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Battles Posted on

The Battles of Connecticut Farms and Springfield 1780

The Battles of Connecticut Farms and Springfield 1780 by Edward G. Lengel.  (Yardley, PA:  Westholme Publishing, LLC, 2020) Famed Washington historian Edward G. Lengel (editor-in-chief of the Papers of George Washington and author of General George Washington: A Military Life) reminds readers that the recognizable titles of some Revolutionary War battles were not the only ones […]

by Timothy Symington
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People Posted on

An American Bolingbroke: John Taylor of Caroline’s Republican Opposition, 1792–1794, Part 2 of 2

Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, in the first half of the eighteenth century, and John Taylor of Caroline in the 1790s, both feared that once power had been secured by an unpatriotic faction it might employ a standing army to effect the destruction of the republic. Additionally, Taylor was among those who felt that the […]

by James A. Cornelius
Constitutional Debate Posted on

An American Bolingbroke: John Taylor of Caroline’s Republican Opposition, 1792–1794, Part 1 of 2

From 1792 to 1794, John Taylor of Caroline, a senator from Virginia, was engaged in a heated party struggle between Jeffersonian Republicans and Hamiltonian Federalists over the implementation of the latter’s new economic program. Taylor, despite being largely unknown by non-specialists today, has been called by Gordon S. Wood “the conscience of the Republican party” […]

by James A. Cornelius
Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Jett Conner on Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and the Louisiana Purchase

On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews political scientist, historian, and JAR contributor Jett Conner on his recent article about Thomas Paine’s and Thomas Jefferson’s interpretations of the role of presidential powers used by Jefferson to justify the Louisiana Purchase. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American […]

by Editors
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Politics During the War (1775-1783) Posted on

L’Expédition Particulière crosses the Atlantic: The French Rally to the American Cause

Following American success at Saratoga in the autumn of 1777, French King Louis XVI signed the Treaty of Amity and Friendship, establishing open French assistance to the American cause. In May 1780 nearly 6,000 soldiers and sailors left the Port of Brest in northwest France and sailed across the Atlantic, arriving in Rhode Island in […]

by Kim Burdick
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Engineering and Technology Posted on

The Fall of Fort Washington: The “Bunker Hill Effect”?

It was the one of the worst defeats suffered by the Americans during the War for Independence, certainly the worst over which George Washington had direct command. Historian David McCullough perhaps characterized the debacle best, writing that after experiencing “one humiliating, costly reverse after another,” during the New York campaign of 1776, “the surrender of […]

by Derrick E. Lapp
Constitutional Debate Posted on

John Marshall: Hamilton 2.0

Celebrated for his stirring words in the Declaration of Independence, and having profited upon the popularity since, Thomas Jefferson was now America’s chief magistrate—and its most self-satisfied citizen. To him, the Washington and Adams years had been a “reign of witches”—a sudden reversion from the ideals he had laid out in that document—a dark age […]

by Geoff Smock
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Critical Thinking Posted on

Documents of the Revolution: A Continuum of Conviction

Those familiar with American history know that the Articles of Confederation served as the first constitution of the unified states during the American Revolution. A foundational document, it begins by establishing the name of the confederation of colonies as “The United States of America.” The creation of the Articles is intimately tied with the drafting […]

by Christopher Warren
Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Christian M. McBurney on General Charles Lee and the Oath of Allegiance

On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author, attorney, and JAR contributor, Christian M. McBurney on the enigmatic General Charles Lee and his role in imposing an oath of allegiance on Newport, Rhode Island, Tories in 1775. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is a […]

by Editors
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Economics Posted on

Hylton v. U.S. and Alexander Hamilton’s Defense of Congressional Taxing Authority

In 1796 Daniel Hylton, a wealthy Virginian farmer, brought a suit before the United States Supreme Court arguing that a federal tax on carriages violated a constitutional distinction between direct and indirect taxation. While the Constitution granted Congress unlimited authority to pass indirect taxes on imported goods, the framers insisted that direct taxes on property […]

by Nathan Hotes and Frank W. Garmon Jr.
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Engineering and Technology Posted on

Tower of Victory

As far back as the eleventh century B.C. attackers confronted by fortified cities and towns, castles, and forts, used siege towers to elevate their own soldiers to heights equal to the defenders. The Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, and Chinese all used such weapons to defeat enemies situated behind high walls. These machines of war provided the […]

by Jeff Dacus
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Diplomacy Posted on

Opposing the Franco-American Alliance: The Case of Anne-Robert Jacques Turgot

The participation of the French on the side of the newly declared independent American colonies is widely acknowledged as the factor that tipped the balance in the American Revolution and ultimately led to the defeat of the British. This alliance, actually two alliances—one of commerce and one of military cooperation—was concluded in early 1778, but […]

by Richard J. Werther
Features Posted on

Contributor Close-up: George Kotlik

What inspired you to start researching and writing about the American Revolution? The North American War of Independence has been a passion of mine for a long time. I enjoy learning about lesser-known Revolutionary-era topics. Sharing the information I discover with the broader public informs people of forgotten, and often significant, events from history which contributes […]

by Editors
Critical Thinking Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Geoff Smock on the Influence of the Enlightenment on Thomas Jefferson

On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews teacher and JAR contributor Geoff Smock on Thomas Jefferson’s enlightenment-influenced views on pandemics, the French Revolution, Shays’ Rebellion, and other events of his time. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is a free podcast that puts a […]

by Editors
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Economics Posted on

“The Right of Making Such a Law, Has Never Been Questioned:” Reasons Against the Renewal of the Sugar Act, Part 3 of 3

Remonstrance Against the Renewal Rhode Island merchants, prompted by the January letter from Boston merchants, requested that Governor Hopkins call a special meeting of the General Assembly. The merchants needed little prompting; they had already drafted preliminary essays explaining the economic problems caused by the Sugar Act. In fact, newspapers had for months been full […]

by Ken Shumate
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Features Posted on

The Boston Massacre: A Family History

The Boston Massacre:  A Family History by Serena Zabin. (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020) The significant other of this particular reviewer saw him reading yet another book about the Revolution, and still another book about the Boston Massacre. “Haven’t you learned enough about it?” she asked. This reviewer honestly did not jump into Serena Zabin’s recent […]

by Timothy Symington
Economics Posted on

The Essay “well deserves the candid Reader’s attentive perusal:” Reasons Against the Renewal of the Sugar Act, Part 2 of 3

The writings abridged below, all asserting reasons against the renewal of the Sugar Act, mark the end of the long period of the colonies being “led by a thread.” They were the opening salvo to a decade of protest against British attempts to draw a revenue from the North American colonies. Reasons against the renewal […]

by Ken Shumate
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Features Posted on

Sailing Under John Paul Jones: The Memoir of Continental Navy Midshipman Nathaniel Fanning

Sailing Under John Paul Jones: The Memoir of Continental Navy Midshipman Nathaniel Fanning, 1778-1783, edited by Louis Arthur Norton. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2019) Contrary to popular narratives, the American Revolution was not restricted to fighting in the Americas. The war was fought on many fronts including India and Europe. Nathaniel Fanning reminds us […]

by George Kotlik
Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Andrew Waters on Nathanael Greene, Thomas Sumter and the Revolution in the South

On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author, land conservationist, and JAR contributor Andrew Waters on how Nathanael Greene and Thomas Sumter fought against British control of South Carolina. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is a free podcast that puts a voice to […]

by Editors
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Economics Posted on

“America will suffer for a time only . . . But the Loss to Great Britain will be irretrievable”: Reasons Against the Renewal of the Sugar Act, Part 1 of 3

In early 1764, four British colonies in North America protested the enforcement and planned renewal of the about-to-expire Sugar Act of 1733 (also known as the Molasses Act of 1733)—an act that levied duties on foreign sugar, rum and molasses. Each protest was a statement of reasons against the renewal. These protests—lodged before passage of […]

by Ken Shumate
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Features Posted on

George Rogers Clark and William Croghan

George Rogers Clark and William Croghan: A Story of the Revolution, Settlement, and Early Life at Locust Grove by Gwynne Tuell Potts (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2020) “The phenomenon of fame confounds and fascinates, indiscriminately raising some to glory while consigning apparent equals to exile.” This is Gwynne Tuell Potts’s insight in her new book […]

by Gabriel Neville
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Features Posted on

The Quaker and the Gamecock

The Quaker and the Gamecock: Nathanael Greene, Thomas Sumter, and the Revolutionary War for the Soul of the South by Andrew Waters (Casemate, 2019) Among America’s great historical sites is the fort that still sits in the Charleston harbor where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. But while Fort Sumter is known to […]

by Alec D. Rogers
Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Lindsay M. Chervinsky on George Washington and the Cabinet of the United States

On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews White House historian and author Lindsay M. Chervinsky about her new book on George Washington and the creation of the Cabinet of the United States. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is a free podcast that puts […]

by Editors
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Historic Sites Posted on

George Washington’s 1777 Wilmington, Delaware, Headquarters: Insights to an Unmarked Site

On the 170th anniversary of Washington’s Birthday in 1902, the Delaware Society of the Cincinnati formed a procession of dignitaries and marched up Quaker Hill, the southwestern residential area of Wilmington. The ceremony continued to West Street, a north-south avenue named after an early settler. They stopped in the middle of a row of houses […]

by Gary Ecelbarger
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Critical Thinking Posted on

Presidential Power: Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and the Louisiana Purchase

In 1813, Thomas Jefferson received a letter from Marguerite Brazier Bonneville, a French emigre and Thomas Paine’s former caretaker. Bonneville asked the former president if she could publish Paine and Jefferson’s correspondence. Paine had left most of his estate including all of his personal papers to her in his will when he died in 1809. […]

by Jett Conner
Journals Posted on

Memorial Day: Recovering the Service of William Tiller, American Soldier

Every now and then, one comes across a pension application of an old soldier that includes extraordinary detail. Occasionally the application includes a journal or memoir, as in the case of Connecticut’s Isaac Grant or Virginia’s William Tiller. Tiller’s journal is full of detail, but unfortunately few muster rolls for his regiment exist, making certain […]

by Michael J. F. Sheehan