A note on long-distance relationships in the 18th century In the 1770s, there is no Snapchat or Twitter, no email or phone. If you can't talk to someone face to…
The British fleet arrives General George Washington to John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress: New York July the 3d 1776 Sir Since I had the honor of addressing you and…
Washington asks Congress for help Commander-in-Chief George Washington to John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress: New York July the 11th 1776 As I am truly sensible the time of Congress…
In several violent Acts and interludes, with important and incendiary dialogue in (of course) red. Setting: A world before the Industrial Revolution and capitalism, with countries ruled by kings and assorted…
By 1774, 45-year-old Reverend Samuel Seabury (1729-1796) was a veteran of verbal combat. Assigned to a church in New Jersey from 1754 to 1757, he became embroiled in the debate over…
New York is the greatest city in the world: no argument from me about that. But greatness has to start somewhere ... Here's the Dutch settlement at the southern end of…
In 1776, the "old money" families in New York - the ones that had been around in Dutch times and had continued to thrive for a century under the British -…
The pamphlet Common Sense, which Angelica mentions in "The Schuyler Sisters," was published anonymously in Philadelphia, on January 10, 1776. Within a few months, British expatriate Thomas Paine was known to be…
Dear Alexander, I'm having a torrid marriage with a man much, much younger than you, and our 30th anniversary is almost here. I need to take a week off to…
Last week I expressed my profound dissatisfaction at not being able to read in full a letter published in early 1776 in the Royal Danish American Gazette, which Chernow (p. 72) uses to…