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American Revolution

James Wilson & The US Constitution

September 20, 2023 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

James Wilson: The Anxious FounderJames Wilson was a Scottish-born legal scholar, jurist, and statesman who served as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1789 to 1798.

Wilson attended two Continental Congresses, signed of the Declaration of Independence, and helped draft the U.S. Constitution. A leading legal theorist, he was one of the first four Associate Justices appointed to the Supreme Court by George Washington. In his capacity as the first professor of law at the College of Philadelphia (later to become the University of Pennsylvania), he taught the first course on the new Constitution to President Washington and his Cabinet in 1789 and 1790. [Read more…] about James Wilson & The US Constitution

Filed Under: Books, History Tagged With: American Revolution, Atlantic World, George Washington, Legal History, Lexington Books, Panic of 1796–1797, Philadelphia, Podcasts, Political History, Supreme Court

The American Revolution in the Finger Lakes

September 10, 2023 by Guest Contributor 3 Comments

Early illustration of the Iroquois Confederacy, by a EuropeanInitially, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) claimed neutrality during the conflict between Britain and the colonists, seeing the disagreement as a civil war and valuing loyalty to their families and to their lands above all else. When the political discontent erupted into the American Revolutionary War, the member nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy split their support between the British and newly formed American forces. [Read more…] about The American Revolution in the Finger Lakes

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: American Revolution, Battle of Newtown, Canandaigua Lake, Cayuga Nation, Chemung County, Finger Lakes, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Lenape - Munsee - Delaware, Livingston County, Loyalism, Military History, Oneida Indian Nation, Onondaga Nation, Seneca Lake, Seneca Nation, Sullivan_Clinton Expedition, Tioga County, Tuscarora

Euro-American Expansion Into The Finger Lakes Region

August 27, 2023 by Guest Contributor 7 Comments

Map of the State of New York (1802) by Simeon DeWitt, (Library of Congress, Geography & Map Division)The Treaty of Paris of 1783 officially ended hostilities between the British and Americans; however, the treaty did not include the allied Indian Nations, leaving their legacy treaties with the Europeans unresolved and their future to be resolved through separate treaties with the new American government. [Read more…] about Euro-American Expansion Into The Finger Lakes Region

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: American Revolution, Auburn, Auburn Prison, Canandaigua, Cayuga County, Cayuga Lake, Cayuga Nation, Finger Lakes, Genesee River, Geneva, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Ithaca, Keuka Lake, Livingston County, Monroe County, Onondaga County, Onondaga Nation, Ontario County, Religious History, Rochester, Schuyler County, Seneca Nation, Seneca River, Skaneateles Lake, Social History, Steuben County, Syracuse, Tompkins County, Transportation History, Treaty of Canandaigua, Waterloo, Wayne County, Yates County

Witness to the Revolution: A New Historical Novel Set in New York

August 25, 2023 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

Witness to the RevolutionHundreds of men from Orange County, NY, the setting for the novel, served in the rebel militia. However, many residents remained loyal to King George III. Both sides had spy networks. Many in the county were divided within families. [Read more…] about Witness to the Revolution: A New Historical Novel Set in New York

Filed Under: Arts, Books, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: American Revolution, HIstorical Fiction, Orange County, Podcasts

Albany’s Peter Gansevoort, “The Hero of Stanwix”

August 15, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Detail from portrait of Gansevoort by Gilbert Stuart, 1794Peter Gansevoort Jr. was born into the Dutch aristocracy of Albany to Harman Gansevoort (1712–1801) and Magdalena Douw (1718–1796). His younger brother Leonard Gansevoort, was politically active, serving in the state assembly and senate, as well as the Continental Congress. [Read more…] about Albany’s Peter Gansevoort, “The Hero of Stanwix”

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Events, History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Albany Rural Cemetery, American Revolution, Canada, Cemeteries, Cohoes, DAR, Essex County, Fort Chambly, Fort Edward, Fort George, Fort Oswego, Fort Saratoga, Fort Stanwix, Fort Ticonderoga, Gansevoort, Invasion of Quebec, Lake Champlain, Lake George, Marinus Willett, Military History, Montreal, Monuments, Oneida County, Peter Gansevoort, Political History, Quebec, Richard Montgomery, Schuylerville, Siege of Fort Stanwix, Sullivan_Clinton Expedition, Ticonderoga, Van Schaick Mansion, War of 1812, Warren County

The British Occupation of New York City, 1776-1783

August 13, 2023 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

Patriots topple the Bowling Green statue of King George Ill on July 9, 1776Historians are fond of saying that the Revolutionary War in the city of New York began and ended in the same place.  On July 9, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read to George Washington’s troops at City Hall. Within minutes, a mob of fired-up patriots stormed nearby Bowling Green where they pulled down its statue of King George III and sawed off the royal crown finials on the uprights of the surrounding fence. (The original fence still stands, you can see the saw marks.) [Read more…] about The British Occupation of New York City, 1776-1783

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: American Revolution, Bowling Green, Evacuation Day, Fires, George Washington, Loyalism, Manhattan, Military History, New York City

Archaeological Excavations Underway at Revolutionary Fort Plain

August 8, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Archaeological excavation (courtesy New York State Archaeological Association)Archaeological excavations are underway at Fort Plain Museum on weekends through August 27, 2023 with the goal of seeking archaeological information to help in the reconstruction of ovens and a bakehouse that are believed to once have stood at the Revolutionary War era fort. [Read more…] about Archaeological Excavations Underway at Revolutionary Fort Plain

Filed Under: Events, Food, History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: American Revolution, Archaeology, Culinary History, Fort Clyde, Fort Paris, Fort Plain, Fort Plain Museum, Fort Plank, Fort Rensselaer, Fort Willett, Fort Windecker, Military History, Minden, Mohawk River, Montgomery County, New York State Archaeological Association

Lake George Officials Hope to Acquire Revolutionary Burial Ground

August 4, 2023 by Anthony F. Hall Leave a Comment

volunteers working with archaeologists in Lake George VillageA vacant lot adjacent to the site where Revolutionary War soldiers and others who died at the smallpox hospital at Fort George at the south end of Lake George were buried may be preserved as open space, with a historical marker denoting its historical significance. [Read more…] about Lake George Officials Hope to Acquire Revolutionary Burial Ground

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: American Revolution, Archaeology, Cemeteries, Fort George, Historic Preservation, Lake George, Lake George Battlefield Park, Medical History, Military History, smallpox, Warren County

The Fall of Fort Ticonderoga in July 1777

July 25, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Fort Ticonderoga (Carl Heilman II photo provided by Fort Ticonderoga. Fort Ticonderoga was a strategic fort in Northern New York on Lake Champlain that was captured by American Revolutionaries in 1775. It’s loss in 1777 was a major blow to the war effort during the American Revolution, resulting in court-marshals of the commanding officers.

The British army, led by General John Burgoyne, began its attack on the Fort in July 1777. The Americans, under the command of General Arthur St. Clair, were outnumbered and outgunned. Burgoyne’s forces surrounded the fort and began shelling it from the north. [Read more…] about The Fall of Fort Ticonderoga in July 1777

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, American Revolution, Arthur St. Clair, Battle of Bennington, Battle of Fort Anne, Battle of Saratoga, Essex County, Fort Ticonderoga, Hubbardton Battlefield, John Burgoyne, Lake Champlain, Lake George, Military History, Mount Defiance, Ticonderoga, Ticonderoga Historical Society

The Revolution’s First Bloodshed, New York’s Liberty Poles & The Battle of Golden Hill

July 21, 2023 by Johanna Porr Yaun 2 Comments

Philip Dawe’s The Bostonians Paying the Excise-man, or Tarring and Feathering (October 31, 1774, Library of Congress)After the end of the French and Indian War, there was tension over King George III and Parliament’s plan to tax the Colonies to pay off the war debt. John Wilkes, editor of The North Briton newspaper and a member of Parliament, opposed the King in his publications.

Wilkes’ most critical editorial was printed in 1763 in Issue # 45, a number highlighted to evoke memories of the Jacobite Uprising of 1745, commonly referred to as “The 45 Rebellion” or simply “45” in political culture. The King was personally offended and issued a warrant for Wilkes’ arrest. [Read more…] about The Revolution’s First Bloodshed, New York’s Liberty Poles & The Battle of Golden Hill

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Alexander McDougall, America's 250th Anniversary, American Revolution, Battle of Golden Hill, Greenwich Village, Hudson Valley 250, Manhattan, New York City, Newburgh, Orange County, Political History, riots

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