Image

American Revolution and Revolutionary War

John Manley’s Bad Day in Newport in December 1776
3 weeks ago

John Manley’s Bad Day in Newport in December 1776

Most of this article is an inventory of the items that Newport merchant John Manley owned at the end of 1776 at his modest home in Newport on Touro Street, …
Read More

What Colonel Christopher Greene Owned (and Did not Own) in 1779 and 1781
2 months ago

What Colonel Christopher Greene Owned (and Did not Own) in 1779 and 1781

Christopher Greene was one of Rhode Island’s greatest heroes of the Revolutionary War, but his life was tragically cut short.  He was appointed a lieutenant in the Kentish Guards, an …
Read More

Governor, Chief Justice, and Signer  Stephen Hopkins
2 months ago

Governor, Chief Justice, and Signer Stephen Hopkins

Stephen Hopkins (1707–85), statesman, pamphleteer, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born on March 7, 1707, in Providence easterly of a former Indian village called Mashapaug. This site …
Read More

Teaching The American Revolution Using Ken Burns’s Documentary—Episodes 2 and 3
2 months ago

Teaching The American Revolution Using Ken Burns’s Documentary—Episodes 2 and 3

“Long did I endeavor with unfeigned and unwearied Zeal, to preserve from breaking, that fine and noble China Vase the British Empire: for I knew that being once broken, the …
Read More

Teaching The American Revolution Using Ken Burns’s Documentary—Episode 1
4 months ago

Teaching The American Revolution Using Ken Burns’s Documentary—Episode 1

Filmmaker Ken Burns has never been shy about tackling big topics, especially the conflicts that have defined us as a nation. In 1990, Burns’s epic documentary on the Civil War …
Read More

Rhode Island Almost Sparks Revolutionary War in 1774 by Stealing Cannon in Newport
11 months ago

Rhode Island Almost Sparks Revolutionary War in 1774 by Stealing Cannon in Newport

Hostilities between the New England colonies and Great Britain did not break out until April 19, 1775, at the Battle of Lexington and Concord. But Rhode Island’s government took a …
Read More

My Day at the Battle of Lexington and Concord 250th Reenactment
11 months ago

My Day at the Battle of Lexington and Concord 250th Reenactment

I love history firsts. The American Revolutionary War began on April 19, 1775, at the Battle of Lexington and Concord. This was the sharp beginning of America on its road …
Read More

A Rhode Island Officer’s Recollections Lead to New Information on Battle of Red Bank
11 months ago

A Rhode Island Officer’s Recollections Lead to New Information on Battle of Red Bank

I recently came across the recollections of Simeon Thayer, who served from 1777 to 1781 as a major in Rhode Island Continental Army regiments. He was one of the outstanding …
Read More

Victims of Newport’s Stamp Act Riots Reimbursed (Not)
1 year ago

Victims of Newport’s Stamp Act Riots Reimbursed (Not)

Bostonian merchants, sailors and dockworkers hated the Stamp Act enacted by Parliament in early 1765.  What right did Parliament have to tax Americans when they were not represented in Parliament?


Read More

“I Had Like to Have Forgot to Mention a Famous Sham Battle”
1 year ago

“I Had Like to Have Forgot to Mention a Famous Sham Battle”

With the Naval War College on Aquidneck Island, we island residents have a familiarity with the idea of “wargaming” or rehearsing the decisions leaders would make during warfare involving joint …
Read More