Black Patriots and Loyalists
Black Patriots and Loyalists

Author: Alan Gilbert

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2012-03-19

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 0226293092

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A surprising look at the roles of African Americans in the Revolutionary War: “An elegant and passionate writer, Alan Gilbert pulls no punches.”—Historian We think of the American Revolution as the war for independence from British colonial rule. But, of course, that independence actually applied to only a portion of the American population—African Americans would still be bound in slavery for nearly another century. Drawing on first-person accounts and primary sources, Alan Gilbert asks us to rethink what we know about the Revolutionary War, to realize that while white Americans were fighting for their freedom, many black Americans were joining the British imperial forces to gain theirs. Further, a movement led by sailors—both black and white—pushed strongly for emancipation on the American side. There were actually two wars being waged at once: a political revolution for independence from Britain, and a social revolution for emancipation and equality—planting the seeds for future freedom. “The personal stories of those who fought on the patriots’ side in an all-black regiment and on the loyalist side in exchange for a promise of freedom are fascinating and informative.”—Booklist

The Forgotten Fifth
The Forgotten Fifth

Author: Gary B Nash

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 0674041348

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As the United States gained independence, a full fifth of the country's population was African American. The experiences of these men and women have been largely ignored in the accounts of the colonies' glorious quest for freedom. In this compact volume, Gary B. Nash reorients our understanding of early America, and reveals the perilous choices of the founding fathers that shaped the nation's future. Nash tells of revolutionary fervor arousing a struggle for freedom that spiraled into the largest slave rebellion in American history, as blacks fled servitude to fight for the British, who promised freedom in exchange for military service. The Revolutionary Army never matched the British offer, and most histories of the period have ignored this remarkable story. The conventional wisdom says that abolition was impossible in the fragile new republic. Nash, however, argues that an unusual convergence of factors immediately after the war created a unique opportunity to dismantle slavery. The founding fathers' failure to commit to freedom led to the waning of abolitionism just as it had reached its peak. In the opening decades of the nineteenth century, as Nash demonstrates, their decision enabled the ideology of white supremacy to take root, and with it the beginnings of an irreparable national fissure. The moral failure of the Revolution was paid for in the 1860s with the lives of the 600,000 Americans killed in the Civil War. "The Forgotten Fifth" is a powerful story of the nation's multiple, and painful, paths to freedom.

New York in the Age of the Constitution, 1775-1800
New York in the Age of the Constitution, 1775-1800

Author: Paul A. Gilje (ed)

Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780838634554

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The seven essays in this collection, originally presented at a New-York Historical Society Conference, examine ways in which the epic political events associated with the founding of the United States affected the lives of New Yorkers.

Fatal Sunday
Fatal Sunday

Author: Mark Edward Lender

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2016-04-18

Total Pages: 625

ISBN-13: 0806155132

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Historians have long considered the Battle of Monmouth one of the most complicated engagements of the American Revolution. Fought on Sunday, June 28, 1778, Monmouth was critical to the success of the Revolution. It also marked a decisive turning point in the military career of George Washington. Without the victory at Monmouth Courthouse, Washington's critics might well have marshaled the political strength to replace him as the American commander-in-chief. Authors Mark Edward Lender and Garry Wheeler Stone argue that in political terms, the Battle of Monmouth constituted a pivotal moment in the War for Independence. Viewing the political and military aspects of the campaign as inextricably entwined, this book offers a fresh perspective on Washington’s role in it. Drawing on a wide range of historical sources—many never before used, including archaeological evidence—Lender and Stone disentangle the true story of Monmouth and provide the most complete and accurate account of the battle, including both American and British perspectives. In the course of their account it becomes evident that criticism of Washington’s performance in command was considerably broader and deeper than previously acknowledged. In light of long-standing practical and ideological questions about his vision for the Continental Army and his ability to win the war, the outcome at Monmouth—a hard-fought tactical draw—was politically insufficient for Washington. Lender and Stone show how the general’s partisans, determined that the battle for public opinion would be won in his favor, engineered a propaganda victory for their chief that involved the spectacular court-martial of Major General Charles Lee, the second-ranking officer of the Continental Army. Replete with poignant anecdotes, folkloric incidents, and stories of heroism and combat brutality; filled with behind-the-scenes action and intrigue; and teeming with characters from all walks of life, Fatal Sunday gives us the definitive view of the fateful Battle of Monmouth.

The American Revolution in Monmouth County: The Theatre of Spoil and Destruction
The American Revolution in Monmouth County: The Theatre of Spoil and Destruction

Author: Michael S. Adelberg

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2010-11-26

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1614232636

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Michael S. Adelberg brings to life the struggles within Monmouth County, a place that New Jersey governor William Livingston called "the theatre of spoil and destruction." Like much of New Jersey during the American Revolution, Monmouth County was contested territory in between the great armies. As the Battles of Trenton, Princeton and Bound Brook raged nearby, the people of Monmouth County fought their own internal revolution; Loyalist partisans led insurrections and raids that laid waste to entire neighborhoods. In 1778, General George Washington rallied his Continental army and fought the British within Monmouth's borders, barely holding the field. Monmouth Countians joined the fight and then spent the following weeks caring for the wounded and burying the dead. The remaining war years brought more hardships, as they grappled with a local civil war charged with racial, religious and economic undercurrents - a local civil war that continued long after the Battle of Yorktown supposedly ended hostilities.

The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution
The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution

Author: William Cooper Nell

Publisher: Andesite Press

Published: 2015-08-08

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9781298490308

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North
Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North

Author: Graham Russell Hodges

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 9780945612513

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Focusing on the development of a single African American community in eastern New Jersey, Hodges examines the experience of slavery and freedom in the rural north. This unique social history addresses many long held assumptions about the experience of slavery and emancipation outside the south. For example, by tracing the process by which whites maintained "a durable architecture of oppression" and a rigid racial hierarchy, it challenges the notions that slavery was milder and that racial boundaries were more permeable in the north. Monmouth County, New Jersey, because of its rich African American heritage and equally well-preserved historical record, provides an outstanding opportunity to study the rural life of an entire community over the course of two centuries. Hodges weaves an intricate pattern of life and death, work and worship, from the earliest settlement to the end of the Civil War.

"Pretends to Be Free"

Author: Graham Russell Gao Hodges

Publisher: Fordham Univ Press

Published: 2019-01-08

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 0823282163

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Republication on the twenty-fifth anniversary of “Pretends to Be Free” recognizes the signal importance of its sterling presentation of northern self-emancipation. Today, even more than a quarter-century ago, these fugitive slave notices are the best verbal snapshots of enslaved Americans before and during the American Revolution. Through these notices, readers can discover how enslaved blacks chose allegiance during our War for Independence. Replete with a preface by Edward E. Baptist, the leading scholar of slavery and capitalism and director of a massive project aimed at digitalizing every escape notice, and with a new Introduction and teacher’s guide by Graham Hodges, this new edition makes this documentary study more relevant than ever.

Black and White Manhattan
Black and White Manhattan

Author: Thelma Wills Foote

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2004-10-28

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 0198037031

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Race first emerged as an important ingredient of New York City's melting pot when it was known as New Amsterdam and was a fledgling colonial outpost on the North American frontier. Thelma Wills Foote details the arrival of the first immigrants, including African slaves, and traces encounters between the town's inhabitants of African, European, and Native American descent, showing how racial domination became key to the building of the settler colony at the tip of Manhattan Island. During the colonial era, the art of governing the city's diverse and factious population, Foote reveals, involved the subordination of confessional, linguistic, and social antagonisms to binary racial difference. Foote investigates everyday formations of race in slaveowning households, on the colonial city's streets, at its docks, taverns, and marketplaces, and in the adjacent farming districts. Even though the northern colonial port town afforded a space for black resistance, that setting did not, Foote argues, effectively undermine the city's institution of black slavery. This history of New York City demonstrates that the process of racial formation and the mechanisms of racial domination were central to the northern colonial experience and to the founding of the United States.