Non-Profit Dedicated to Historical Education of the American Revolution and the Colonial Period
Should African Americans Serve in the Continental Army? Washington and a new nation struggle with their convictions, morals, and necessity O’er the raging billows borne. Men, call’d Christians, bought & sold me, Paid my price in paltry gold; But though their’s they have enroll’d me, Minds are never to be sold. W. Cowper, Esq. 1774. Humanity was not ready to bestow …
Welcome my friends, from every land. Where freedom doth not reign; Oh! Hither fly from every clime, Sweet liberty to gain – John Mason Harlem Heights, ten miles north of New York City as the crow flies; September 16th 1776 – one hour before dawn. The Continental Army is entrenched on the high ground facing the British army, …
It is the year 1663. The big day has arrived. The town of Walloon[1] is brimming with anticipation. This small Dutch settlement on the Long Island shore – the nucleus of the future Brooklyn – has its residents eagerly preparing their carriages for a jaunt to the ferry crossing the East River to New Amsterdam. …
Two gentlemen called upon Captain Wilson and asked him to sign the agreement which a number of colonists had entered into to resist the mother country England to the last. This Captain Wilson positively refused to do. “I am an Englishman,” he said, “and my sympathies are wholly with my country. I do not say …
Captured at battle of Kip’s Bay and died in captivity on Oct. 11, 1776 Rouse the People to see their Danger. Stir them up by all that is dear in this life. Our Wives, our Children, our property, our Liberty is at Stake… Colonel Samuel Selden Colonel Samuel Selden [1] During the Revolutionary War many men paid an …
Capture of British General Richard Prescott July 10th 1777 A tawny son of Africa’s race. Them through the ravine led, And entering then the Overing House, They found him in his bed. But to get in they had no means, Except poor Cuffee’s head, Who beat the door down, then rushed in, And seized him in his bed. –Anonymous ballad spread from …
Forgotten Patriots: Major Thomas Henley & The Raid on Montresor’s Island The genius of America starts as from a trance, at her neglect to guard the lives of a Knowlton and a Henly; and then absorbed in melancholy, sighs, “it was a mistake, they were not to have fallen, only upon the decision of the fate of an empire.”[1] …
Prior to Battle General Washington called a council of war on October 16th, 1776, one month after the Battle of Harlem. American troops had stood in line of battle on an open field and driven back the renowned Scotsmen of the 42nd, the legendary Black Watch. Since that time, inactivity was undermining the morale that …