They worked Virginia's tobacco fields, South Carolina's rice marshes, and the Black Belt's cotton plantations. Wherever they lived, enslaved people found their lives indelibly shaped by the Southern environment. By day, they plucked worms and insects from the crops, trod barefoot in the mud as they hoed rice fields, and endured the sun and humidity as they planted and harvested the fields. By night, they clandestinely took to the woods and swamps to trap opossums and turtles, to visit relatives living on adjacent plantations, and at times to escape slave patrols and escape to freedom. Scars on the Land is the first comprehensive history of American slavery to examine how the environment fundamentally formed enslaved people's lives and how slavery remade the Southern landscape. Over two centuries, from the establishment of slavery in the Chesapeake to the Civil War, one simple calculation had profound consequences: rather than measuring productivity based on outputs per acre, Southern planters sought to maximize how much labor they could extract from their enslaved workforce. They saw the landscape as disposable, relocating to more fertile prospects once they had leached the soils and cut down the forests. On the leading edge of the frontier, slavery laid waste to fragile ecosystems, draining swamps, clearing forests to plant crops and fuel steamships, and introducing devastating invasive species. On its trailing edge, slavery left eroded hillsides, rivers clogged with sterile soil, and the extinction of native species. While environmental destruction fueled slavery's expansion, no environment could long survive intensive slave labor. The scars manifested themselves in different ways, but the land too fell victim to the slave owner's lash. Although typically treated separately, slavery and the environment naturally intersect in complex and powerful ways, leaving lasting effects from the period of emancipation through modern-day reckonings with racial justice.

Reconsidering Interpretation of Heritage Sites chronicles and problematizes the representation of the eighteenth century in museums and heritage sites while also challenging public historians to alter their perceptions of what might be possible when interpreting such sites. Much of the history consumed at eighteenth-century historic sites is one-dimensional, white, male, heteronormative, and very focused on power and wealth. Anne Lindsay argues that this narrative may be challenged through an engagement with the everyday life of the past, creating thought-provoking and challenging experiences that will connect with the modern visitor on a deeper level. Unlike other work that has been done in the field, the book provides a constructive study that engages in a horizontal analysis of a century over a geographic region. As a result, Lindsay provides a unique opportunity for scholars and practitioners to reflect on the types and tone of messages usually conveyed about the eighteenth century. Reconsidering Interpretation of Heritage Sites will be invaluable to scholars and practitioners working in the fields of museum and heritage studies and history. It will be particularly interesting to those who want to know more about how the lived experience of the past may be interpreted at historic sites, and how this could be used to engage with contentious histories.

Following the battle of White River and the fall of Forts Washington and Lee, George Washington withdrew his army, crossing the Delaware River to regroup. However, with morale at a critical low and the terms of enlistment of many of his troops set to expire, Washington decided on one more strike before the winter weather made military operations impossible. Re-crossing the Delaware on Christmas night, 1776, Washington's army surprised the Hessian garrison at Trenton and managed to kill, wound or capture 1,000 of the enemy for the loss of only four men. Then, avoiding a major engagement with the British Army under General Cornwallis that had been sent to track him down, Washington attacked and defeated another small British force at Princeton. Having inflicted two costly and embarrassing defeats on the British forces, Washington withdrew his army into winter quarters at Morristown.
Using a combination of modern photographs and period artwork, this book tells the story of the legendary campaign that restored the morale of American forces, caused the British to abandon large parts of New Jersey, and established General George Washington's reputation as a daring military strategist.

Based on contemporary records and paintings, this book identifies each cavalry and infantry regiment and illustrates changes in uniforms, their facing colours and the nature and shape of lace worn by officers, NCOs and private soldiers from 1751 to 1783. Regiments that served in the American War of Independence are noted and the book includes more than 200 full-colour plates of uniforms and distinctions. Divided into four sections, it not only details the cavalry and infantry uniforms of the period but also the tartans of the Highland regiments, some of which were short-lived, and the distinction of the Guards' regiments.

In 1787, the American union was in disarray. The incompatible demands of the separate states threatened its existence; some states were even in danger of turning into the kind of tyranny they had so recently deposed.
A truly national government was needed, one that could raise money, regulate commerce, and defend the states against foreign threats-without becoming as overbearing as England. So thirty-six-year-old James Madison believed. That summer, the Virginian was instrumental in organizing the Constitutional Convention, in which one of the world's greatest documents would be debated, created, and signed. Inspired by a sense of history in the making, he kept the most extensive notes of any attendee.
Now two esteemed scholars have made these minutes accessible to everyone. Presented with modern punctuation and spelling, judicious cuts, and helpful notes-plus fascinating background information on every delegate and an overview of the tumultuous times-here is the great drama of how the Constitution came to be, from the opening statements to the final votes.
This Modern Library Paperback Classic also includes an Introduction and appendices from the authors.

Written by a renowned expert on the American Founding period, this book examines selections of key documents from 1215 through 1791 that were instrumental to the development of the U.S. Constitution and the American political tradition. The latest addition to ABC-CLIO's popular Documents Decoded series, John R. Vile's Founding Documents of America presents historic documents key to the foundations of our nation's government accompanied by introductions that supply background information and analysis that highlights key provisions and provide historical context. The coverage extends beyond the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights to provide contextual understanding of a wide range of other documents, such as private diary entries and political polemics, that will further readers' understanding of the United States' founding and early political development. The documents are organized chronologically into four sections: constitutional antecedents; the revolutionary and confederal periods; calling and convening the Constitutional Convention; and debating, ratifying, implementing, and amending the new Constitution. Through its more than 50 primary source documents-from the Magna Carta of 1215 through the Bill of Rights, which was adopted in 1791-this book will serve high school and college students seeking to understand the documents that laid the foundations for the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, and provide opportunities for student readers to build critical thinking skills. Supplies comprehensive explanations of the key documents that influenced the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the writing and ratification of the U.S. Constitution Provides expert commentary on-and clarification of-complex and difficult-to-comprehend passages Serves to demonstrate how national documents often drew from experiences at the state level Offers authoritative information that supports any study of America's founding era and the individuals who set the course of the young nation

Reconsidering Interpretation of Heritage Sites chronicles and problematizes the representation of the eighteenth century in museums and heritage sites while also challenging public historians to alter their perceptions of what might be possible when interpreting such sites. Much of the history consumed at eighteenth-century historic sites is one-dimensional, white, male, heteronormative, and very focused on power and wealth. Anne Lindsay argues that this narrative may be challenged through an engagement with the everyday life of the past, creating thought-provoking and challenging experiences that will connect with the modern visitor on a deeper level. Unlike other work that has been done in the field, the book provides a constructive study that engages in a horizontal analysis of a century over a geographic region. As a result, Lindsay provides a unique opportunity for scholars and practitioners to reflect on the types and tone of messages usually conveyed about the eighteenth century. Reconsidering Interpretation of Heritage Sites will be invaluable to scholars and practitioners working in the fields of museum and heritage studies and history. It will be particularly interesting to those who want to know more about how the lived experience of the past may be interpreted at historic sites, and how this could be used to engage with contentious histories.

How did an unlikely group of peoples-Irish-speaking Catholics, Scottish Highlanders, and American Indians-play an even unlikelier role in the origins of the American Revolution? Drawing on little-used sources in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, The Gaelic and Indian Origins of the American Revolution places these typically marginalized peoples in Ireland, Scotland, and North America at the center of a larger drama of imperial reform and revolution. Gaelic and Indian peoples experiencing colonization in the eighteenth-century British empire fought back by building relationships with the king and imperial officials. In doing so, they created a more inclusive empire and triggered conflict between the imperial state and formerly privileged provincial Britons: Irish Protestants, Scottish whigs, and American colonists. The American Revolution was only one aspect of this larger conflict between inclusive empire and the exclusionary patriots within the British empire. In fact, Britons had argued about these questions since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when revolutionaries had dethroned James II as they accused him of plotting to employ savage Gaelic and Indian enemies in a tyrranical plot against liberty. This was the same argument the American revolutionaries-and their sympathizers in England, Scotland, and Ireland-used against George III. Ironically, however, it was Gaelic and Indian peoples, not kings, who had pushed the empire in inclusive directions. In doing so they pushed the American patriots towards revolution. This novel account argues that Americans' racial dilemmas were not new nor distinctively American but instead the awkward legacies of a more complex imperial history. By showcasing how Gaelic and Indian peoples challenged the British empire-and in the process convinced American colonists to leave it-Samuel K. Fisher offers a new way of understanding the American Revolution and its relevance for our own times.

This important new book charts the economic and social rise and fall of a small, but intriguing part of the American South: Charleston and the surrounding South Carolina low country. Spanning 250 years, Coclanis's study analyzes the interaction of both external and internal forces on the city and countryside, examining the effects of various factors--the environment, the market, economic and political ideology, and social institutions--on the region's economy from its colonial beginnings to its collapse in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Universally recognized as a seminal figure in American intellectual history, Jonathan Edwards has been the focus of considerable scholarly attention in a variety of academic disciplines, including religion, history, literature, and philosophy. Because these disciplines discuss him in relation to different intellectual traditions, Edwards scholarship remains segmented. This volume represents the first attempt to provide a synthetic vision of Edwards and his contributions to American culture. Its fifteen previously unpublished essays present the best contemporary literary, historical, theological, and philosophical thinking on Edwards, locating him in his full historical context and demonstrating the continuity of his influence. Together, they provide the fullest account to date of his role in the development of the American consciousness. This volume is the first attempt to provide a synthetic vision of Edwards and his contribution to the development of the American consciousness. Fifteen previously unpublished essays present the best contemporary literary, historical, theological, and philosophical thinking on Edwards, locating him in his full historical context and demonstrating the continuity of his influence.

The Age of Revolutions has been celebrated for the momentous transition from absolute monarchies to representative governments and the creation of nation-states in the Atlantic world. Much less recognized than the spread of democratic ideals was the period's growing traffic of goods, capital, and people across imperial borders and reforming states' attempts to control this mobility. Analyzing the American, French, and Haitian revolutions in an interconnected narrative, Manuel Covo centers imperial trade as a driving force, arguing that commercial factors preceded and conditioned political change across the revolutionary Atlantic. At the heart of these transformations was the "entrepot," the island known as the "Pearl of the Caribbean," whose economy grew dramatically as a direct consequence of the American Revolution and the French-American alliance. Saint-Domingue was the single most profitable colony in the Americas in the second half of the eighteenth century, with its staggering production of sugar and coffee and the unpaid labor of enslaved people. The colony was so focused on its lucrative exports that it needed to import food and timber from North America, which generated enormous debate in France about the nature of its sovereignty over Saint-Domingue. At the same time, the newly independent United States had to come to terms with contradictory interests between the imperial ambitions of European powers, its connections with the Caribbean, and its own domestic debates over the future of slavery. This work sheds light on the three-way struggle among France, the United States, and Haiti to assert, define, and maintain "commercial" sovereignty. Drawing on a wealth of archives in France, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Entrepot of Revolutions offers an innovative perspective on the primacy of economic factors in this era, as politicians and theorists, planters and merchants, ship captains, smugglers, and the formerly enslaved all attempted to transform capitalism in the Atlantic world.

In The American Revolution, 1760 to 1790: New Nation as New Empire, Neil York details the important and complex events that transpired during the creation of the enduring American Republic. This text presents a global look at the emerging nation's quest to balance liberty and authority before, during, and after the conflict with Great Britain, from the fall of Montreal through the Nootka Sound controversy. Through reviewing the causes and consequences of the Revolutionary era, York uncovers the period's paradoxes in an accessible, introductory text. Taking an international perspective which closely examines the diplomatic and military elements of this period, this volume includes: Detailed maps of the Colonies, with important battle scenes highlighted Suggestions for further reading, allowing for more specialized research Comprehensive international context, providing background to Great Britain's relations with other European powers Brief in length but broad in scope, York's text provides the ideal introductory volume to the Revolutionary War as well as the creation of American democracy.

The Puritan Cosmopolis traces a sense of kinship that emerged from within the larger realm of Puritan law and literature in late seventeenth-century New England. Nan Goodman argues that these early modern Puritans - connected to the cosmopolis in part through travel, trade, and politics - were also thinking in terms that went beyond feeling affiliated with people in remote places, or what cosmopolitan theorists call "attachment at a distance." In this way Puritan writers and readers were not simply learning about others, but also cultivating an awareness of themselves as ethically related to people all around the world. Such thought experiments originated and advanced through the law, specifically the law of nations, a precursor to international law and an inspiration for much of the imagination and literary expression of cosmopolitanism among the Puritans. The Puritan Cosmopolis shows that by internalizing the legal theories that pertained to the world writ large, the Puritans were able to experiment with concepts of extended obligation, re-conceptualize war, contemplate new ways of cultivating peace, and rewrite the very meaning of Puritan living. Through a detailed consideration of Puritan legal thought, Goodman provides an unexpected link between the Puritans, Jews, and Ottomans in the early modern world and reveals how the Puritan legal and literary past relates to present concerns about globalism and cosmopolitanism.

Between 1760 and 1815, British troops campaigned from Manila to Montreal, Cape Town to Copenhagen, Washington to Waterloo. The naval dimension of Britain's expansion has been superbly covered by a number of excellent studies, but there has not been a single volume that does the same for the army and, in particular, looks at how and why it became a world-operating force, one capable of beating the Marathas as well as the French. This book will both offer a new perspective, one that concentrates on the global role of the army and its central part in imperial expansion and preservation, and as such will be a major book for military history and world history. There will be a focus on what the army brought to power equations and how this made it a world-level force. The multi-purpose character of the army emerges as the key point, one seen in particular in the career of Wellington: while referred to disparagingly by Napoleon as a 'sepoy general,' Wellington's ability to operate successfully in India and Europe was not only impressive but also reflected synergies in experience and acquired skill that characterised the British army. No other army matched this. The closest capability was that of Russia able, in 1806-14, to defeat both the Turks and Napoleon, but without having the trans-oceanic capability and experience enjoyed by the British army. The experience was a matter in part of debate, including over doctrine, as in the tension between the 'Americans' and 'Germans,' a reference to fields of British campaigning concentration during the Seven Years War. This synergy proved best developed in the operations in Iberia in 1809-14, with logistical and combat skills utilised in India employed in a European context in which they were of particular value. The books aims to further to address the question of how this army was achieved despite the strong anti-army ideology/practice derived from the hostile response to Oliver Cromwell and to James II. Thus, perception and politics are both part of the story, as well as the exigencies and practicalities of conflict, including force structure, command issues, and institutional developments. At the same time, there was no inevitability about British success over this period, and it is necessary to consider developments in the context of other states and, in particular, the reasons why British forces did well and that Britain was not dependent alone on naval effectiveness.

In this provocative study, Paul Atwood attempts to show Americans that their history is one of constant wars of aggression and imperial expansion. In his long teaching career, Atwood has found that most students know virtually nothing about America's involvement in the wars of the 20th century, let alone those prior to World War I. War and Empire aims to correct this, clearly and persuasively explaining US actions in every major war since the declaration of independence. The book shows that, far from being dragged reluctantly into foreign entanglements, America's leaders have always picked its battles in order to increase their influence and power, with little regard for the American soldiers and 'enemy' civilians killed or made to suffer in the process. This book is an eye-opening introduction to the American way of life for undergraduate students of American history, politics and international relations.

Wars rarely turn out as expected. This book shows how Britain entered a conflict that it believed could not be lost. The American Patriots were similarly optimistic about their martial prospects. Although they eventually secured independence, it was only with the assistance of France and indirectly Spain, who diverted British resources from the conflict in America, allowing France eventually to deliver a knockout blow at Yorktown. This extensive yet accessible exploration into the War of American Independence provides aclear analysis of why this complex conflict occurred and why it ended as it did, revealing the fragile nature of the American Patriot cause. An essential guide for any history student, including those specializing in war/peace studies and the study of international relations, as well the general reader with an interest in the study of war.

The Founding Fathers is a concise, accessible overview of the brilliant, flawed, and quarrelsome group of lawyers, politicians, merchants, military men, and clergy known as "the Founding Fathers"-who got as close to the ideal of the Platonic "philosopher-kings" as American or world history has ever seen. R. B. Bernstein reveals Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, and the other founders not as shining demigods but as imperfect human beings-people much like us-who nevertheless achieved political greatness. They emerge here as men who sought to transcend their intellectual world even as they were bound by its limits, men who strove to lead the new nation even as they had to defer to the great body of the people and learn with them the possibilities and limitations of politics. Bernstein deftly traces the dynamic forces that molded these men and their contemporaries as British colonists in North America and as intellectual citizens of the Atlantic civilization's Age of Enlightenment. He analyzes the American Revolution, the framing and adoption of state and federal constitutions, and the key concepts and problems that both shaped and circumscribed the founders' achievements as the United States sought its place in the world. Finally, he charts the shifting reputations of the founders and examines the specific ways that interpreters of the Constitution have used the Founding Fathers. A masterly blend of old and new scholarship, brimming with apt description and insightful analysis, this book offers a digestible account of how the Founding Fathers were formed, what they did, and how generations of Americans have viewed them.

Taking into account the key events of the French and Indian War, this book shows the American Revolution's progress in glorious contemporary maps and accompanying essays relating them to the events of the time. The authors tell the stories of the maps and the cartographers whose talents have made these some of the most valuable artifacts in America's history. When war between Britain and her colonists erupted in 1775, maps provided the pictorial news about military matters. The best examples of those maps, including some from the collection of King George III, the Duke of Northumberland and the Marquis de Lafayette, are beautifully reproduced here. Others from institutional and private collections are published here for the first time.

With the voyage of the Mayflower in 1620, New England history began as a Puritan foundational experiment within the wilderness. The stirring history of North America s beginnings in the politics of religion are reconstructed here by means of personal testimonies.

Co-author of the groundbreaking Empire and Multitude, Michael Hardt examines The Declaration of Independence and other texts by Thomas Jefferson, arguing that his powerful concept of democracy provides a biting critique of the current American administration. Introducing this collection of Jefferson's writings, Michael Hardt makes a powerful case for re-examining the foundational writings of this American revolutionary in order to reignite the dialogue that first conceived of a "land of the free".

"Beautifully alive."-Wall Street Journal Winner of the 2022 Distinguished Book Award from The Society of Colonial Wars A tour through the original thirteen colonies in search of historical sites and their stories in America's founding. Obscure, well-known, off-the-beaten path, and on busy city streets, here are taverns, meeting houses, battlefields, forts, monuments, homes which all combine to define our country-the places where daring people forged a revolution. There is always something new to be found in America's past that also brings greater clarity to our present and the future we choose to make as a nation. Author-artist Adam Van Doren traveled from Maine to Georgia in that spirit. There are thirty-seven landmarks included, with fifteen additional locations noted in brief. From the Bunker Hill monument in Massachusetts to the Camden Battlefield Site in South Carolina, this is a tour of an American cultural landscape with a curious, perceptive, and insightful guide. The reader steps inside cabins at Valley Forge where nearly two thousand soldiers perished during a cruel winter, meets the chef at Philadelphia's City Tavern where the menu is based on 18th century fare, seeks out the Swamp Fox in Georgia, visits the homes of Alexander Hamilton, John and Abigail Adams, the Joseph Webb House on the Connecticut River where French general Rochambeau made plans with Washington, and much more. An unvarnished view, we also see Philipsburg Manor, in Sleepy Hollow, New York, where Blacks were once held as slaves to work in the Hudson River Valley. For armchair travelers and anyone fascinated by Americana, Van Doren (The House Tells the Story: Homes of the American Presidents) has created an unforgettable journey through history. We see the Founders-both their stunning achievements and chilling moral failures-where they lived, fought, and agreed on a common purpose, to create a nation whose future-and legacy-is continually evolving.

This is a blistering account of the battle of Cowpens, a short, sharp conflict which marked a crucial turning point in the American Revolution. With Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton and the British troops in hot pursuit, Daniel Morgan, leading a small force of 700 Continentals and militia, chose the Cowpens as the battlefield in which to make a stand. The two forces clashed for barely more than 45 minutes, yet this brief battle shaped the outcome of the War in the South and decisively influenced the conflict as a whole. The authors provide a shrewd analysis of what was perhaps the finest tactical performance of the entire war. Bird's-eye views, vivid illustrations and detailed maps illuminate the dynamism of this clash between two of the most famous commanders of the War of Independence.

Widely considered to be among the most important historical collections of all time, The Federalist Papers were intended to persuade New York at-large to accept the newly drafted Constitution in 1787. Authored in parts by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, the documents have been referred to and heavily cited countless times in all aspects of American government and politics. Their influence is undeniable, as they remain prevalent in our political climate today. This collection remains a vital benchmark in American political philosophy. Signed by the members of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, the US Constitution is a landmark legal document that comprises the primary law of the federal government and outlines its three chief branches. The Federalist Papers were a rebuttal to the general public of New York's initial dissuaded response to the idea of the US Constitution. This collection includes both the full text of The Federalist Papers as well as the entire text of the Constitution, so that readers may compare both documents and reference one another at their leisure. In addition to these documents, the book contains a foreword by constitutional scholar Dr. Louis Fisher. With its rich history, The Federalist Papers and the Constitution of the United States will educate you on the groundwork that shaped the greatest country in the world.