Non-Profit Dedicated to Historical Education of the American Revolution and the Colonial Period
December 1782 and the roar of cannon and crash of massed muskets were silenced. After seven years of war, opposing armies in America watched and waited for peace. But a civil war still raged. Splintered between rebellious patriots and loyal kings’ men, causes had morphed into hatred with vengeance the driving force. Before the doors …
Desperation, suspicion, coercion, passion, vengeance, obstinance, and courage; it was all there, each contributing their fair share in a preview to the first naval battle of the American Revolution – the Battle of Machias, June 11-12, 1775. It was not an epic fleet battle of first rates and frigates clobbering each other with massive broadsides. …
African American James Forten (Sept. 2, 1766 – March 4, 1841) was born free, the grandson of a slave who had ‘freed himself.’ He and his older sister Abigail were the only two children of Thomas and Margaret Forten; second generation of freed parents. They lived in Philadelphia on Third Street near Walnut Street in …
“A downright democracy!“ British officer describes Rhode Island. In the summer of 1772, angry New England zealots carried out a far more hostile and dangerous attack against the British crown’s authority a year and a half later, December 16, 1773, when a bunch of patriots dressed up as Native Americans dumped a ton of tea …
By the time what became known as the Little Egg Harbor Affair, or Massacre, a tragic pattern was obvious. Americans, when camped close to the enemy, failed to post an adequate guard against enemy encroachments resulting in tragedy. At Egg Harbor, on the night of October 14, 1778, there was but one single sentry posted …