Reflections

The Rights of the Colonists

by Ira Stoll

To understand where the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights come from, it helps to know about a Town of Boston document from 1772, “Rights of the Colonists.” Written almost four years before the Declaration of Independence and nearly 20 years before the Bill of Rights.

The “Rights of the Colonists” managed to foreshadow both of those documents that eventually became far better known.

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Washington and Rochambeau, a Revolutionary Collaboration

by Theodore J. Crackel

In July 1780, a French fleet arrived at Newport, Rhode Island with some 5,000 French infantry and a number of marines under the command of Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, le Comte de Rochambeau. Although Rochambeau had been ordered to regard Washington as his superior officer, the result was a remarkable collaboration between the two men – one that led to the victory at Yorktown, Virginia that assured American independence.

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Canada and the American Revolution

by Holly A. Mayer

There were twenty British North American colonies or provinces in 1776, so why did only thirteen of those colonies declare independence that year or confirm it by war and treaty in 1783?

The revolutionaries did try to entice and coerce other colonists to reject what they called tyranny, but they found that not all of their neighbors, much less all of the colonies of the British Empire in North America, interpreted ministry or parliamentary acts negatively or were prepared to sustain a rebellion. As a result, there was civil war between the colonies, as well as within them, as rebelling American Whigs, later named patriots, battled Loyalist neighbors whom they derided as Tories, the King’s pawns.

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African-Americans in the Continental Army and the State Militias During the American War of Independence

by Robert Selig

Four days after the 19 April 1775 Battle of Lexington and Concord, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress resolved “that an army of 30,000 men be immediately raised” out of volunteers from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Taking Massachusetts’ lead, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, voted in turn on 14 June to raise “six companies of expert rifflemen … in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia.” As soon as they were ready the men were to “join the army near Boston.” Though neither of these laws defined race or color criteria for military service, the racial and ethnic make-up of the army assembling near Boston mirrors largely the militias of the four New England states, where some 17,000 (in 1790) mostly free African-Americans constituted roughly 1.7 percent of the population.

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General George Washington

by Thomas Fleming

Was Washington a great general? In seven years of fighting the British, from 1775 to 1782, he won only three clear-cut victories— at Trenton, Princeton, and Yorktown. In seven other encounters—Long Island, Harlem Heights, White Plains, Fort Washington, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth—he either was defeated or at best could claim a draw.

A general’s ability to inspire his men is not, of course, to be discounted, and Washington unquestionably had this gift. But the great commanders of history are rated on their ability to conceive a winning strategy and execute it. Does Washington belong in this select group?

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Religion and the Founders

by Wilfred M. McClay

The United States is the product of a unique history, and in no area is that more evident than in the realm of religion. Americans have managed to produce a pattern of religious life that is vibrant, diverse, and tolerant. While religious belief and practice have atrophied in much of Western Europe, in the United States they have flourished—and this despite the fact that many Western European countries continue to have established churches supported by public funds, of precisely the sort that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbids. How to explain this seeming paradox?

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