2
Mercy Otis Warren: Revolutionary Propagandist
byOn March 26, 1772, The Massachusetts Spy ran an unusual item on page 3 of that day’s newspaper: an advertisement for a dramatic performance of…
Stamp Act
2
4
John Hancock’s Politics and Personality in Ten Quotes
byNearly every American knows the name of John Hancock, but often for little more than his signature on the Declaration of Independence. Hancock was…
2
Thomas Hutchinson and His Letters
byWe often remember the controversy surrounding the Hutchinson Letters, which inspired many colonists to oppose the provincial government in Massachusetts, by talking about Benjamin…
4
Lord Cornwallis: Defender of British and American Liberty?
byGeneral Charles, 1st Marquess, Cornwallis remains one of the most recognizable British figures of the American Revolution. Over the past two centuries, he has…
2
Sons of Britannia: New York’s Triumvirate from Colony to Revolution
byJohn Adams was making his way from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania for a convening of the delegates tasked to craft a response to the Coercive…
John Joachim Zubly: PART 1, A Patriot Minister Whose Cause Was Lost
byMaurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961), a French philosopher, once said that the definition of a traitor was “a patriot whose cause was lost.” In the time…
1
Jonathan Trumbull: the Sixteenth “Pope” of Connecticut
byIn 1817, as popular sentiment finally forced Connecticut to adopt a new constitution separating church and state, Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams: “I…
Charles Townshend: Architect of the Townshend Duties
byThe increasingly turbulent years preceding the American Revolution were fueled by an exchange of laws promulgated by Great Britain to maintain political and economic…
This Week on Dispatches: James M. Smith on How America Declared Its Rights
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor James M. Smith on the political, legal, and philosophical influences considered by the First…
3
How America Declared its Rights
byDuring the seventeenth century and into the eighteenth century the political philosophers of Europe were writing and discussing some new and radical ideas on…
1
Review: 1764: The First Year of the American Revolution
byBOOK REVIEW: 1764: The First Year of the American Revolutionby Ken Shumate (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2021) When did the Revolution begin? This seemingly simple…
Election Sermons and Collective Identity in Massachusetts, 1760–1775
by“It is Hoped that this People will Unitedly Exert Themselves:”[1] In August 1765, crowds gathered on the streets of Boston protesting Parliament’s Stamp Act,…
The Bolingbrokean Constitutional Argument in John Adams’s 1766 Clarendon Letter
byAs part of the debate over the constitutionality of the Stamp Act, John Adams wrote a series of letter to the Boston Gazette discussing the…
The Latest in the JAR Book Series is Now Available
by“The sad story of colonial oppression commenced in the year 1764. Great Britain then adopted new regulations respecting her colonies, which, after disturbing the…
2
John Rutledge: Delegate from South Carolina, 1765–1775
byJohn Rutledge is one of those members of the founding generation who often get overlooked. Yet, for every Jefferson, Adams, or Washington, there were…
James Lovell: Schoolteacher, Prisoner, Patriot
byJames Lovell, delegate from Massachusetts to the Second Continental Congress and the Confederation Congress from 1777 to 1782, the only member of Congress to…
1
William Allen and His Family: Tories or Patriots?
byCommon wisdom paints William Allen, a wealthy and prominent Pennsylvanian, as a traitor to the cause of American independence. As the revolution grew, the…
This Week on Dispatches: Dayne Rugh on the Connecticut Sons of Liberty
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews Director of Education for Slater Memorial Museum and JAR contributor Dayne Rugh on his recent article about…
8
A “Truly Noble” Resistance: The Sons of Liberty in Connecticut
byThe role of Connecticut’s Sons of Liberty is one that exemplifies the state’s rich history of self-governance and fiercely independent spirit. Their swift reaction…
7
The Grand Affray at Golden Hill: New York City, January 19, 1770
byDespite the rescission of the Stamp Act in 1766, many imperial controversies persisted in New York City. Leading among them were: The annual demands of…
This Week on Dispatches: Jeffrey Simon on Propaganda, Terror, and the Sons of Liberty
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author and expert on terrorism Jeffrey Simon on the Sons of Liberty and the use of propaganda and terrorism in…
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…
21
Top Ten Quotes of Major General Charles Lee
byCharles Lee served as second-in-command of the Continental Army, subordinate only to George Washington. Born in England, Lee was the best-educated and most widely-read…
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…
6
The Sons of Liberty and Mob Terror
byThe day did not start out well for Andrew Oliver. The recently appointed Stamp Act Distributor for colonial Massachusetts awoke on the morning of…
2
Isaac Roosevelt: Merchant, Federalist, Banker, New Yorker
byOn Saturday September 17, 1938 New York governor Herbert H. Lehman and 5,000 others assembled in Poughkeepsie to observe the sesquicentennial of the Empire…
5
“The Americans Have Hoisted Their Standard of Liberty at Salem”
byThe skirmishes at Lexington and Concord are often considered the beginning of the American Revolution, a violent change in the controversy between Great Britain…
9
Revolutionary Networks: The Business and Politics of Printing the News, 1763–1789
byRevolutionary Networks: The Business and Politics of Printing the News, 1763-1789 by Joseph M. Adelman (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019) An explosion of new…
3
How Magna Carta Influenced the American Revolution
byIn 1984, Ross Perot purchased a copy of the 1297 reissuance of the Magna Carta from the Brudenell family who had held the document…
1
The East India Company and Parliament’s “Fateful Decision” of 1767
byIndia, the fabled land of rubies, diamonds, gold, tigers, and mystery, captured the imagination of the British people in the mid 1700s. Robert Clive…
The Exception to “No Taxation Without Representation”
by“I know not why we should blush to confess that molasses was an essential ingredient in American independence.”— John Adams[1] A one penny per…
2
The Revolutionary Memories of New York Loyalists: Thomas Jones and William Smith, Jr.
byThe American Revolution produced different meanings for Patriots and Loyalists. After the end of the Revolutionary war, the pressing issue was no longer the…
2
A Revolution in Mottoes: Newspaper Mastheads and the American Revolution
byIn early 2017, the Washington Post debuted a new masthead with the motto “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” At about the same time, the New…
11
James Grant’s American Confession
byIn American history, the name James Grant became synonymous with advocacy for British supremacy in colonial matters. For much of Grant’s early military career,…
3
Henry McCulloh: The Unknown Co-Architect of the Stamp Act
byThe Stamp Act of 1765 is closely associated with Lord George Grenville, First Lord of the Treasury and the Prime Minister of England. However,…
4
How the Stamp Act did not Affect Virginia
byOn March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act was passed in the House of Commons by a vote of 205 to 49. The Act…
Barlow Trecothick’s Role in the Repeal of the Stamp Act
byBarlow Trecothick was born in Stepney, England in 1720. At seven, his family moved to Boston where he became an apprentice for six years…
1
Isaac Barré: Advocate for Americans in the House of Commons
byIsaac Barré was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1726. He was educated at Trinity College and following graduation in 1745 enrolled at the Inns…
1
The Tombstone Edition: Pennsylvania Journal, October 31, 1765
byOne of the most famous and recognizable eighteenth-century newspapers is the October 31, 1765 issue of the Pennsylvania Journal, also known as the “tombstone…