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“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…
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The threat of continued oppression and an encroaching condition of slavery was central to the American colonists’ call for separation from Great Britain and…
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Lord 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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For 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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Georgia’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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Put 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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It 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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Having just attained his thirteenth (or eleventh) birthday, he found himself confined to a bed on the second floor of a small two-story house…
In this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews Michael W. Twitty, writer, culinary historian, and educator about the legacy and influence of enslaved Africans on…
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The Molasses Act of 1733 levied a duty of six pence per gallon on foreign molasses imported into British colonies in North America. The…
November 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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The Revolutionary War took a heavy toll on Great Britain. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 left it not just bereft of former colonies…
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When 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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As 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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Generally 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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As 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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A 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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George 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 the new nation have thrived economically if slavery had been abolished when the colonies won independence? Probably would have thrived even more. …