Substantial numbers of British and Hessian troops needed to be housed in New York City and across Long Island during the years of the British occupation from 1776 to 1783. An American report to General Washington in January 1779 estimated the number of British and allied troops stationed on Long Island at approximately 3,380 exclusive […]
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 […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian, author, and JAR Book-of-the-Year Award winner, Serena Zabin on her book, The Boston Massacre: A Family History. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now be easily accessed […]
In the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, as the British Army repositioned its forces from western frontier posts into American cities, many Americans seethed against quartering troops in urban centers. Animosity with the military occupation was rampant but was not the universal reaction in every location. In two cities, colonial anger ranged from vituperative […]
Despite the rescission of the Stamp Act in 1766, many imperial controversies persisted in New York City. Leading among them were: The annual demands of the royal governor for funds to support the troops quartered in the town;[1] The continuing post-(French and Indian) war recession; The Townshend taxes of 1767, which of course distressed all the […]
The Journal of the American Revolution is pleased to announce Quarters: The Accommodation of the British Army and the Coming of the American Revolution by John Gilbert McCurdy as winner of the 2019 Journal of the American Revolution Book of the Year Award (Cornell University Press). The Honorable Mention is awarded to The Will of […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews Dean Caivano, Lecturer of Political Science at California State University, Stanislaus, on the growing resistance to tyranny as colonists reacted to the prospects of their lives being reduced to a state of political and economic domination by Parliament and the Crown. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published […]
The threat of continued oppression and an encroaching condition of slavery was central to the American colonists’ call for separation from Great Britain and the corresponding shift to direct resistance. While the lack of effective political representation was crucial, importantly the colonists held other more acute concerns than the issue of representation in Parliament. Crucially, […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and author John G. McCurdy, professor of history at Eastern Michigan University, about the quartering act, the subject of his recent book, Quarters: The Accommodation of the British Army and the Coming of the American Revolution. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the […]
Quarters: The Accommodation of the British Army and the Coming of the American Revolution by John Gilbert McCurdy (Cornell University Press, 2019) Question: “Why did the colonists fight the British?” Answer: “Because the British Army stayed in their houses.” This question and answer comes from a United States government practice test for the U. S. citizenship […]
I started with an innocent question about the British Parliament’s Quartering Act of 1774: Did American Patriots list that law as one of the “Intolerable Acts” that led them to outright rebellion against Great Britain? Some of the Revolutionary histories I’d read said that was one of the five Intolerable Acts, along with the Boston […]
