American Revolution

Speculation Nation: Land Mania in the Revolutionary American Republic

October 6, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

During the first quarter-century after its founding, the United States was swept by a wave of land speculation so unprecedented in intensity and scale that contemporaries and historians alike have dubbed it a “mania.”

In Speculation Nation: Land Mania in the Revolutionary American Republic (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023) Michael A. Blaakman uncovers the revolutionary origins of this real-estate bonanza ― a story of ambition, corruption, capitalism, and statecraft that stretched across millions of acres from Maine to the Mississippi and Georgia to the Great Lakes. [Read more…] about Speculation Nation: Land Mania in the Revolutionary American Republic

Letter from George Washington Referencing Battles of Saratoga Being Sold for $275,000

October 5, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Raab Collection, autograph dealers, have announced that it has discovered, acquired, and is offering for sale for the first time a letter written by George Washington in October, 1777, just days after the Battles of Saratoga ended. [Read more…] about Letter from George Washington Referencing Battles of Saratoga Being Sold for $275,000

Baron von Steuben’s Oneida County Estate

October 4, 2023 by Editorial Staff 4 Comments

In December 1777, early in the American Revolution, Baron von Steuben joined the fight against the British with the assistance of then ambassador to France Benjamin Franklin.

Appalled by the state of the Revolutionary army, Steuben began teaching soldiers military drills, tactics, and discipline based on Prussian techniques. [Read more…] about Baron von Steuben’s Oneida County Estate

‘I Hope You Are of Our Party’: Fidelity and Benedict Arnold’s Betrayal

October 3, 2023 by Jack Kelly 3 Comments

Shakespeare, of course, wrote acclaimed plays about history. But sometimes history takes the pen from the playwright’s hand and fashions a scenario of such startling tension and originality that the story seems destined for the stage. One of these dramas took place in September 1780. It involved the plot by Benedict Arnold to betray the patriot cause and to help the British prevail in the Revolutionary War. [Read more…] about ‘I Hope You Are of Our Party’: Fidelity and Benedict Arnold’s Betrayal

The Great Burning: Carleton’s Raid of 1780 Being Memorialized

September 30, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Major Christopher Carleton led an expedition of the British Army’s 29th Regiment of Foot comprising soldiers, Loyalists and Native Americans, to implement “The Great Burning” of Continental forts and patriot homesteads in Washington, Warren and Saratoga Counties during the fall of 1780. [Read more…] about The Great Burning: Carleton’s Raid of 1780 Being Memorialized

Noah Webster’s Dictionary for Independence

September 27, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

On July 23, 1788, a colorful “Federal Procession” of nearly 5,000 citizens marched through Lower Manhattan in celebration of the ratification of the Constitution. The Order of the Procession was divided in ten divisions representing various trades and professions. One of those involved in the manifestation was a young Federalist and lexicographer by the name of Noah Webster.

Noah was a member of the Philological Society of New York. Founded in March 1788 for the purpose of “improving the American Tongue,” the Society was eager to take part in the event. Solemnly dressed in black, the philologists paraded in the Ninth Division with lawyers, college students and merchants. [Read more…] about Noah Webster’s Dictionary for Independence

1888: The First National Monument to Unknown Soldiers

September 26, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

From the winter 1812 “Camp Saranac” (Pike’s Cantonment) to the fortifications built for the defense and protection of the village of Plattsburgh and the important military stores in 1814 (Forts Brown, Moreau, and Scott, the wooden barracks and two additional forts – Forts Gaines and Tompkins – in 1815), the Plattsburgh Stone Barracks in 1838, the brick “brownstones” of the 1890s, to the establishment of the Army’s “Plattsburgh Barracks” in 1945 and the “new base” of the Air Force in the 1950s, the military presence in Plattsburgh have had a long and interesting past. [Read more…] about 1888: The First National Monument to Unknown Soldiers

James Wilson & The US Constitution

September 20, 2023 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

James 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

The American Revolution in the Finger Lakes

September 10, 2023 by Guest Contributor 3 Comments

Initially, 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

Euro-American Expansion Into The Finger Lakes Region

August 27, 2023 by Guest Contributor 7 Comments

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