History, Natural History & the Arts
This week on The Historians Podcast Bryan Jackson discusses his new book Why the Titanic Was Doomed (White Owl, 2022).
White Star’s HMS Titanic, the most magnificent ocean liner of her time, was destined for disaster before she left the docks at Southampton in April 1912 according to Jackson – doomed by her owner, designers and the men who sailed her. [Read more…] about The Titanic Was Doomed: A New Book By Bryan Jackson
William Paterson was born in County Antrim, Ireland, in 1745. His family immigrated to America when William was two years old. Arriving first at New Castle, Delaware, the family settled for a short time in New London, Connecticut. At first, his father traveled around the country selling tin ware, moving the family several times. He eventually settled in Princeton, New Jersey where he became a merchant and manufacturer of tin goods.
Paterson attended local private schools and eventually the College of New Jersey (Princeton) where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1763 and a master’s degree in 1766. Showing an interest in law, Paterson apprenticed with Richard Stockton, who later signed the Declaration of Independence. Paterson practiced law in New Bromley, South Branch. In 1779, he settled near New Brunswick at Raritan Estate, all in New Jersey. [Read more…] about William Paterson & The Constitution of the United States
“The importance of the Hudson River in the present contest, and the necessity of defending it, are subjects which have been so frequently and fully discussed and are so well understood that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon them.” – George Washington
It is hard to imagine a time in the United States when highways did not exist, but that was certainly the case at the time of the Revolutionary War. Some cities could brag of their cobblestone streets but once outside the residential area, roads could best be described as single-lane dirt paths, frozen solid but probably covered with snow in winter, mud bogs in spring, and deeply rutted, jarring, swaying and unstable conveyances the rest of the year.
A small military wagon could move along only as fast as a team of oxen could pull it. Moving armies and cannon along these roadways was a slow, difficult undertaking, offering opposing forces considerable advance notice and many opportunities to thwart progress or attack. [Read more…] about Chains Across the Hudson, Stirling Ironworks & The Townsend Family
On this episode of A New York Minute In History, Devin Lander and Lauren Roberts delve into the history of Albany County’s Rapp Road Community, an African American neighborhood built by southern immigrants who moved north for a better life in the late 1920s.
Program guests include Stephanie Woodward, board member of the Rapp Road Historical Association; and Dr. Jennifer Lemak, Chief Curator of the history collection at the New York State Museum, and author of Southern Life, Northern City: The History of Albany’s Rapp Road Community (SUNY Press, 2008). [Read more…] about Albany’s Rapp Road Community & The Great Migration
In the first days of August, 1777, Albany seemed doomed to be overrun by the British. General John Burgoyne had taken Crown Point, Fort Ticonderoga, Fort George, Fort Anne, Fort Edward and Fort Miller, the last substantial fortified place protecting the city from the north. To the west at Fort Stanwix, a siege was underway requiring many of General Philip Schyuler’s troops being sent to that fort’s defense from their camp on Van Schaick Island, now in the city of Cohoes.
Burgoyne however, had severely stretched his supply line. He was now having problems bringing up food and supplies over primitive roads that had been severely rutted and nearly destroyed by the Revolutionaries. He had to slow down to wait for food and had to keep his supply line protected all the way back to Canada, spreading his troops more thinly. [Read more…] about Revolutionary Albany: The Battles of Saratoga & Loyalist Opposition
Between 1749 and 1764 colonial governor of the Province of New Hampshire Benning Wenworth made about 135 land grants (now known as the New Hampshire Grants), including 131 towns, on land claimed by New Hampshire west of the Connecticut River. This area was also claimed by the colonial Province of New York.
From the 1760s until 1779 the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen and his brother Ira, controlled the area. Based at a tavern in Bennington, they evaded arrest warrants from New York State and harassed settlers from New York, surveyors, and other officials, often with severe beatings and destruction of their belongings. [Read more…] about Albany Posse! The Capture of Remember Baker, Captain of the Green Mountain Boys
After a late-summer of preparations, too late in the fall of 1775, the Colonial Army mounted a two-pronged invasion of Canada. General Schuyler invaded Montreal from Fort Ticonderoga and General Benedict Arnold attacked Quebec.
Schuyler fell ill and was replaced by General Richard Montgomery. Montgomery took Montreal and then marched to assist Arnold at Quebec. [Read more…] about Revolutionary Albany: Setbacks As The War Presses Toward Albany
In early May, 1775 the Revolutionary War was underway on largely local scale. The attack on the British forces leaving Lexington and Concord had happened less than a month earlier, and 4,500 British troops had landed in Boston.
The lightly defended Fort Ticonderoga was taken on the morning of May 10, 1775, in a surprise attack by the Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, with the help of Benedict Arnold. The fort had been held by the British for 16 years, since it was taken from the French in 1759. [Read more…] about Revolutionary Albany: Supplying Ticonderoga, Dealing With Loyalists & Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Relations
Beginning in 1764, the Parliament of Great Britain passed a series of tax acts attempting to tax the colonies to help pay for the costs of troops provided during and after the French and Indian War (which had ended the year before). Various taxes were imposed on sugar, newspapers, printed documents, dice and playing cards and later, glass, lead, paint, paper and tea. British tax collectors were physically threatened and prevented from collecting the tax and British goods were boycotted. [Read more…] about Revolutionary Albany: Organizing The Committee of Safety, Protection and Correspondence
Anne McVickar Grant says in her Memoirs of an American Lady: With Sketches of Manners and Scenery in America, as they Existed Previous to the Revolution (1808), a memoir of an aunt of General Philip Schuyler, that theater began in Albany in 1760. She says that British soldiers quartered at Albany, built a stage and produced The Beau’ Stratagem. The 1707 play by Irishman George Farquhar details the exploits of two young men on hard times who plan to travel and seduce wealthy women for the their money. Unexpectedly, one falls in love.
Grant says the soldiers felt that the moral of the story was missed on the Albany residents, “so indifferent was the English Language understood by them.” Almost 100 years after the English occupation of Albany, the Dutch language was still predominant. In fact, pockets of Dutch speakers remained into the 20th century. [Read more…] about Early Albany Theater & The Ghost of Rev. Freylinghausen: An English Tale of Dutch Albany