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American Revolution and Revolutionary War

Lafayette in Rhode Island
2 years ago

Lafayette in Rhode Island

“The moment I heard of America, I lov’d her.” The Marquis de Lafayette wrote this in a letter from his camp near Warren, Rhode Island, on September 23, 1778. It …
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Why Did Rhode Island Merchants Resist Non-Importation in 1767?
2 years ago

Why Did Rhode Island Merchants Resist Non-Importation in 1767?

It’s a great puzzle of the Revolutionary era.  Before 1767, Rhode Island was one of the most gung-ho colonies in resisting British intervention.  Newporters had fired on imperial customs enforcers, …
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A Book Review: Revolutionary Blacks: Discovering the Frank Brothers, Freeborn Men of Color, Soldiers of Independence by Shirley L. Green (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2023)
2 years ago

A Book Review: Revolutionary Blacks: Discovering the Frank Brothers, Freeborn Men of Color, Soldiers of Independence by Shirley L. Green (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2023)

This captivating book tells a new American story. It is the first book to detail the life, challenges, fears and hopes of a Black soldier in the Continental Army during …
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Gaspee Raid Inspires Boston Tea Party Raiders to Disguise Themselves as Narragansetts
2 years ago

Gaspee Raid Inspires Boston Tea Party Raiders to Disguise Themselves as Narragansetts

Last week, this website ran an article providing strong contemporaneous evidence that many of the men who broke open the tea chests and destroyed the tea inside them on board …
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Narragansetts (Not Mohawks) Blamed for Boston Tea Party
2 years ago

Narragansetts (Not Mohawks) Blamed for Boston Tea Party

In the evening of December 16, 1773, a band of Boston Whigs (commonly known today as Patriots) charged onto three merchant ships at a wharf in Boston Harbor and dumped …
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The Sloop Providence: Its Role in the Revolutionary War and its Rebuilding
2 years ago

The Sloop Providence: Its Role in the Revolutionary War and its Rebuilding

The Idea for Rebuilding

In 1966, a young Harvard graduate in Rhode Island with a passion for naval history noted that the American Bicentennial was approaching. No one else seemed …
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Providence Merchant John Brown Gets Rich Privateering in 1776 and 1777
3 years ago

Providence Merchant John Brown Gets Rich Privateering in 1776 and 1777

Throughout the churning tides of 1776 and 1777, John Brown, a prominent merchant from Providence, amassed a fortune by investing in privateers. Through reviewing a comprehensive list of his privateers …
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Did Rhode Island Matter in the American Revolution?
3 years ago

Did Rhode Island Matter in the American Revolution?

We Rhode Islanders pat ourselves on the back a lot, including when it comes to the Revolution. But did the colony (and later state) really matter much in bringing about …
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Book Review:  Revolutionary War Defenses in Rhode Island by John K. Robertson
3 years ago

Book Review: Revolutionary War Defenses in Rhode Island by John K. Robertson

Mention Rhode Island during the American Revolution, and two things come to mind: the 1772 burning of the Gaspee, and the famous 1st Rhode Island Regiment initially composed largely of …
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Ann Bates: British Spy Extraordinaire
3 years ago

Ann Bates: British Spy Extraordinaire

The popularity of spies in the Revolutionary War, led by AMC’s TURN cable television series and the bestselling book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spy Ring that Saved the American …
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