Religion and the Revolution: Why the Founders Rejected a National Church Introduction

Introduction In this interview: “You could have created a Church of the United States. You could have required the president to be a member, to be a Protestant, right? They didn’t.” Watch this segment in the video below (01:01:02) Religion was everywhere in colonial America. So why didn’t the founders create a national church? Why […]

The American Revolution Myth We Learned Wrong

Introduction In this interview: “You had this thing called the Quartering Act, which forced soldiers into people’s homes, and Americans were so upset about it that they wrote the Third Amendment. That’s a very nice, easy story…. The story is wrong.” Watch this segment in the video below (07:33) Most Americans learned that the Quartering […]

Homosexuality, Single Men and the American Revolution

Introduction In this interview: “Homosexuality infects the nation. It threatens the empire. It upsets the natural order. If men can have sex with men, everything’s topsy-turvy. There is no natural order anymore.” Watch this segment in the video below (20:22) Why would Revolutionary Americans reduce penalties for sodomy… while Britain was intensifying prosecutions? Why was […]

The Bizarre Plot That Armed the American Revolution

Introduction In this interview: “What he doesn’t realize is that Bancroft is getting two salaries… one from Deane… and one from the British.” Watch this segment in the video below (00:24:59) Why did Benjamin Franklin send a Connecticut shopkeeper who spoke no French and had hardly traveled outside of Connecticut to France? How and why […]

First British Royalty to Visit the American Colonies

The First Member of the British Royalty to Visit the American Colonies One of the lesser-known episodes of the American Revolution involved the future William IV (r. 1830 to 1837), then known as Prince William Henry, who became the first and only member of Britain’s royal family to visit the American colonies. Arriving in British-occupied […]

Was the American Revolution an Immigrant Revolution?

Introduction In this interview: “No immigrants, no America.” Watch this segment in the video below (00:58:42) Wait… what? Wasn’t the American Revolution mainly an English colonial story? If not, then what role did immigrants actually play? And how many immigrants were even living in the colonies by 1775? Why were Germans taking loyalty oaths to […]

The Real Revolution in “Common Sense”

Thomas Paine Didn’t Just Call for Independence — He Tried to Destroy the Idea of Kings By early 1776, many American colonists were angry with Britain — but that did not necessarily mean they opposed monarchy itself. In fact, many still believed kings were natural, legitimate, even divinely sanctioned rulers. That is what makes Thomas […]

How Taverns Fueled the American Revolution

Introduction In this interview: “What role did taverns, and let me just add on pubs, play in the American Revolution? … I would argue they were perhaps the most fundamental spaces in the coming of the revolution.” Watch this segment in the video below (00:28:58). Taverns and pubs were among the central gathering places of […]

The First Salute to America

For a fledgling nation fighting for its survival, any recognition of its sovereignty—however small and symbolic—becomes an important confirmation of its independence. And not surprisingly, for those who oppose that nascent nation’s independence, those very same gestures are viewed as potentially perilous steps toward full diplomatic recognition. That principle played out throughout the American Revolution. […]

The American Revolution Didn’t Free Women—It Strengthened Slavery

Introduction “The main beneficiaries of the American Revolution were white male heads of household… At the point of the American Revolution, many of the main conditions that constrained women—across different groups—and that held promise for their future liberty, remained the same.” Watch this segment in the video below (1:10:37) A revolution for liberty—but not for […]