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About Christian McBurney

Christian McBurney is an independent historian who has authored several books on the American Revolutionary War, including the following four with Rhode Island connections: Dark Voyage: An American Privateer’s War Against Britain’s African Slave Trade (Westholme, 2022); Spies in Revolutionary Rhode Island (History Press, 2014), Kidnapping the Enemy: The Special Operations to Capture Generals Charles Lee and Richard Prescott (Westholme, 2014), and The Rhode Island Campaign: The First French and American Operation of the Revolutionary War (Westholme, 2011). He has also co-authored World War II Rhode Island (History Press, 2017) and Untold Stories of World War II Rhode Island (History Press, 2019), and has authored Machine Guns in Narragansett Bay: The Coast Guard’s War on Rumrunners (History Press, 2023). Christian is the founder, publisher and editor of The Online Review of Rhode Island History (www.smallstatebighistory.com). He has authored a number of articles for the Rhode Island History and Newport History magazines and Pettaquamscutt Historical Society newsletter. For more information on these books and articles, see christianmcburney.com. He resides in the Washington, D.C. area, after being raised in Kingston, R.I., attending South Kingstown High School, and obtaining his undergraduate degree from Brown University. He frequently returns to Rhode Island to give book lectures and visit his family.
Latest Posts | By Christian McBurney
The Providence Journal Publishes Despite the Historic 1886 Flood and the Blizzard of 1888
3 weeks ago

The Providence Journal Publishes Despite the Historic 1886 Flood and the Blizzard of 1888

[From the editor: This article quotes at length from chapter 8 of the following book published in 1904: Half a Century with the Providence Journal, Being a Record of the …
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Boys Hired to Deliver the Providence Journal from 1833 to 1873 Reveal Their Pranks and Challenges
1 month ago

Boys Hired to Deliver the Providence Journal from 1833 to 1873 Reveal Their Pranks and Challenges

[From the editor: This article quotes at length from a chapter on child newspaper carriers from the early years of the Providence Journal. The children were required to appear early …
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Victims of Newport’s Stamp Act Riots Reimbursed (Not)
1 month 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?


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Business Owners Try to Control How Their Employees Vote in 1876 Election
6 months ago

Business Owners Try to Control How Their Employees Vote in 1876 Election

[Editor’s Note: This excerpt (from an 1880 report) explains how some big businesses tried to control the manner in which their employees voted in the presidential election year of 1876 …
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Rhode Islanders Insist on No Compromise with the South after Lincoln’s Election
7 months ago

Rhode Islanders Insist on No Compromise with the South after Lincoln’s Election

On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the victor in a tight, four-way race for president. The country was bitterly at odds—more divided than an any point of its history. …
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Rhode Island Fails to Vote for Lincoln for President at Nominating Convention!
7 months ago

Rhode Island Fails to Vote for Lincoln for President at Nominating Convention!

I believe that one of the most remarkable (and fortuitous) events in American history was Abraham Lincoln’s nomination as the presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 1860. Early in …
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Governor’s 1708 Report Tells Where the First Black Enslaved People Who Arrived in Rhode Island Came from and About the Arrival of the First Slave Ship from Africa
8 months ago

Governor’s 1708 Report Tells Where the First Black Enslaved People Who Arrived in Rhode Island Came from and About the Arrival of the First Slave Ship from Africa

[The following is perhaps the earliest official report on slavery in Rhode Island and the colony’s ties to the African slave trade. Historians and students of history of Rhode Island …
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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)
9 months 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
11 months 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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Samuel Casey, Talented Colonial Silversmith and Notorious Counterfeiter, Escapes the Hangman
12 months ago

Samuel Casey, Talented Colonial Silversmith and Notorious Counterfeiter, Escapes the Hangman

Samuel Casey of Little Rest (now Kingston) was one of the most skilled silversmiths in colonial times in all of the colonies.  His craftsmanship of silver tankards and teapots made …
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