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Showing 41–50 of 1491 results for Cost of Revolution Online Exhibit

Among His Troops: Discovery

The Museum of the American Revolution’s newly discovered watercolor of the encampment at Verplanck’s Point is one of two known panoramic views of the Continental Army in camp, both of which army engineer Captain Pierre Charles L’Enfant created in 1782. When the Museum’s curators first saw the watercolor of Verplanck’s Point for sale at auction, they immediately saw similarities to L’Enfant’s panorama of West Point owned by the Library of Congress. An investigation of other original sources—diaries, letters, army orders, and maps—helped date both scenes to a narrow time period of three months, August through October 1782. Further study of the Verplanck’s Point watercolor’s provenance and a small ink inscription on the back confirmed that L’Enfant painted it during the Revolutionary War. The Museum’s discovery provides modern audiences with a glimpse into the highest professional moment of the Continental Army, the artistry of Pierre Charles L’Enfant, and a new eyewitness view of George Washington’s war tent. 



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Picturing Washington's Army: West Point | Continental Army

Take a closer look at a group of soldiers in the foreground of the painting. Also notice the lines of tents in the distance with the Hudson Highlands in the background. 

Image courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 

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When Women Lost the Vote: A Revolutionary Story

Explore the Museum's new When Women Lost the Vote: A Revolutionary Story, 1776-1807 online exhibit to learn the little-known history of the nation’s first women voters.
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The Davenport Letters: March 25, 1783

James Davenport’s letter of March 25, 1783, is among the most interesting of this collection, but not because it shares new information about major historical events. Instead, it is a rare, candid account from a Revolutionary soldier that reminds us that these soldiers were also young men. Davenport was recovering from a night of drinking, or, as he wrote, “the Perfumes of the wine ant [ain’t] hardly out of my head yet because I Drinkd a Good Sling this morning.” With his guard down, he wrote to his brother of his hope of “spending some of my Precious time with some clever Moll, especially in the dark part of the day.” As he had written the year before, “it is a fashion among us soldiers to talk so” about young women, but these conversations rarely made it into written documents that allow us to imagine the fireside banter and youthful hopes of young soldiers.

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Finding Freedom: Jack - Patrick Lockhart’s Letter to Thomas Nelson

Patrick Lockhart of Botetourt County, Virginia, wrote this letter to Virginia Governor Thomas Nelson in November 1781 to ask for state assistance to recapture Jack, who had escaped from prison earlier that year. Lockhart described that Jack was heavily armed and “Threatening Revenge” upon the people who had first imprisoned him. In April of 1781, Jack was arrested, brought to court, and found guilty of trying to start an uprising among people of African descent who would join the British to battle the American Revolutionaries. One day before his planned execution, Jack escaped from jail and White residents of Botetourt County, such as Patrick Lockhart, feared for their lives. Considering this fear, the accuracy of Lockhart’s claims in this letter is unclear.

Courtesy of the Library of Virginia

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The Davenport Letters: June 13, 1778

The second of the two surviving letters of Isaac Davenport was written at the very end of the Valley Forge encampment. Washington’s Continental Army had spent the winter training for a new campaign. As Davenport predicted, the British evacuated Philadelphia – for New York, not Boston – and Washington’s army left Valley Forge within days of this letter. Washington engaged and defeated the British at the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey on June 28, where Davenport was presumably engaged along with the rest of his unit, the 3rd Dragoons.

Three months after writing this letter, Isaac Davenport was with a detachment of dragoons in Bergen County, New Jersey, north of New York City. Late on the evening of Sept. 27, while encamped in houses and barns, they were surprised by British troops. The event became known as the “Baylor Massacre,” after George Baylor, the dragoon’s commander. Isaac Davenport was killed. He was 22.

In 1967, an excavation uncovered the skeletal remains of six soldiers killed at the Massacre and hastily buried in a tanning vat. One of the skeletons was that of a robust adult male who was fully dressed when he was buried. Scholars believe that the silver buttons and silver neckstock buckle – hallmarked by a Boston silversmith whose shop would have been a convenient place to visit from Dorchester – found with this skeleton suggest that it was that of Isaac Davenport.

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When Women Lost the Vote: A Revolutionary Story: Studying the Poll Lists

The Museum’s discovery of poll lists that include the names of women and free people of color who voted in New Jersey from 1800 to 1807 has revealed various patterns, themes, and possible trends among these voters and the elections they participated in. Here, we explore some of these themes.
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Season of Independence: Instructions by the Virginia Convention to Their Delegates in Congress, May 15, 1776

This newspaper from Boston, Massachusetts includes a printing of the instructions from Virginia’s assembly to their delegates at the Second Continental Congress. Most notably, the instructions tell Virginia delegates to not simply vote in favor of independence, but to propose it themselves. The instructions reference King George III’s “Proclamation of Rebellion” as one of several justifications for taking this step.

Courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society

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Finding Freedom: Andrew - “Soldiers in Uniform”

This French officer’s depiction of American soldiers at the Siege of Yorktown shows a soldier of African descent from the Rhode Island Regiment of the Continental Army. During the Revolutionary War, Black and White soldiers fought alongside one another on both sides of the conflict. Historians estimate that between 4,000 and 8,000 men of African descent served in the Continental Army. In 1778, Rhode Island offered freedom to enslaved men in exchange for service. It created a regiment with privates of African and Native American ancestry, officered by White men. In 1781, the Rhode Island line was collapsed from two regiments into one integrated unit with segregated companies.

Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library

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Finding Freedom: Eve - Bruton & Middleton Parish Register, page 83

This page from the record book for Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, Virginia, lists the baptism of Eve’s infant son George on July 6, 1766. The names of George and Eve can be found near the middle of the page. When Eve and George first ran away from the Randolph family in search of their freedom in late-1775 or early-1776, George was about 10 years old.

Courtesy of Bruton Parish Church

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