A Tragic Tale of Slavery, Smuggling, and Chocolate
A little-known story of mutiny and murder illustrating the centrality of smuggling and slavery in early American society On the night of June 1, 1743, terror struck the schooner Rising Sun. After completing a routine smuggling voyage where the crew sold enslaved Africans in exchange for chocolate, sugar, and coffee in the Dutch colony of ......
Henry Flitcroft was first employed by the leading aristocratic architect of the time, Richard Boyle, Lord Burlington, who helped him to establish his long career. Flitcroft had about 50 clients over 40 years, working for many dynasties, including the royal family, the Bedfords, the Yorke/Hardwickes and the Malton/Rockinghams. Remarkably, he was ......
The Life of Revolutionary War Hero Israel Putnam from Rogers' Rangers to
The Whites of Their Eyes recounts the life and times of Israel Putnam, a larger-than-life general, a gregarious tavern keeper and farmer, who was a folk hero in Connecticut and the probable source of legendary words during the Revolutionary War-and whose exploits make him one of the most interesting officers in American military history.
The Battle of Cape Lopez and the Birth of an American Institution
No one present at the Battle of Cape Lopez in 1722 could have known that they were on the edge of history. Gentlemen of Fortune is a groundbreaking exploration of the figures and events surrounding this lesser-known naval battle, the outcome of which signaled a major turning point in the Atlantic trade of enslaved people and triggered a deep and ......
In 1789 the federal government described in the recently ratified U.S. constitution came into being. Drawing on hundreds of sources to paint a vivid portrait of the new nation, veteran journalist Thomas B. Allen tells the long-hidden history of how George Washington and the other Founders set this new federal government into motion.
From Treason to Runaway Slaves provides case studies of high-profile trials from the early republic examined in terms of the period's history, law, and culture. It focuses on a historical period and place crucial to identity formation in the new nation and the survival of the U. S. as a democratic experiment.
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 reality of being sold south to a life ......