Archives: Videos

North of America: Loyalists, Indigenous Nations, and the Borders of the Long American Revolution

Jeffers Lennox
October 5, 2022

At the start of the Revolutionary War, independence had its limits as patriots were surrounded by indigenous peoples and loyalists throughout the northern regions that straddled the colonial borders, and these foreign neighbors were far from inactive during the Revolution. Upper Canada, Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and especially the homelands that straddled […]

Lt. William Popham’s Orderly Book

Rachel Nellis
September 25, 2022

On September 25, 1780, Benedict Arnold fled West Point and defected to the British as news of his betrayal spread. Our newest Collections Corner video features Research Services Librarian Rachel Nellis sharing an orderly book kept by Lt. William Popham in the late summer and early fall of 1780. This orderly book features the shocking […]

Dark Voyage: An American Privateer’s War on Britain’s African Slave Trade

Christian McBurney
September 22, 2022

Historian Christian McBurney discusses the harrowing voyage of the Marlborough, an American privateer vessel that sailed across the Atlantic to attack British slave trading posts and ships on the coast of West Africa during the Revolutionary War. His new ground-breaking book is the first to explore the efforts of the Marlborough’s officers and crew, along […]

William Faden’s 1778 and 1784 maps of the Battle of Brandywine

Andrew Outten
September 9, 2022

Historical Programs Manager Andrew Outten discusses two maps produced by British cartographer William Faden depicting the Battle of Brandywine. William Faden is well known for his maps of major battles of the Revolutionary War. Unusually, he produced two maps of the Battle of Brandywine, one in 1778 and the other in 1784. Each map shows […]

The Historiscope: A Complete Panorama of America

Stacia Smith
August 25, 2022

The historiscope is an educational toy manufactured by Milton Bradley & Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, ca. 1868-1890. It features a scrolling set of hand-colored lithographs wound around two vertical wooden dowels with metal handles set into a cardboard box that allowed a child to present one image after the other to a gathering of family […]

“To Have The Bed Made”: Invisible Labor and the Material Culture of Nursing in the Revolutionary War

Meg Roberts
August 25, 2022

Alongside the surgeons and physicians, the medical care of the thousands of sick and wounded Continental soldiers relied upon the tireless work of army nurses, camp followers, housewives, cooks, laundresses and local families. In contrast to the voluminous records of soldiers’ and military leaders’ wartime experiences, the contribution of women has often been summarized fleetingly […]

The Habsburg Monarchy and the American Revolution

Jonathan Singerton
August 16, 2022

During the Revolutionary War, the Habsburg monarchy, the largest continental European power of the eighteenth century, never formally recognized the United States, but its ruling and mercantile elites saw opportunity, especially for commerce. Bringing together materials from nearly fifty international archives, Jonathan Singerton of the University of Innsbruck reconstructs the full sweep of relations between […]

“A Kind of Partisan War”: An Archaeological Perspective on Francis Marion

Steven Smith
August 4, 2022

When Nathanael Greene was appointed commander of the southern Continental forces in the fall of 1780, he wrote to George Washington that he would be forced to fight “a kind of partisan war,” until he could raise an army large enough to contend with the British. Greene’s strategy was to check the main British army […]

The Artifacts of Arnold’s Bay: Following the Diaspora of Material Culture Over Time

Christopher Sabick & Cherilyn Gilligan
July 28, 2022

During the last engagement in the 1776 northern campaign season, Gen. Benedict Arnold burned the remaining vessels of his American fleet in Lake Champlain to prevent capture by the British. In 2020, the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program funded an archeological survey project of this area, now classified as a Revolutionary War battlefield […]

The Art and Science of Siege Warfare in the American Revolution

Glenn F. Williams
July 14, 2022

Fortification and siege doctrine were a critical component of any eighteenth-century military. Drawing mainly from the Siege of Yorktown, Dr. Glenn F. Williams of the U.S. Army Center of Military History explores the intricacies and technical expertise required to carry out an effective and successful siege in the Revolutionary War. This lecture focuses on eighteenth-century […]

Nathanael Greene’s Pistols

Andrew Outten
July 8, 2022

The Institute’s historical programs manager, Andrew Outten, discusses a pair of holster pistols that was owned by Gen. Nathanael Greene and given to his aide-de-camp, Nathaniel Pendleton, who served under Greene during the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War. The brass box-lock pistols were made about 1782 by William Grice and Charles Freeth of Birmingham, […]

Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778

Ricardo A. Herrera
July 6, 2022

In this new history of the Continental Army’s Grand Forage of 1778, award-winning military historian Ricardo A. Herrera uncovers what daily life was like for soldiers during the darkest and coldest days of the American Revolution: the Valley Forge winter. There the army launched its largest and riskiest operation—not a bloody battle against British forces […]

William Truman Stoddert Portrait Miniature

Emily Parsons
July 1, 2022

This watercolor portrait miniature pictures First Lieutenant William Truman Stoddert of the Maryland Continental Line, who served in the Revolutionary War for six years. The portrait was painted about 1778 by Charles Willson Peale, the most important American artist during the war and a soldier himself. Lieutenant Stoddert probably commissioned this miniature as a gift […]

Spanish Model 1757 Flintlock Musket

Andrew Outten
June 22, 2022

The Spanish Model 1757 musket was the standard Spanish infantry firearm during the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution. In June 1779, Spain formally declared war on Great Britain, creating a de facto alliance with the Americans and expanding the global reach of the Revolution. Spain supplied these muskets and other military stores to […]

Dr. James Tilton’s Society of the Cincinnati Eagle Insignia and Treatise

Emily Parsons
June 17, 2022

The Institute’s deputy director and curator, Emily Parsons, discusses Dr. James Tilton’s Society of the Cincinnati Eagle insignia and 1813 medical treatise. James Tilton served in the Revolutionary War first as a military physician for the Delaware Regiment and later as a Continental Army hospital physician. During the brutal winter encampment at Morristown in 1779-1780, […]

Medicine in the American Revolution

Ronald S. Gibbs
June 16, 2022

Disease was a major part of everyday life in the American colonies, especially during the Revolutionary War. For every soldier dying of wounds in the war, seven died of infections including smallpox, malaria and typhus. Doctors were influenced by ancient medical thought, and with the best intentions, treated diseases with bleedings, leeches and purges. Ronald […]

The Burning of His Majesty’s Schooner Gaspee

Steven Park
June 9, 2022

On June 9, 1772, a group of prominent Rhode Islanders rowed out to the British schooner Gaspee, which had run aground six miles south of Providence while on an anti-smuggling patrol. After threatening and shooting its commanding officer, the raiders looted the vessel and burned it to the waterline. Despite colony-wide sympathy for the raid, neither […]

A Portrait of Capt. Francis Lord Rawdon

Paul Newman
May 20, 2022

Museum Collections and Operations Manager Paul Newman discusses a portrait of Capt. Francis Lord Rawdon by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, ca 1777. Lord Rawdon, an Irish-born officer in the British army, saw extensive service in the northern and southern theaters of the Revolutionary War and took part in almost every major battle. This Lunch Bite focuses […]

Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War

Friederike Baer
May 17, 2022

Between 1776 and 1783, Great Britain hired an estimated thirty thousand German soldiers to fight in its war against the American rebels. Collectively known as Hessians, the soldiers and accompanying civilians, including hundreds of women and children, spent extended periods of time in locations as dispersed and varied as Canada, West Florida and Cuba. They […]

The Institution of the Society of the Cincinnati

Ellen McCallister Clark
May 13, 2022

The most important and iconic treasure of the Society of the Cincinnati’s archives is the Institution, the document that formally established the organization of Revolutionary War veterans. On May 13, 1783, a group of Continental Army officers gathered at General Steuben’s headquarters near Newburgh, New York, to finalize and adopt the Institution. The Institution lays […]

America’s Revolutionary Mind: A Moral History of the American Revolution

C. Bradley Thompson
April 27, 2022

The American Revolution was a watershed in the principles of government between centuries of monarchical and aristocratic rule and free societies based on moral principles that shaped the Revolutionary ideal of universal equality. Professor Thompson, author of America’s Revolutionary Mind: A Moral History of the American Revolution and the Declaration that Defined It, explores the logic […]

French Naval Engraving

Rachel Nellis
April 22, 2022

This recently acquired 1790 engraving depicts two French frigates, the Astrée and the Hermione, engaged in battle against a convoy of six British warships off Cape Breton Island on July 21, 1781. Engraved by François Dequevauviller, after the painting by Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy, the print was a collaboration of the two artists, who […]

Benjamin Rush’s Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers

Ellen McCallister Clark
April 15, 2022

Library Director Ellen McCallister Clark discusses Benjamin Rush’s Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers from our library collections and a feature of our exhibition, Saving Soldiers: Medical Practice in the Revolutionary War. Published in 1778, Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers reflected the ambition of physicians as well as American leaders to apply the insights […]

Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Joseph Warren, the American Revolution’s Lost Hero

Christian Di Spigna
April 12, 2022

Dr. Joseph Warren, a respected physician and architect of the Revolutionary movement, was one of the most important figures in early American history—and might have gone on to lead the country had he not been killed at Bunker Hill in 1775. Warren was involved in almost every major protest against British policies in the Boston […]

Mercy Otis Warren’s Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous

Rachel Nellis
March 18, 2022

Research Services Librarian Rachel Nellis discusses Mercy Otis Warren’s Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous, published in 1790, that contains two plays and several allegorical or satirical poems on the Revolution that were dedicated to George Washington and praised by Alexander Hamilton.    

Thomas Kempton Powder Horn

Paul Newman
March 17, 2022

This engraved powder horn was made by an unidentified professional carver for Capt. Thomas Kempton of Massachusetts during the Siege of Boston in 1775. The powder horn depicts scenes of Roxbury and Boston, including the Boston lighthouse, a fort flying the British flag, Boston Neck, a barracks and other buildings in Roxbury. Museum Collections and […]

Displaced: The Siege of Boston and the “Donation People” of 1775

Katie Turner Getty
March 10, 2022

In 1775, the British army seethed within Boston as the Continental Army besieged the city, compelling thousands of civilians to flee to the surrounding countryside. General George Washington and the Massachusetts Provincial Congress coordinated efforts to support the influx of displaced persons while attempting to protect the Continental Army from smallpox flaring in Boston. Many […]

Cornwallis: Soldier and Statesman in a Revolutionary World

Richard Middleton
March 2, 2022

Charles Cornwallis was a leading figure in late eighteenth-century Great Britain. His career spanned the American War of Independence, Irish Union, the French Revolutionary Wars and the building of the second British Empire in India. Focusing on the first part of his new major biography, Richard Middleton offers insight into Cornwallis’ time in America  and […]

Saving Soldiers: Medical Practice in the Revolutionary War

March 1, 2022

Explore our exhibition Saving Soldiers: Medical Practice in the Revolutionary War in this short video tour featuring a few highlight objects. Drawn principally from the Institute’s collections of rare books, manuscripts, portraits and artifacts, Saving Soldiers examined medical practice in the Continental Army and the experiences of surgeons and their patients under the dire conditions […]

A Most Gallant Resistance: The Delaware River Campaign, September-November 1777

Jim Mc Intyre
February 16, 2022

By October 1777, British forces occupied Philadelphia. Yet an elaborate American defense of the Delaware River crippled the British supply lines and threatened their ability to hold the city.  Historian Jim Mc Intyre discusses the massive effort by the Crown forces to gain control of the strategic waterway. He highlights the British occupation of Philadelphia, […]

A German Military Jaeger Rifle

Andrew Outten
February 11, 2022

Historical Programs Manager Andrew Outten discusses a German military jaeger rifle. The soldiers who comprised the German auxiliary forces that supported Great Britain during the Revolutionary War were a formidable foe. They were well trained and highly disciplined. Among these German auxiliaries were specialized corps of light infantry soldiers known as jaegers. With backgrounds as […]

The Untold War at Sea: America’s Revolutionary Privateers

Kylie Hulbert
February 3, 2022

Action at sea played a critical role in European and Anglo-American conflicts throughout the eighteenth century. Yet the oft-told narrative of the American Revolution tends to focus on battles on American soil or the debates and decisions of the Continental Congress. The Untold War at Sea is the first book to place American privateers and their experiences […]

A Portrait of Sir William Green

Paul Newman
January 21, 2022

Museum Collections and Operations Manager Paul Newman discusses a portrait of General Sir William Green, Baronet, by George Carter, ca 1784. As the chief engineer for Gibraltar prior to and during the Franco-Spanish siege of the British territory, it was Green who designed, lobbied for and oversaw the construction of greater defenses of the Rock. […]

Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding

Hannah Farber
January 13, 2022

Unassuming but formidable, American maritime insurers used their position at the pinnacle of global trade to shape the new nation. As Hannah Farber demonstrates in her new book Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding, the international information insurers gathered and the capital they generated enabled them to play central roles in state […]

Surviving the Winters: Housing Washington’s Army during the American Revolution

Steven Elliott
December 2, 2021

George Washington and his Continental Army braving the frigid winter at Valley Forge forms an iconic image in the popular history of the American Revolution. Such winter camps were also a critical factor in waging and winning the War of Independence. Exploring the inner workings of the Continental Army through the prism of its encampments, Surviving […]

George Washington, the Society of the Cincinnati, and the Origins of American Neutrality

Sandra Moats
November 16, 2021

George Washington and his cabinet issued the Neutrality Proclamation in 1793 to shield the United States from European warfare. This proclamation owed its existence to numerous sources, including Washington’s military experiences and European diplomatic precedents. A lesser known, but highly influential, inspiration came from the Society of the Cincinnati, whose French members had served alongside […]

The British Are Coming: The War for America Begins

Rick Atkinson
October 22, 2021

Who can doubt that the creation story of our founding in the American Revolution remains valid, vivid and thrilling? Even in 2021, at a moment when national unity is elusive, when our partisan rancor seems ever more toxic, when the simple concept of truth is assailed, that story informs who we are, where we came […]

Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History

Katherine Carté
September 14, 2021

For most of the eighteenth century, British Protestantism was driven neither by the primacy of denominations nor by fundamental discord between them. Instead, it thrived as part of a complex transatlantic system that bound religious institutions to imperial politics. As Dr. Carté argues, British imperial Protestantism proved remarkably effective in advancing both the interests of […]

Image of Regulators in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina.

The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina

Marjoleine Kars
August 24, 2021

Years before shots rang out at Lexington and Concord, backcountry settlers in the North Carolina Piedmont launched their own defiant bid for economic independence and political liberty. The Regulator Rebellion of 1766-1771 arose from the conflict created by competing ideologies and goals between the religious outlook of evangelical Protestants and mainstream Anglicans; between the aspirations […]

Cover image for Espionage and Enslavement.

Espionage and Enslavement in the Revolution

Claire Bellerjeau and Tiffany Yecke Brooks
August 5, 2021

In January 1785, a young African American woman named Elizabeth was put on board the Lucretia in New York Harbor, bound for Charleston, where she would be sold to her fifth master in just twenty-two years. Leaving behind a small child she had little hope of ever seeing again, Elizabeth was faced with the stark […]

Image of three French officers who served in the American Revolution and wrote memoir accounts of their time in America.

French Memoirs from the War for American Independence

Ellen Clark, Normand Desmarais, Robert Selig and Andrew Woelflein
July 12, 2021

The American Revolution marked the beginning of an age of democratic revolutions that swept over France and challenged the old order throughout the Atlantic world. The French officers who served in the American War of Independence, whether as idealistic volunteers or resolute soldiers of their king, remembered the experience for the rest of their lives. […]

Image of Kevin J. Weddle, author of "The Compleat Victory" about the Battle of Saratoga.

The Battle of Saratoga and “the Compleat Victory”

Kevin Weddle
May 6, 2021

Following the successful expulsion of American forces from Canada in 1776, the British forces were determined to end the rebellion and devised what they believed a war-winning strategy. They were to send General John Burgoyne south to rout the Americans and take Albany. When British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga with unexpected ease in July of […]

Robert P. Watson, author of George Washington's Final Battle, discusses his new book at Washington's role in the creation of the District of Columbia.

George Washington and the District of Columbia

Robert Watson
April 19, 2021

The first president is remembered for leading the Continental Army to victory, presiding over the Constitutional Convention and forging a new nation, but less well known is the story of his involvement in the establishment of a capital city and how it nearly tore the United States apart. In this video Robert P. Watson, professor of […]

Cropped engraving of "The Bloody Massacre," now known as the "The Boston Massacre" in March of 1770.

The Boston Massacre: A Family History

Serena Zabin
March 4, 2021

Serena Zabin, professor of history and director of the American studies program at Carleton College, discusses her book on the personal and political conflicts that erupted in the Boston Massacre. Following the British troops dispatched from Ireland to Boston in 1768 to suppress colonial unrest, Dr. Zabin has uncovered the stories of the many regimental […]

Author Lindsay Chervinsky discusses her book, "The Cabinet," about George Washington's Presidential advisors.

The Cabinet: Washington and the Creation of an American Institution

Lindsay Chervinsky
February 24, 2021

Faced with diplomatic crises, domestic insurrections and constitutional challenges—and finding congressional help lacking—George Washington decided he needed a group of advisors. Washington modeled his new cabinet on the councils of war he had led as commander of the Continental Army. In this talk on The Cabinet: Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, Lindsay M. Chervinsky […]

The executive director of the American Revolution Institute argues that the American Revolution is properly understood as a people’s revolution—a social and cultural transformation driven by the desire of ordinary people for personal independence.

The Future of the American Revolution

Jack D. Warren, Jr.
February 23, 2021

What is the place of the American Revolution in the future we are making? In this lecture presented in the North Carolina Museum of History’s American Revolution Lecture Series (sponsored by the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati), the executive director of the American Revolution Institute argues that the American Revolution is properly understood as […]

Image of "The Pensioner" used in the presentation on "America's First Veterans."

America’s First Veterans

Jack D. Warren, Jr.
January 13, 2021

Executive Director Jack Warren discusses America’s First Veterans, a book published by the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati. Using eighty-five manuscripts, rare books, prints, broadsides, paintings and other artifacts, America’s First Veterans introduces the stories of the men—and some women—who bore arms in the Revolutionary War. The book follows their fate in […]

David and Ginger Hildebrand perform an Independence Day concert for the American Revolution Institute on July 2, 2020.

A Second of July Concert

David and Ginger Hildebrand
July 2, 2020

David and Ginger Hildebrand perform eighteenth-century songs—including ballads, marches, and songs inspired by women—in costume with period instruments for our 2020 Independence Day concert. The Hildebrands have performed for our traditional “Second Day of July” concert for several years. The date is inspired by John Adams—the father of American independence if ever there was one—who […]

Revolutionary Choices Trailer

RevChoicesGame.org
June 19, 2020

The men and women of the revolutionary generation won our independence and created a free and united republic. Can you do as well? You will face the dilemmas confronted by American revolutionaries as they struggle to recruit and supply troops, win French support, suppress loyalists and defeat the British without trampling on rights or fracturing […]

Title page of the Deborah Sampson biography, "The Female Review."

Deborah Sampson at War

Rachel Nellis
May 15, 2020

Librarian Rachel Nellis discusses Herman Mann’s The Female Review: or, Memoirs of an American Young Lady, a 1797 biography of Deborah Sampson, a soldier in the Massachusetts Line and one of the first female pensioners of the American Revolution. Mixing fact with romantic inventions, the book was published to support Deborah’s application for a pension, […]

Mary Beth Norton spoke about 1774, her new book about the coming of the American Revolution, at the American Revolution Institute.

1774: The Long Year of Revolution

Mary Beth Norton
March 5, 2020

Mary Beth Norton discusses her book, 1774: The Long Year of Revolution, analyzing the revolutionary change that took place between December 1773 and April 1775—from the Boston Tea Party to the Battles of Lexington and Concord. In those months, Britain’s American colonists were finally and irrevocably alienated from the British government by a series of […]

T. Cole Jones spoke about his book, Captives of Liberty, dealing with prisoners of war, at the American Revolution Institute.

Prisoners of War in the American Revolution

T. Cole Jones
February 27, 2020

Prisoners of war presented an enormous challenge for patriot forces during the American Revolution. Patriots captured more than seventeen thousand enemy soldiers during the war. At times the prisoners in American hands outnumbered the Continental Army. At the outset of the war, Americans treated British prisoners in accordance with the conventions of eighteenth-century warfare, but […]

This image portrays veterans of the Revolutionary War, World War I, and the Vietnam War.

American Veterans through Two Centuries

A Panel Discussion
November 11, 2019

For Veterans Day 2019, the Institute presented an examination of the experiences of American veterans from the Revolutionary generation to our own time. Held in conjunction with our exhibition America’s First Veterans, the program opened with remarks from Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Executive Director Jack Warren. Video […]

Louis XVI biographer John Hardman presents the 2019 George Rogers Clark lecture discussing the factors that ultimately led to French support for the War for American Independence.

Louis XVI and the War of American Independence

John Hardman
October 25, 2019

Aid sent by Louis XVI tipped the scales in favor of a Patriot victory in the War for American Independence. However, this assistance was far from assured. John Hardman argues that the French monarch possessed sharp political insight and talent in foreign policy, and his choice to support the Patriot cause was nearly lost. Why […]

Christy Pichichero discussed the military enlightenement and the French army at the American Revolution Institute.

The American Revolution and the French Military Enlightenment

Christy Pichichero
October 10, 2019

Christy Pichichero illustrates how the French Enlightenment philosophies of foreign officers in the American Revolution informed their perspective of American customs. Selecting the marquis de Chastellux and the comte de Rochambeau—whose memoirs are a part of the Institute’s rich archival collections—among her examples, Dr. Pichichero labels these men “military philosophers” who brought Enlightenment philosophy to […]

John Buchanan spoke about Nathanael Greene's campaign in the South at the American Revolution Institute.

Nathanael Greene’s Last Campaign

John Buchanan
May 30, 2019

John Buchanan discusses his book about the dramatic conclusion of the American Revolution in the South led by Major General Nathanael Greene. Greene’s Southern Campaign was the most difficult of the war. Insufficient manpower a constant problem, Greene attempted to incorporate black regiments into his army, a plan angrily rejected by the South Carolina legislature. […]

Albert Zambone spoke about his biography of Daniel Morgan at the American Revolution Institute.

The Revolutionary Life of Daniel Morgan

Albert Zambone
May 6, 2019

Daniel Morgan, one of America’s greatest battlefield commanders, arose from humble beginnings. Following a fight with his father, Morgan left home as an illiterate teenage laborer. Through ambition, determination and a great deal of luck, he became a landowner, congressman and Revolutionary War general. This lecture uncovers Morgan’s tumultuous life and recounts his leadership in […]

Patrick Spero is the Director of the American Philosophical Society.

Rebels on the Pennsylvania Frontier

Patrick Spero
December 13, 2018

Patrick Spero examines the overlooked conflict between the Black Boys of Pennsylvania, Native American forces and the British Empire prior to the American Revolution. As the Stamp Act riled eastern seaports, frontiersmen clashed with the British Empire over another issue: Indian relations. When British officials launched a risky diplomatic expedition into Pennsylvania’s Allegheny frontier to […]

Emily Schulz Parsons, deputy director and curator of the American Revolution Institute, discusses a portrait of loyalist James DeLancey.

A Portrait of American Loyalist James DeLancey

Emily Parsons
November 16, 2018

American loyalist Colonel James DeLancey of Westchester County, New York, who led several loyalist cavalry and infantry units during the American Revolution is the subject of this portrait ca. 1778-1782 attributed to itinerant artist John Durand. Portraits of American loyalists depicted in the uniforms they wore when they fought against the patriot cause are rare. Emily […]

Historian Bob Selig discusses burial of the dead on Revolutionary War battlefields.

Battlefield Burial during the Revolutionary War

Robert Selig
October 30, 2018

Although battlefield burial is seldom covered by modern historians, following almost any military engagement, corpses needed to be buried. Who was responsible for disposing of these corpses? How can we tell who buried whom? Were officers and other ranks buried together or separate? Historian Robert Selig answers these and related questions about burying the dead […]

Kathleen DuVal gave the George Rogers Clark Lecture on the Revolution in the Spanish borderlands.

The American Revolution on the Spanish Borderlands

Kathleen DuVal
October 26, 2018

Kathleen DuVal illuminates the American Revolution on the Spanish borderlands—recounting clashes between the Spanish and British forces over the territory along the Gulf of Mexico. The capture of Mobile and the Siege of Pensacola were critical to the outcome of the Revolutionary War, the future of the American South and the lives of the people […]

Colonel Jeremiah Lee of Marblehead

Robert Booth
October 3, 2018

Colonel Jeremiah Lee was a fabulously wealthy colonial merchant who turned against the British Empire and became a leader of the rebel movement in Massachusetts. Historian Robert Booth brings this outspoken revolutionary to life as part of the 250th anniversary celebration of Lee’s achievements, hosted by the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati and the Marblehead […]

The Broadway musical Hamilton has introduced a whole generation of theater goers to the American Revolution.

Historians on Hamilton the Musical

A Panel Discussion
August 2, 2018

Four scholars who contributed to Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical is Restaging America’s Past dissect the musical’s phenomenon and what it means for our understanding of America’s past. Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical, has become so popular that it is being used to teach U.S. history in classrooms across the country. But just how historically accurate is this Broadway […]

Dr. Chip Bragg is a member of the Society of the Cincinnati and an authority on the Burr-Hamilton duel.

A Fratricidal Affair of Honor: Reactions to the Burr-Hamilton Duel

Cordell Lee Bragg
June 7, 2018

The Hamilton-Burr duel has become one of the most infamous altercations in U.S. history.  Officers in the Revolutionary War and original members of the Society of the Cincinnati—Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr squared off in Weehawken, New Jersey, in the hours of the early morning on July 11, 1804. Although Hamilton led the Society as […]

John Avlon discusses George Washington's Farewell Address and legacy at an Institute event in 2018.

Washington’s Farewell Address

John Avalon
May 11, 2018

George Washington’s Farewell Address is an essential document for the Republic. Its message, a “warning from a parting friend,” remains starkly relevant to a modern audience. By the end of his second term, President Washington was viciously attacked in the press and alarmed by intense partisan bitterness. Determined to avoid the mistakes that had doomed […]

Professor Rod Andrew is the author The Life and Times of Andrew Pickens.

Andrew Pickens: War Hero and Founder

Rod Andrew
January 23, 2018

Andrew Pickens (1739–1817) was the hero of many American Revolution victories against British and Loyalist forces. Rod Andrew vividly depicts the hard-fighting South Carolina militia commander founding churches, acquiring slaves, struggling over Indian territorial boundaries on the southern frontier and joining the patriot cause. Combining insights from military and social history, Andrew argues that while […]

Robert Allison of Suffolk University is the author of several books on Boston in the American Revolution.

Was the American Revolution Inevitable?

Robert Allison
October 27, 2017

“Was the American Revolution inevitable?” is a complex question posed by Robert Allison in the 2017 George Rogers Clark Lecture. The achievement of independence hinged upon the cooperation of colonists from diverse backgrounds to unite in a common cause. The people in British North America had profound differences—religious, social, political and economic—that surfaced in local […]

Rachel Engle discusses her research on camraderie in the Continental Army.

The Social Community of the Continental Army

Rachel Engl
October 24, 2017

Rachel Engl charts social community—the ways individuals initiated and maintained casual and intimate relationships—in the Continental Army. Over the course of the Revolutionary War, tens of thousands of men served in the Continental Army, many of whom formed strong friendships while fighting. Personal connections sustained men within the Continental Army and opened new opportunities for some […]

C.L. Bragg discusses his research on the execution of Isaac Hayne in Revolutionary South Carolina.

The Execution of Isaac Hayne, South Carolinian

Cordell Lee Bragg
March 7, 2017

Col. Isaac Hayne was hung for treason on August 4, 1781, in Charleston, South Carolina, by the British army. The death of a patriot for the cause of liberty was not a unique occurrence, but the unusually well-documented events surrounding the execution of Hayne and the involvement of his friends and family make his story […]

The causes of the Revolution are the subject of this lecture by Andrew O'Shaughnessy.

The British Empire and the Causes of the American Revolution

Andrew O'Shaughnessy
October 28, 2016

Andrew O’Shaughnessy argues that the drive to centralize control over its growing empire led Britain to adopt authoritarian policies to govern its American colonies and was one of the main causes of the American Revolution. Britain’s North American colonists resisted and ultimately rebelled to avoid the fate of Irish, a people denied the rights enjoyed […]

J.L. Bell discussed his research on the British march on Concord at the American Revolution Institute.

The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War

J. L. Bell
August 31, 2016

The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War unfolds a vignette from the beginning of the American Revolution. In the early spring of 1775, British army spies located four brass cannon belonging to Boston’s colonial militia that had gone missing months before. British general Thomas Gage devised plans to regain the […]

Carl Borick discussed his book on Revolutionary War prisoners of war at the American Revolution Institute.

American Prisoners in the Revolutionary South

Carl Borick
April 19, 2016

American prisoners in the revolutionary South held captive by the British forces were a logistical and financial burden that contributed to their failure in the South. During the Siege of Charleston in 1780, British forces under General Sir Henry Clinton and Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot captured nearly six thousand American troops, the largest number of prisoners […]

Wendy Wick Reaves discussed George Washington in art at the American Revolution Institute.

How Revolutionary Americans Imagined George Washington

Wendy Wick Reaves
February 23, 2016

Prints of an imagined George Washington circulated around the country in the late eighteenth century as Americans yearned for images of their new leaders. At the start of the Revolutionary War, almost any fictitious image could pass as a portrait of an American hero. George Washington, as commander-in-chief, warranted extra efforts and American printmakers searched […]

Archaeologist Meg Watters was the lead investigator at Parker's Revenge, a Revolutionary War battle site between Lexing and Concord, Massachusetts.

Archaeology at Parker’s Revenge

Meg Watters
December 9, 2015

Parker’s Revenge, the scene of intense fighting between the retreating British and militia on April 19, 1775, is the site of recent archaeological discoveries. Because contemporary documents reveal little about this fight, an archaeological survey was needed to reveal clues left behind in the soil. Meg Watters and her team, using ground penetrating radar and […]

Global Migration of American Loyalists

Maya Jasanoff
November 5, 2015

At the end of the American Revolution, sixty thousand Americans loyal to the British cause fled the United States and became refugees throughout the British Empire. Loyalists traveled to Canada, sailed for Britain, and journeyed to the Bahamas and the West Indies. Some ventured still farther afield, to Africa and India. Wherever they went, this voyage […]

Maya Jasanoff presents her research about the global migration of American Loyalists after the Revolution at the American Revolution Institute.

American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World

Maya Jasanoff
October 23, 2015

Global migration of American Loyalists following the Revolutionary War is a topic easily overlooked by scholars and educators as they trace the path of the victorious Patriot forces. However, at the end of the American Revolution, sixty thousand Americans loyal to the British cause fled the United States and became refugees throughout the British Empire, […]

Librarian Rachel Jirka discussed two French accounts of the Yorktown campaign.

Two Narratives of the French Army’s March to Yorktown

Rachel Jirka
August 14, 2015

French narratives of the march to Yorktown from the American Revolution Institute’s collection—written by Henri-Dominique de Palys, chevalier de Montrepos, and Robert Guillaume, baron de Dillon—are highlighted in this presentation by Rachel Jirka, an Institute librarian. The narratives detail the French army’s march to Yorktown in 1781 and provide insight into the French experience marching […]

Oneida and Six Nations

James Kirby Martin
July 24, 2015

The Oneida nation was the only one of the Iroquois Confederacy to ally with the Americans during the Revolutionary War. Congress formally honored the Oneida in 1794 for their service to the American cause, yet over time the Oneida sacrifice faded in American memory and was eventually forgotten. Professor Martin describes their important contributions to […]

Benedict Arnold

James Kirby Martin
July 24, 2015

American general Benedict Arnold secretly conspired with the enemy to surrender West Point and George Washington. Disaster for the Americans was thwarted only when Arnold’s co-conspirator, John André, was captured with plans of the West Point fortifications in his boot. Professor Martin tells Arnold’s full story, from his childhood and support for the American cause […]

Robert Selig presents a lecture on the march to Yorktown at the American Revolution Institute’s headquarters.

The March to Yorktown

Robert Selig
July 16, 2015

The epic march to Yorktown undertaken by the French and patriot forces was the largest troop movement in the Revolutionary War. From 1781-1782 French forces marched under the command of the comte de Rochambeau to and from Yorktown, alongside their American allies led by George Washington, as they traveled from Newport, Rhode Island, and West […]

A Well-Regulated Militia: History of the Second Amendment

Saul Cornell
June 16, 2015

Professor Cornell delves into the complicated history and interpretation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He argues that the amendment neither guarantees the right to own guns nor simply protects the rights of states to maintain militias—the two most common modern interpretations of the amendment. The American founders understood the right to bear […]

At the American Revolution Institute, John Ruddiman presents his research about the experience of young soldiers during the Revolutionary War.

Youth and Military Service in the Revolutionary War

John Ruddiman
May 8, 2015

The experience of young soldiers in the Revolutionary War was shaped by their drive to achieve personal independence and autonomy. The war offered an entire generation of young men unusual opportunities for social advancement, honor and distinction, but diverted those who served from the established path through young adulthood. John Ruddiman focuses on soldiers as […]

Andrew O'Shaughnessy is the author of a study of the Revolution in the Caribbean.

The American Revolution in the Caribbean

Andrew O'Shaughnessy
December 4, 2014

In British America in 1776, there were twenty-six, not thirteen colonies—the majority of the colonies outside the mainland were in the Caribbean. Even though they shared many important similarities and connections with the mainland colonies, they did not rebel. Andrew O’Shaughnessy argues that the economic and political differences in the British colonies in the Caribbean […]

James Kirby Martin of the University of Houston is an authority on the military history of the American Revolution.

George Washington and the Newburgh Conspiracy

James Kirby Martin
October 24, 2014

In March of 1783, the Newburgh Conspiracy threatened to derail the fragile calm at the end of the Revolutionary War. The rumors of peace after Yorktown brought anxiety to soldiers in the Continental Army. The Continental Congress had not paid them for some time, and they would soon return home, many impoverished. The soldiers had […]

An Empire Divided: Revolution and the British Caribbean

Andrew O’Shaughnessy
September 26, 2014

There were twenty-six colonies, not thirteen, in British America in 1776, and the majority of the colonies outside the mainland were in the Caribbean. Even though they shared many important similarities and connections with the mainland colonies, they did not rebel. Dr. O’Shaughnessy examines the British colonies in the Caribbean during the American Revolution and […]

Lord North

Andrew O'Shaughnessy
September 24, 2014

The policies of Lord North, the British prime minister during the American Revolution, united the American colonies in rebellion. The Tea Act and the Coercive Acts solidified many colonists’ objections to what they considered British oppression. Dr. O’Shaughnessy examines the successes and failures of Lord North’s administration, which ended with his resignation six months after […]

Dennis Conrad, formerly an editor of the Nathanael Greene Papers, now edits Naval Documents of the American Revolution, presents a lecture about the Continental Navy.

Naval Warfare in the Spring of 1778

Dennis Conrad
September 24, 2014

Dennis Conrad recounts the significant alterations the Continental Navy underwent during the American Revolution in the spring of 1778. Naval warfare in the Revolutionary War took place in the Atlantic and beyond—stretching as far away as the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. The internationalization of naval conflicts and an increase in the number and […]

Mel Gibson’s The Patriot: An Historian’s View

Walter Edgar
July 13, 2014

Mel Gibson’s film The Patriot, released in 2000, is a valuable teaching tool, as Professor Edgar argues in this look at its themes and accuracy. The film illustrates two important themes very well: the vicious, partisan nature of the war in the South, and the wide range of interests and ideals that motivated southerners, whether […]

Nathaniel Philbrick presents a lecture about the Battle of Bunker Hill at the Boston Athenaeum.

Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution

Nathaniel Philbrick
May 20, 2014

Nathaniel Philbrick brings a fresh perspective to the Battle of Bunker Hill. The real central character in this battle is Boston—where vigilantes fill the streets with a sinister and frightening violence, even as calmer patriots struggle to see their way to rebellion. The core of Philbrick’s lecture, building on his book Bunker Hill: A City, a […]

The Southern Frontier in the American Revolution

Walter Edgar
May 8, 2014

The American Revolution did not begin and end in Boston. The backcountry in the South was an especially important region in the struggle for American independence. Professor Edgar examines the complicated factors that influenced the conflict in this region, including Southerners’ reactions to the Stamp Act and Townsend Duties and the political empowerment of backcountry […]

Women Who Followed the Continental Army

Carol Berkin
April 10, 2014

In the popular imagination, men conducted the Revolutionary War and the Continental Army and its encampments were an all-male environment. Professor Berkin reveals that, in reality, women and children accompanied the army and provided important services to sustain it, including cooking and laundering. The presence of these women decreased desertion and supplied necessary labor, although, […]

African American Women and the American Revolution

Carol Berkin
April 10, 2014

African American women longed for freedom as much as anyone in revolutionary America, but few enjoyed its blessings. Liberty proved elusive, whether offered by the British or articulated by American revolutionaries. Some African American women in Virginia liberated themselves in response to Lord Dunmore’s proclamation, only to be sold back into slavery. Others fled to […]

Native American Women and the American Revolution

Carol Berkin
April 10, 2014

The American Revolution was many revolutions, argues Professor Berkin, transforming the lives of Native Americans while the colonists fought for independence. For many Native Americans, victory meant increased pressure from white settlers. Native American women shared their peoples’ struggles for independence and autonomy. Professor Berkin highlights the story of Molly Brant, a Mohawk woman who […]

Revolutionary Transformation of Women’s Role in Society

Carol Berkin
April 10, 2014

The Revolution transformed the role of women in American society. Law and custom in colonial America reflected the idea that women were morally inferior to men. Mothers bore and nursed their infants, but the task of teaching children right from wrong fell, at least in principle, on their fathers. Professor Berkin reveals how the Revolution […]

Daughters of Liberty and Loyalist Women

Carol Berkin
April 9, 2014

Professor Berkin illuminates how women—both supporters of American liberty and loyalists to the Crown—participated in the Revolutionary War and the challenges they faced during the period. Patriot women maintained boycotts of imported goods, joined the army disguised as men, acted as spies, and followed the Continental Army. Loyalist women were often stripped of their property […]

The Global Tea Party

Benjamin L. Carp
April 2, 2014

The Boston Tea Party was not just a local story, Professor Carp argues, it was also a global story. The East India Company was becoming a territorial power in South Asia. Its principal import, tea, came from China and was becoming a popular drink among Europeans. These Europeans drank their tea with sugar, planted and […]

Farar Ellliott, curator of the U.S. House of Representatives, discusses portraits of Revolutionary War in the U.S. Capitol in a lecture at the American Revolution Institute.

Revolutionary War Heroes in the Art of the U.S. Capitol

Farar Elliott
November 15, 2013

The Revolutionary War portraits that adorn the U.S. Capitol serve a purpose beyond artistic decoration. In the early nineteenth century, Americans searched for icons to unite them as a new nation, particularly ones that evoked civic virtue. The only symbols that the fractured and growing nation could agree on were Revolutionary War heroes. Learn how […]

Carol Berkin, a leader in Revolutionary era women's history, presents the vital role Patriot and Loyalist women played in the American Revolution.

Women in the American Revolution

Carol Berkin
October 25, 2013

The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed and danger into the life of every American, women included. While men left to fight, women shouldered greater responsibility as they maintained their farms alone and tried to prevent confiscation of property. Patriot women maintained boycotts of imported goods, joined the army disguised as […]

Benjamin Carp, author of Defiance of the Patriots, a history of the Boston Tea Party.

The Boston Tea Party

Benjamin Carp
October 24, 2013

In addition to objecting to taxation without representation, Bostonians protested the Tea Act of 1773 in part because it forced them to pay a tax on top of the monopoly prices set by the East India Company. They also opposed supporting the sons of the royally appointed governor who would benefit from the tax revenue. […]

Civic Virtue in Early America

Saul Cornell
August 9, 2013

Revolutionary Americans regarded civic virtue—a willingness to sacrifice personal interests for the good of the community—as vital to the preservation of republican institutions. The ideal of virtuous citizenship was rooted in classical antiquity and influenced American political thought and the art, architecture and literature that helped define the iconography of the new nation. Professor Cornell […]