutionary War, the Continental army faced a crisis outside Boston. This particular crisis, not caused by a British attack, was a personnel issue. “Search the volumes of history through,” […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews attorney and local historian James P. Sieradzki about New Jersey’s attempt to stop illicit trade between local shopkeepers and the British by issuing licenses that not only forbade the practice, but issued fines if violated. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern […]
City Tavern in Philadelphia is a reconstruction of the famous eighteenth century tavern where countless patriots—both political and military—met throughout the American Revolution, and later, during the Constitutional Convention in 1787. It recently closed due to the impact of Covid-19 on their business. This sad ending occurred despite the fact the owner/executive chef has been […]
When old Revolutionary War soldiers applied for their military pensions in the first and second quarter of the nineteenth century, they generally reported the basic information of their service. Occasionally, a soldier provided detail of his service that highlighted their adventures and sufferings. One such soldier was Private James Noble, originally of Maryland. James Noble […]
“My fate is hard,” Sir Henry Clinton remarked after learning that he had been named commander of the British army in May 1778, adding that he expected to someday bear “a considerable portion of the blame” for Britain’s “inevitable” lack of success.[1] There were good reasons for Clinton’s pessimism. Not only was France entering the […]
Abraham Bancker gave in to temptation on September 10, 1789, when he petitioned George Washington for a federal appointment as compensation for his service during the American Revolution. He had been reluctant to write for some time, feeling as though his competitors were superior in ability and more reasonable in their requests. “This Application proceeds […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews PhD student and JAR contributor Jonathan Bayer on his discovery of an account of the surrender of Quebec to American forces in 1776 that was not only not true but labeled in the Pennsylvania Evening Post as “Fake news.” New episodes of Dispatches are available for free […]
On June 8, 1776, New York’s Capt. Joseph McCracken presented to the Albany Committee of Correspondence a payroll of men “employed in the taking of Ticonderoga” along with an account of expenses and disbursements. After the required certifications, the committee recommended that it be paid.[1] Questions remain as to why Albany County paid these Charlotte […]
Lt. General Earl Cornwallis, the British general officer commanding in the south, occupied Yorktown and Gloucester on August 1 and 2, 1781, the evacuation of Portsmouth was completed on the 18th, and four days later he was joined by the remaining troops from there. Meanwhile momentous events were taking place elsewhere. On August 14, while […]
When the War of the Revolution began in April 1775, Connecticut resident Judith Jeffords née Philips was nineteen years old, had been married for two years, and had at least one child. She was, in the descriptive jargon of the time, a mulatto, meaning of mixed Afro-European lineage. We would know little to nothing of Mrs. […]
Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic by Brad A. Jones (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2021) In Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic, Brad A. Jones reminds readers that “the American Revolution . . . was as much a story of loyalty as it was rebellion” (page 2). Jones’s book seeks […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews writer and JAR contributor Gary Ecelbarger on what a letter from Clement Biddle can tell us about the “Battle of the Clouds,” one of the most enigmatic engagements in the American Revolution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) […]
George Washington slept here. After the commander in chief was summoned to Princeton, New Jersey during the summer of 1783, and finding no rooms for rent, certainly not anything sizeable enough to serve his needs, Washington, his wife Martha, their servants and enslaved persons, and a small company of soldiers managed to find a place […]
Last spring, the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, announced its discovery of a handwritten letter from a formerly enslaved man who had gained his freedom by enlisting in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment during the Revolutionary War. The letter, written in 1781, is one of only a few known existing letters […]
‘Tis to ye Press & Pen we Mortals owe All we believe & almost all we know: —George Fischer, The American Instructor: or, Young Man’s Best Companion, 1770 The Press was the media that shaped the political process of the American Revolution. Colonial newspaper publishers generally produced four-page weeklies and/or single-sheet broadsides to keep colonists […]
