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Mercy Otis Warren: Revolutionary Propagandist
byOn March 26, 1772, The Massachusetts Spy ran an unusual item on page 3 of that day’s newspaper: an advertisement for a dramatic performance of…
Benjamin Franklin
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Thomas Hutchinson and His Letters
byWe often remember the controversy surrounding the Hutchinson Letters, which inspired many colonists to oppose the provincial government in Massachusetts, by talking about Benjamin…
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Sons of Britannia: New York’s Triumvirate from Colony to Revolution
byJohn Adams was making his way from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania for a convening of the delegates tasked to craft a response to the Coercive…
Victory at Saratoga: Getting the Word Out
byIt is axiomatic that the American victory at Saratoga was, aside from events at Yorktown, the pivotal military event of the American Revolution. The…
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The Lonely Vigil of America’s First Diplomat
byAfter the French and Indian War, or the Seven Years War as it was known in Europe, Spain and France began to plan for…
Winning Hearts and Minds: Pardons and Oaths of Allegiance
by“I, A. B.do promise and declare that I will remain in a peaceable Obedience to His Majesty, and will not take up Arms, nor…
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This Week on Dispatches: John E. Happ on Benjamin Franklin and the American Legacy in Paris
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor John E. Happ on the commemorations to Benjamin Franklin and the American Revolution that can…
Benjamin Franklin and the American Legacy in Paris
byFrance has an extraordinary way of commemorating the glorious past through landmarks and monuments. Benjamin Franklin had been an off and on resident of…
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Algernon Sidney and the American Revolution
byAlgernon Sidney was a seventeenth-century British political theorist, Member of Parliament, and Whig politician who was executed for treason on December 7, 1683, during…
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Emergence of the French Alliance: The Beginning and Final Phases
byIt is widely acknowledged that the military alliance between the United States and France, established in 1778, was responsible not only for a number…
This Week on Dispatches: Nancy Rubin Stuart on Benjamin Franklin’s Unconventional Marriage to Deborah Read
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews best-selling author and historian Nancy Rubin Stuart on what made Benjamin Franklin and Deborah Read’s marriage one…
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Benjamin Franklin’s Unconventional Marriage to Deborah Read
byShe was neither beautiful nor wealthy. Nor was Benjamin Franklin’s wife educated or intellectual. Nevertheless in 1724 he proposed to Deborah Read while renting…
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King Frederick the Great and the American Colonies—Mit Complimenten Aweissen
byMit Complimenten Aweissen (put him off with compliments) Arthur Lee, one of the American Commissioners stationed in Paris, was appointed minister to the Prussian Court…
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King Frederick the Great and the American Colonies: The Preliminaries
byUpon the death of his grandfather on May 31, 1740, Frederick William II of the House of Hohenzollern became the King of Prussia. Over…
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Charles Thomson and the Delaware
byThere are many, many founding fathers in the story of America’s Revolution and unfortunately only a few are really known to the general public….
Benjamin Franklin, Fireman
byBenjamin Franklin was a man of many talents and titles. He was a printer, writer, scientist, inventor, politician, diplomat, and philosopher, among other things….
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Governor William Franklin: Sagorighweyoghsta, “Great Arbiter” or “Doer of Justice”
byWilliam Franklin, son of Benjamin Franklin, was the last Royal Governor of New Jersey, from 1763 to 1776. He is usually identified in U….
Benjamin Franklin’s East Florida Warning
byOn 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…
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Will the Real Caelia Shortface Please Stand Up
bySilence Dogood, Anthony Afterwit, Fanny Mournful, Caelia Shortface. Dickens’ characters? No. They’re just a few of the many evocative pen names Benjamin Franklin used…
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Natural History in Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary America
byIn the second half of the 1700s, French natural historian Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, formulated what would be dubbed the “New World degeneracy”…
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Joseph Galloway’s Plan of Union
byLate in September 1774 the Continental Congress was in the middle of an ongoing debate on the means that should be implemented to restore…
Charles Townshend: Architect of the Townshend Duties
byThe increasingly turbulent years preceding the American Revolution were fueled by an exchange of laws promulgated by Great Britain to maintain political and economic…
Justice, Mercy, and Treason: John Marshall’s and Mercy Otis Warren’s Treatments of Benedict Arnold
byIn the early years of the nineteenth century, the founders of the new American Republic were lurching forward from the shockingly successful outcome of…
The Howe Dynasty
byBOOK REVIEW: The Howe Dynasty: The Untold Story of a Military Family and the Women Behind Britain’s Wars for America by Julie Flavell (Liveright, 2021) In…
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Why Did the Signers of the Declaration Engage in this Treasonous Act?
bySpeaking on Independence Day, 1821, John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the Unites States and the son of John Adams, a signer of the…
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Timothy Matlack, Scribe of the Declaration of Independence
byThe scribe of the Declaration of Independence—and perhaps the first man to read it in public—was born on March 28, 1736 in Haddonfield, New…
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Contributor Question: Remembered for the Wrong Reason?
byWe asked our contributors: Which personality of the American Revolution or the founding era (other than Benedict Arnold) is remembered for the wrong reasons,…
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This Week on Dispatches: Jack Cambell on Lafayette’s Plan to Invade Ireland
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor and historical interpreter Jack Campbell on the Marquis de Lafayette’s fascinating attempt to garner…
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“The Scheme of My Heart:” Lafayette’s Plan to Invade Ireland
byMarie Jean Paul Joseph Roche Yves Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, the famous Frenchman who became an American general, had a pet project…
Observations on Several Acts of Parliament
byThe Townshend Revenue Act of 1767 awoke Americans to the fact that import duties for the purpose of revenue were taxes just as much…
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French Adventurers, Patriots, and Pretentious Imposters in the Fight for American Independence
byFrance was defeated in the Seven Years War. The defeat resulted in France losing valuable colonies, and prestige and influence in Europe. Desperate to…
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A Howe Woman Celebrates the Glory of the First of June, 1794
byThe letters of Caroline Howe in the British Library have for the first time revealed the private life of her brother, Adm. Richard Lord…
This Week on Dispatches: Richard J. Werther on King Gustav III of Sweden Recognizing the United States
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews researcher and JAR contributor Richard J. Werther on King Gustav III of Sweden’s recognition of an…
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King Gustav III of Sweden: Friendly Foe of the United States
byNew York City, November 16, 1783. It was finally here, Evacuation Day. The British, who had occupied Manhattan for seven long years, were finally…
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If George Washington had not Run for President . . . ?
byThis month we asked our contributors: If George Washington had not run for President in 1789, who would you like to have had as…
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Starting from Scratch: Combating “the Itch”
byAlthough it may not have been fatal, scabies brought more patients to British Army hospitals during the Seven Years’ War than any other condition,…
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Volunteer Overload: Foreign Support of the American Cause Prior to the French Alliance
byAside from being outmanned by the best army in the world when the American Revolution started, it was clear that the American forces were…
Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership
byFranklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward J. Larson (New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 2020) George Washington and Early Republic scholar Edward J….
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Opposing the Franco-American Alliance: The Case of Anne-Robert Jacques Turgot
byThe participation of the French on the side of the newly declared independent American colonies is widely acknowledged as the factor that tipped the…