Charles Thomson Archives - Journal of the American Revolution

Posted on September 24, 2024September 22, 2024

German Soldier, American Rebel: Christopher Ludwick’s Pursuits of Happiness in Revolutionary Pennsylvania

Popular narratives of the American Revolution rank Christopher Ludwick, at best, among the extras in the imperial dramatis personae, a bit player who performed as honest gingerbread baker or amusingly spoke of himself in the third person.[1] Fortunately, his limited historiographical presence more seriously depicts him as superintendent of bakers for the Continental Army and […]

by Shawn David McGhee

Posted on February 8, 2024February 13, 2024

Rediscovering Charles Thomson’s Forgotten Service to Early American Historiography

George Washington’s perseverance kept the American army in the field long enough to win negotiated independence, and later saw him through the first presidency under the Constitution. Benjamin Franklin’s ingenuity and sagacity guided the formation of the young nation before it yet realized it could be a country of its own. Thomas Jefferson’s eloquence gave […]

by Daniel L. Wright

Posted on May 3, 2022May 2, 2022

Charles Thomson and the Delaware

There are many, many founding fathers in the story of America’s Revolution and unfortunately only a few are really known to the general public. Yet without those who are less known, there would have been no revolution. One of those men was the official secretary of the Continental Congress, Charles Thomson. He was the sole […]

by James M. Smith

Posted on January 11, 2022January 10, 2022

Undeceived: Who Would Write the Political Story of the Revolution?

In July 1783 John Jay, one of the Americans negotiating a treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, was sitting at his desk. The negotiations, taking place in Paris had been going on for some months with much quibbling over language, borders, trading rights, and fishing rights. Sentences were being written and […]

by James M. Smith

Posted on November 27, 2021November 27, 2021

This Week on Dispatches: James M. Smith on How America Declared Its Rights

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor James M. Smith on the political, legal, and philosophical influences considered by the First Continental Congress in the formulation of their Declaration of Rights, a 1774 draft that declared the American colonies independent, yet was never brought up for a full vote in that congress. […]

by Editors

Posted on November 4, 2021November 1, 2021

How America Declared its Rights

During the seventeenth century and into the eighteenth century the political philosophers of Europe were writing and discussing some new and radical ideas on what a government should look like and how it should function. They would reshape the political landscape in the late eighteenth century and well into the twentieth. One of the most […]

by James M. Smith

Posted on August 25, 2021August 30, 2021

Why Did the Signers of the Declaration Engage in this Treasonous Act?

Speaking on Independence Day, 1821, John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the Unites States and the son of John Adams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, stated that the Declaration was merely an occasional state-paper. It was a solemn exposition to the world, of the causes which have compelled the people of a small […]

by Marvin L. Simner

Posted on August 24, 2021August 23, 2021

Timothy Matlack, Scribe of the Declaration of Independence

The 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 Jersey. His family moved to Philadelphia eight years later. At the age of thirteen, Timothy Matlack began an apprenticeship under a prosperous Quaker merchant named John Reynell. Looking forward to a […]

by Chris Coelho

Posted on July 1, 2021June 28, 2021

The First Public Reading of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

“We hold these truths to be self-evident . . . .” Who were the first people to hear Thomas Jefferson’s memorable words spoken in public? And who was the first person to read them? According to our embraced heritage, the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence happened in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776. […]

by Chris Coelho

Posted on November 3, 2020November 1, 2020

If George Washington had not Run for President . . . ?

This month we asked our contributors: If George Washington had not run for President in 1789, who would you like to have had as a candidate (regardless of whether they were eligible based on the rules of time)? Michael J. F. Sheehan Dr. Benjamin Franklin, aside from Washington, was the only person in America […]

by Editors

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