Non-Profit Dedicated to Historical Education of the American Revolution and the Colonial Period
“In the history of the Revolutionary War, perhaps no single incident is recorded which, at the time of its occurrence, created more intense sympathy, or aroused a spirit of more bitter indignation, than the massacre of Jane McCrea.” David Wilson, 1853 On July 27, 1777, in Argyle, New York, north of Saratoga, John Allen’s family …
Generations of scholars have written countless texts about the myriad origins of the American Revolution. Some are quite good. Some quite bad. Yet all are informative, except maybe one partisan publisher of ‘alternate facts’ that recently made the news. This article tosses another possible source of rebellion into the mix; it is a link to …
This afternoon, January 30, 2021, while watching President Joe Biden take the oath of office as the 46th President, I was moved by the peaceful transition of power that reaffirms our democracy and that which binds us together as one nation. And how, these past couple of months, we came so close to witnessing its …
If we advert to the nature of republican government, we shall find that the censorial power is in the people over the government, and not in the government over the people. James Madison, 1793 According to University of Virginia Professor John Stagg, James Madison, our fourth president, was “from the early days of the American …
The first distinctive American Flag indicating a union of the colonies was known as the Grand Union Flag, the Great Union Flag, the Continental Flag, or the Cambridge Flag. It was flown for the first time, January 1, 1776, by troops of the Continental Army around Boston. The thirteen stripes stood for the union of …
The first major clash between British soldiers and a colonial mob was not the March 5, 1770 Boston Massacre, a title given by Boston’s skilled propogandists. The first instance of open aggression between opposing forces in America occurred in New York City, on January 19, 1770, nearly two months prior. After the 1763 conclusion of …
The stakes were first laid for Fort George in 1625, marking the official seal of New Amsterdam and what would become New York City. From pine palisade to earthen embankments to stone fortress, the fortification was reconstructed many times by the Dutch and English on the tip of Manhattan Island, mainly with African slave labor. …
Similar knives used during the American Revolution pre-dates the Viking Age. The word knife possibly descends from knifr, which is the Old Norse word for blade. The knife was all important to these hardy people of the north. From their craft and design, descended many of the knives that found their way all over Europe, …
By 1774, colonial Americans had spent decades governing themselves. They were ingrained with a spirt of independence that strengthened with each new generation. Local legislatures were chosen by regional landowners. Provincial assemblies made laws, oversaw magistrates to enact laws, ruled over disputes, levied penalties, and saw to the daily needs of their communities. They organized …
The seeds of self-governance began in America with the first splash of the Mayflower’s anchor in 1620, nearly seventy years before the idea of self-rule was encouraged in England. Great Britain’s Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the 1689 Bill of Rights established that the British Parliament, and not the king, had the ultimate authority in …
There are so many important texts available on African American Studies and understanding what it means to be black in America. From slavery to civil rights, millions of Americans have been embroiled in a long and difficult fight for freedom, equality, identity, and social justice. A struggle that to this day, permeates throughout a nation …
By Harry Schenawolf, author of the Shades of Liberty Series about African American soldiers in the American Revolution. Veterinary medicine owes much to mankind’s infatuation with the horse that helped finance and advance its development from amateur status to scientific discovery. It also benefited from strides in human medicine, in sorts, becoming a sister that …
By Harry Schenawolf, author of the Shades of Liberty Series about African American soldiers in the American Revolution. June 27, 2015, a plaque marking the site of New York City’s 18th century Slave Auction House was unveiled in Lower Manhattan by Mayor Bill de Blasio. The plaque commemorates the location of where thousands of lives …
By Harry Schenawolf, author of the Shades of Liberty Series about African American soldiers in the American Revolution. Rivers that were too wide to construct a bridge (or too expensive), yet needed to be crossed to populate the new world’s wilderness and countryside provided the earliest setters with commercial potential. As these rural and soon …
By Harry Schenawolf, author of the Shades of Liberty Series about African American soldiers in the American Revolution. “A thick cloud of darkness and gloom covered the land and despair was seen in almost every countenance…” an officer in the Continental Army, December, 1776. Another wrote, “…strong apprehensions are entertained that the British will soon …