Tag «Economics»

Beyond Liberty: Class Divisions in the American Revolution

Young British soldiers were amazed by the idyllic farms spread across America.

By Nathaniel Parry: Nathaniel is author of Samuel Adams and the Vagabond Henry Tufts: Virtue Meets Vice in the Revolutionary Era, just published by McFarland Books. When redcoats arrived in Flatbush as part of a campaign to regain control of New York City in mid-August 1776, they marveled at the magnificence of the colonists’ homes …

Understanding Colonial American Money

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 …

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 …

Founding Fathers: America’s First One Percent

John Hancock president of Congress

The colonists, during the period building up to the American Revolutionary War, were becoming more and more aggressive towards England. However, before Great Britain and Parliament rattled the chains that ‘enslaved Americans and gained the vexation of those seeking liberty’, there was another class of individuals better suited to and far more deserving of the …