Stanley Weintraub, who entertained us superbly with his talk on his previous book, George Washington's Christmas Farewell, was equally fascinating in his discussion of his latest work, Iron Tears, America's Battle For Freedom, Britain's Quagmire -- the story of the British home front during the American Revolution. He startled everyone by suggesting that George III might be considered one of America's founding fathers. That was what he was called in America and in England before the Revolution. The title underscored the king's central role in the struggle to retain the 13 rebellious colonies, a war that soon put the monarch on a collision course with a substantial number of his subjects. Stanley reported he was amazed by the freedom the British press, which published scathing satires of the king and his ministers. Soon the opposition took to the streets. Stanley called the "Gordon riots," a huge outbreak of violence in 1780, a turning point in the British home front's perception of the war and the way it was threatening the nation's stability. The Yorktown surrender made it clear the war was unwinnable but George III still resisted American independence. He eventually changed his mind. In the archives in Windsor Castle, Stanley found a hitherto unpublished manuscript, in which the king grudgingly accepted a separate America with the hope that its trade would be more valuable to Great Britain than the literal possession of its soil. Stanley closed by reporting that the book has been well received in England -- though they insisted on calling the war "the American rebellion" in the English edition. They still won't admit it was a revolution! The applause was sustained and vigorous.
Maria Dering gave us an excellent account of John Jay, Founding Father, by Walter Stahr. She liked the calm comprehensive way Stahr told the story of Jay's extraordinary life. The biographer frequently pauses to summarize the narrative. But he also has numerous vivid offbeat details, such as the appalling infestation of fleas with which Jay had to deal while minister to Spain. Jay was different from many of his revolutionary colleagues -- a measured, disciplined and thoughtful man. Stahr gives a convincing description of his many accomplishments, from his role in negotiating the treaty of peace that ended the war to his chief justiceship of the Supreme Court to the 1794 "Jay Treaty" with England that prevented another war. In a phrase, Maria concluded, the portrait rings true.
Jack Buchanan told us about The Genuine Article: An Historian Looks at Early America by Edmund Morgan. Jack called Morgan one of our national treasures, still writing good books at the age of 89. This book is a collection of his essays, reflections and studies, many written for the New York Review of Books. It ranges from "America's First Great Man," a portrait of John Winthrop, to George Washington, and ranges across all sections of America. Jack thought the best chapters dealt with the Revolution. Morgan discusses some of the major books, such as Fred Anderson's The Seven Years War, Bernard Bailyn's The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson and Gordon Wood's The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Summing up, Jack called The Genuine Article "a book to savor, one from which to draw your own conclusions."
Charles Crowley gave us a look at Jefferson's War, America's First War on Terror by Joseph Wheelan. Chuck noted wryly that the opening of the book had uncomfortably contemporary overtones. Terrorists in the Middle East are preying on American ships and businessmen. An American president sends in the U.S. Navy to obliterate them while Europe watches from a distance. The terrorists in this book were the Barbary states and the president was the seemingly unwarlike Thomas Jefferson. But Jefferson had strong opinions about the Barbary barbarians. "War rather than tribute is the honorable course," he had told James Monroe as early as 1785, when Tom was ambassador to France. At that time America was bankrupt, without an army or a fleet. By the time Jefferson became president, we had money and warships, and had, along with the Europeans, paid millions of dollars in "tribute" to the Barbary pirates, which did nothing but enable them to buy bigger warships. President Jefferson chose war to end this charade. Wheelan does a good job of describing what happened next, a mix of defeats and victories that eventually brought peace of sorts to the Mediterranean and gave us a memorable song about the shores of Tripoli. Chuck called the book a good read for Patrick O'Brian fans with touches of Tom Clancy thrown in.
During the recent reenactment of the battles of Saratoga, there was one group that did not participate in the major shootouts. They were led by Nate George, a 42 year old former marine who has shaved his head almost entirely smooth, except for one long thick lock in the center, which he adorns with turkey feathers and porcupine hairs. He and his small band of followers reenact the role of the Oneida Indians at Saratoga and other battles. They go off on scouting parties and fight skirmishes with British sentries. George is part of the Living History group, which is financed by the Oneida Nation to remind modern Americans of the role they played, fighting as America's allies during the Revolution. The group frequently holds events at the Fort Stanwix National Monument in Rome, N.Y.
Jack Buchanan! This fall, Jack journeyed to the Philadelphia American Revolution Round Table to receive this award, named for another distinguished historian on our rolls, Tom Fleming. Jack won it for his superb book, The Road to Valley Forge, which the PART considered the best book of 2004. Congratulations, Jack!
The Aaron Burr Association announced at their recent meeting in Philadelphia that their founder acquired a black family in the city of brotherly love during his political sojourn there as senator from New York. Louella Burr Mitchell Allen, an 86 year old former nurse, announced at the association's annual meeting that she is Burr's great great, great granddaughter, the descendant of Burr's son, John Pierre Burr. Unfortunately, there is no birth, death or marriage certificate linking Burr to John Pierre. But that has not discouraged Mrs. Allen, who claims to be relying on her family's oral tradition. The Burr Association has accepted Mrs. Allen as one of their extended family. They are apparently taking great satisfaction in contrasting their warm reception to the cool distance Jefferson's descendants have maintained with the family of Sally Hemings.
On January 21, Christie's will auction a full length portrait of George Washington by Charles Willson Peale. It is one of the last Peale portraits of the general in private hands. The painting depicts Washington after the battle of Princeton, leaning casually on a cannon. It was sent as a gift to France but the ship was forced to dock in Spain, possibly to escape British pursuers. There, diplomat William Carmichael, who had replaced John Jay as our man in Madrid, sold it in 1782, and sent the proceeds to Peale, a close friend. It eventually travelled to New York art dealers in the early 1900s, when it was bought by Natalie Blair, daughter of a railroad tycoon, who hung it in her home in Tuxedo Park until her death in 1952. Most recently the portrait was on loan to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. Christie says Mrs. Blair's heirs can look forward to collecting between $10 and $15 million for this magnificent work of art.
Jack Gardner, retired historian from Delaware State, has launched a private crusade. He wants us all to get familiar with the poetry of the Revolution. He's been sending Tom Fleming some of his favorite poems. Here's one by Annis Boudinot Stockton, widow of Richard Stockton, celebrating Washington's victory at Princeton.
What next surprised us was the famed retreat
Round Dervent's stream to Princeton's verdant height;
While at the distance of that shady seat,
Four times our number lay prepared to fight.
Deceived by fires which did our camp surround,
'Till hearing cannon thunder from afar
Amazement dire their counsels all confound
And add new terrors to the din of war.
But our triumphant leader gained the hills
On Raritan's meandering silver stream;
Secures his camp and each attack repels.
Does the small smile playing on Washington's lips in Peale's portraits have anything to do with the depiction of a smiling Thomas Jefferson on the new nickel? Artist Jamie Franki says "it isn't a silly smile or a smirk." It conveys "a sense of optimism." Considering the things that historian such as Gary Wills (The Negro President) have said about Jefferson recently, this optimism may be misplaced. Franki's smiling TJ won the government's approval in a competition with 146 other entries.
History News Network recently reported that Boston's Museum of Science turned down a show celebrating the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth in 2006. The museum seemed the logical place to display the show. After all, Ben was born in Beantown in 1706 and became America's first famous scientist. Why did the museum's honchos turn it down? They claimed lack of room because they were opening a big exhibit of Star Wars! How's that for getting your priorities wrong?
While Boston's lamebrains scorn their revolutionary war heritage, the Norwich, Ct. Historical Society, under the leadership of its dynamic president, Bill Stanley, is launching a highly original project to create a library and museum celebrating the presidents of the Continental Congress. Norwich native Samuel Huntington was president of Congress in 1781, when the Articles of Confederation were finally approved by a majority of the states and the United States of America became a legal entity. With a wink, Bill likes to suggest that coincidence makes Huntington the first president of the country -- but more seriously he insists that all these leaders, from John Hancock to Henry Laurens to Elias Boudinot, deserve commemoration. He is working with historian Stanley L. Klos, who has been collecting Confederation era presidential documents, and he has persuaded the Mohegan Indian Nation, owners of the Mohegan Sun Casino, to become major contributors to the projected museum.
Our friends at The New-York Historical Society have, once again, mounted an excellent and ground breaking exhibition: "Slavery In New York." It is a presentation that is long overdue. I can remember school in the 1950s: the topic of slavery was barely mentioned. The year 1619, Nat Turner, Dred Scott, and Frederick Douglass were the main focus. Slavery in New York?? Not a word. Today it is not much better: most children, when told that the Northern colonies as well as those in the South had slavery, look at you with blank faces. This exhibition should help solve this historical & educational gap. Divided into two sections depicting New Amsterdam and New York before 1776, and then to slavery's abolishment in 1827, it is a multi-media presentation: you first view a five segment movie telling the story of slavery both before and during it's existence in New York, and then you enter a room of wire sculptures of slaves at various occupations. As you travel through time, you learn facts that were never taught in class. Only Charleston, SC had more slaves before the Revolution than New York City; they represented 20% of the population (by comparison, Philadelphia had 6%, and Boston had 2%). No less than 40% of NYC's households owned slaves. Four maps detail the city in 1664 (when the British took over); 1741 (the "Great Negro Plot"); 1783 (American victory); and 1827 (end of NYS slavery). Each map shows, in detail, the continued growth of the city and the slaves' contribution to the story. The Society has on display many historical documents, including slave ships' freight records, an inquest into the slave revolt of 1712, ads seeking runaway slaves, and the Gradual Emancipation Law of 1799. There are portraits and decorative arts objects (furniture, silverware) showing the work of the slaves, and their masters' use of them to better their own lives, and around the corner, what the slaves had: not much of anything except tools for work. Special sections show how blacks were depicted in drawings, paintings and newspaper articles, and you can sit in a church and listen to black gospel music, work on an interactive computer project to help free slaves, or pick up a phone receiver to learn about the lives of slaves. How much were slaves worth?? In 1675, a slaver could buy a person for $350 in Africa, and sell him/her in NYC for $3,800; by 1775, slaves cost $2300 and sold for $6000. Big business, big profits, very little morality. By 1706 this profit was so greatly noticed that NYC passed a law stating that any child born of a slave woman was also a slave. Laws against slave movement, ownership of property, or social gatherings were just as restrictive at those we studied in the antebellum South. It is overwhelming!! Just one thing bothered this observer -- the lack of the instruments used to keep the slaves in check; no handcuffs, chains, ropes, are seen; just a representation of a whip. Southern museums show these "tools" and we should also. It is not likely that most slaves were treated better north of the Mason-Dixon Line: brutality knows no borders. The exhibition closes March 5, 2006; on the second floor is a wonderful Hudson River School presentation until January 22. After seeing "Slavery" you need the quiet galleries for reflection.
Seven members won the October contest, and the Trivia Master found out about a fourth world capital named after an American Revolutionary officer. The answers: Washington, DC; Monrovia, Liberia; Washington-on-the-Brazos (Republic of Texas); and Montgomery, Alabama, named for Richard Montgomery and the first capital of the Confederacy.
Who are we? Identify both persons to win a free dinner! 1. Although my name is greatly associated with the American Civil War, I was actually the last surviving American born Continental Army general of the Revolution. 2. Although my name is greatly associated with the War of 1812, I was actually a Continental Army surgeon, aide-de-camp, and a member of Washington's Cabinet.