Liberty’s Chain: Slavery, Abolition, and the Jay Family of New York
byBOOK REVIEW: Liberty’s Chain: Slavery, Abolition, and the Jay Family of New York by David N. Gellman (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2022) America’s Founders…
Slavery
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George III’s (Implicit) Sanction of the American Revolution
byIn Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774), Jefferson wrote of King George III’s unwillingness to use his “negative” to veto unjust proposals….
This Week on Dispatches: Christian McBurney on How Rhode Island Prevented an Enslaved Family from Being Transported to the South
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews Rhode Island and Revolutionary War historian Christian McBurney on uncovering the extraordinary story of a man from…
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Rhode Island Acts to Prevent an Enslaved Family from Being Transported to the South
byThe American Revolution spurred the world’s first significant movement to abolish slavery and the African slave trade.[1] Before then, there was virtually no antislavery…
Washington at the Plow: The Founding Father and the Question of Slavery
byBOOK REVIEW: Washington at the Plow: The Founding Father and the Question of Slavery by Bruce A. Ragsdale (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2021)…
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Teaching the American Revolution in the United Kingdom
byTeaching the American Revolution in the United Kingdom comes with baggage. But British students respond to it ways that an American might not expect….
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The Silence of Slavery in Revolutionary War Art
by“His Britannic Majesty shall with all convenient speed, and without causing any Destruction, or carrying away any Negroes or other Property of the American…
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Loyalist Slave-Owning Refugees in Postwar Jamaica
byThe two forces of paternalism and slavery shaped the lives of Loyalist slaveowners in the postwar British Empire. Historians rarely connect these forces in…
Best of Dispatches: Michael W. Twitty on the Legacy of African American Cuisine
byOver the next several weeks, we’ll be looking back in the Dispatches archives to replay a selection of notable interviews. In this episode, first…
2
The Mount Vernon Slave Who Made Good: The Mystery of William Costin
byWilliam “Will” Costin was found dead in his own bed on the morning of May 31, 1842. Washington City’s leading newspaper, the Daily National…
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The First Efforts to Limit the African Slave Trade Arise in the American Revolution: Part 3 of 3, Congress Bans the African Slave Trade
byIn October 1774, in a stunning and radical move, delegates of the First Continental Congress signed a pledge for the thirteen mainland colonies not…
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The First Efforts to Limit the African Slave Trade Arise in the American Revolution: Part 2 of 3, The Middle and Southern Colonies
byThe first article of this series discussed the increasing chorus of American Patriots in New England raising their voices against the African slave trade….
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The First Efforts to Limit the African Slave Trade Arise in the American Revolution: Part 1 of 3, The New England Colonies
byThe American Revolution changed the way Americans viewed one of the world’s great tragedies: the African slave trade. The long march to end the…
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Smugglers, Pirates, and Patriots: Free Trade in the Age of Revolution
bySmugglers, Pirates, and Patriots: Free Trade in the Age of Revolution by Tyson Reeder. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019 America’s struggle for liberty ushered…
This Week on Dispatches: Dean Caivano on American Colonists’ Growing Resistance to Tyranny
byOn 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…
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Tapping America’s Wealth to Fund the Revolution: Two Good Ideas that Went Awry
by“Unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place,” Gen. George Washington wrote from Valley Forge on December 23, 1777,[1] to Henry Laurens, the…
2
The Fear of Domination: Resistance Against Tyranny
byThe threat of continued oppression and an encroaching condition of slavery was central to the American colonists’ call for separation from Great Britain and…
1
Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation: Information and Slavery
byLord Dunmore, John Murray, the 4th Earl of Dunmore (1730-1809) and Royal Governor of Virginia (1771-1776),[1] was an important political and military figure during…
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Uplifting Moments in American Revolution History
byFor every historian, there’s an event that makes them feel good every time they read about it. We asked our contributors: What event from…
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Milton’s Odyssey: The Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary Service of Georgia’s John Milton
byGeorgia’s fragile independence within the new American republic was shattered on December 29, 1778, when British troops attacked Savannah. Despite clear signs that the…
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The Fight Behind the Declaration of Independence
byPut yourself, in your mind’s eye, back in June 1776, specifically, the period between June 7 and July 1. It is precisely at that…
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The Tragedy of Henry Laurens
byIt wasn’t really their fault, they said. Slavery, men of the founding generation liked to argue, was brought to the colonies by Britain. It…
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Hamilton’s Revenge
byHaving just attained his thirteenth (or eleventh) birthday, he found himself confined to a bed on the second floor of a small two-story house…
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The Molasses Act: A Brief History
byThe Molasses Act of 1733 levied a duty of six pence per gallon on foreign molasses imported into British colonies in North America. The…
Recognizing the Skirmish at Kemp’s Landing
byNovember 10, 1775 was an important day in both Great Britain and America. Lord George Germain assumed duties as the Secretary of State for…
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Putting a Price on Loyalty: Mary Loring’s List of Losses
byThe Revolutionary War took a heavy toll on Great Britain. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 left it not just bereft of former colonies…
3
The American Revolution of Private Jacob Francis
byWhen Jacob Francis[1] began life on January 15, 1754 in western New Jersey’s Amwell Township in Hunterdon County, free black people in a state…
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The 1st Rhode Island Regiment and Revolutionary America’s Lost Opportunity
byAs the battered Continental Army encamped in Valley Forge for the winter of 1777-1778 after a year of setbacks and defeats, Gen. James Varnum,…
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Slavery through the Eyes of Revolutionary Generals
byGenerally when people think about slavery in the United States, they harken back to the Civil War period when Northern states had abolished slavery…
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Preventing Slave Insurrection in South Carolina & Georgia, 1775-1776
byAs the colonies of South Carolina and Georgia moved closer to open rebellion against Great Britain in the summer of 1775, leaders of the…
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10 Remarkable Runaway Ads
byA frequent discovery when reading 18th Century newspapers is the runaway ads. In an era when people could be owned by or contractually bound…
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William Lee & Oney Judge: A Look at George Washington & Slavery
byGeorge Washington was a slave owner for his entire life, a fact that surprises many of his fellow citizens more than 200 years after…
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Could America Have Thrived Without Slavery?
byCould the new nation have thrived economically if slavery had been abolished when the colonies won independence? Probably would have thrived even more. …