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Growing up in the late 50’s and 60’s in New Jersey, just across the river from New York City, nearly every evening I was glued to one of our three local TV stations: channel five, nine, or eleven. Every night they showcased a plethora of black and white classics from the 30’s and 40’s. Besides …
The Battle of Great Bridge, December 9, 1775, was Virginia’s major opening salvo of the American Revolution. The buildup to and battle held the fate of who would govern Virginia in the balance. It proved to be a decided victory for the rebellious colonial Whigs, those calling themselves patriots. It pitted undisciplined rebel militia, farmers …
There were approximately 1,400 military ‘doctors’ during the American Revolution who treated American soldiers either on the battlefield or in hospitals. Of this number, only 400 were actually trained physicians; the other thousand or so were assistants or young apprentices who basically ‘learned on the job’. Several doctors put aside their scalpels for the sword …
In 1780, as the War for Independence raged throughout North America, a crier standing in the central square of Sheffield, Massachusetts, a small town in the western part of the former colony, read from the state’s newly enacted constitution. When he came to Article 1 he clamored, “All Men are born Free and Equal,” a …
American colonies claimed by European nations were for the most part initially run by the private sector through investors in joint corporations. Later, once the colonies proved profitable; two other types of colonial governments would emerge. It required a large sum of money to extract the natural resources and establish trade for each new territory. …
In novels and film, we often come across the exchange of colonial money whose odd assortment of names and values are confusing at best. This exchange of colonial currency lends authenticity to period romantic novels (you know -the ones whose cover has some hunk who misplaced his shirt), or historical colonial dramas set in the …
One of the first journal entries of Virginia’s original settlers had to do with the topic of fisheries. George Percy was aboard one of three sailing ships that entered Chesapeake bay on April 27, 1607. He wrote that “We came to a place where they [natives] had made a great fire, and had been newly …
Champer Ederson was an African American soldier from Rhode Island. In January 1779, during the American Revolution, he enlisted in the Fifth Company of the Hessian Knyphausen Regiment, serving as a drummer. When the British and Hessian troops abandoned Rhode Island in October, 1779, he sailed with them to New York City. He would not …
My good friend Ken Bohrer of American Revolution Photos allowed me to share his February 2021 blog on Valley Forge – #32. I highly recommend you view his other blogs along with thousands of great photos of the many American Revolutionary War reenactments he has chronicled over the years. Please click here and enjoy: American …
“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 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. …