Category «Life & Times»

The First Shots of the American Revolution That Were Not Heard Round the World

One year after the famed Boston Tea Party, an American company of militia, during a raging snowstorm, attacked a British Fort. Cannon and shots were fired while farmers and sailors stormed the fortification. They came to blows with the defenders and wounded the English commander and another soldier. This clash between armed British subjects firing …

African American George Latchom’s Remarkable Strength and Courage Under Fire

African American soldier

Almost nothing is known of Virginian and former slave George Latchom. Most of what we do know relates to one incident during the American Revolution in which he displayed incredible strength and unselfish courage. He was not a Continental soldier; over eight hundred African Americans would ultimately fight alongside patriots in the Virginia Line. Nor …

Black Presence in the American Revolution: African American Percentage Was Higher Than We’ve Been Told

1st Rhode Island Regiment of all black soldiers.

The number of African American soldiers who stood beside their patriot white comrades in arms during the American Revolutionary War has frequently been dismissed as unimpressive or inconsequential. An incorrect argument can be made to support such an opinion when taking the total number of soldiers who fought the entire war and factoring the ratio …

Boston Tea Party: Patriotism and Good Economics

Boston Tea Party, December 16, 1773, was the overt action that sparked a revolution in America. When approximately one hundred ‘patriots’ disguised as Native Americans, catapulting Smuggler John Hancock, Failed Brewer Samuel Adams, and Silversmith Paul Reverie into the annuals of legend, dumped sack upon sack of East India tea into Boston’s murky waters, one …

How Did Revolutionary War Soldiers Write Home? Powdered Ink & the History of Iron Gall Ink

quill and ink

Ever wonder how eighteenth century soldiers composed letters home or wrote journal entries while sitting on a log before a campfire, in a tent, or traipsing throughout the countryside, campaigning prior to or after military action? For ions, right up to the nineteenth century, the method of writing included a container of ink and a …

Iron Forge in Colonial America

In the early 17th century nations making claim to the Americas discovered an enormous wealth of natural resources.  Raw materials bolster a country’s economy and increase its ability to dominate in trade and in war.  Though the discovery of gold by the Spanish increased that nation’s wealth, iron ore from North America  gave Great Britain the …

The Continental Army of The American Revolution: “A Drunken, Canting, Lying, Hypocritical Rabble”

The Continental Army of 1775 This article presents four eyewitness accounts on the condition and general attitude of the American Forces in the summer of 1775. It concludes with six of George Washington’s commentaries on the situation of the army at that time and his personal frustrations. After the battles of Lexington and Concord (April …