John Corlis (sometimes spelled Corlies) was a Quaker land owner who resided in Shrewsbury Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. He along with his mother owned six slaves. It has been reported that Corlis was a “harsh master” and whipped his slaves for trivial reasons. In the 1760s, Quakers in New Jersey had begun to emancipate […]
“A Most Dreadful Voyage” was how the captain of British supply ship Blue Mountain Valley described his mission to North America in the fall and winter of 1775–1776. The ship’s young Scottish captain, James Dempster, was an experienced merchant sailor with voyages to China, India, and the West Indies.[1] The mission Dempster embarked on when Blue […]
The circumstances that forced the surrender of Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown are familiar enough. The British were trapped on a peninsula, Washington’s Continental Army preventing a land escape, a large French fleet preventing their escape by sea. Pounded by artillery and short on supplies, Cornwallis had no choice but to surrender his army. Afterward, the […]
