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The American Revolution radically changed the lives of many, some
of them friends of the Revolution, some not, and some who wished to
have no part of it for either side. Rarely did one of these
reluctant witnesses leave a narrative journal. Nicholas Cresswell,
a young English gentry farmer, was one. Arriving in Virginia during
the momentous month of May 1774, Cresswell set out to seek his
fortune as a farmer in the newer settlements in northwest Virginia.
Soon the fortunes of Revolution overwhelmed him and his plans to
begin a new life in America. For the next three years, Cresswell
struggled to sustain his mission. Time was against him as his
combatants on both sides, with increasingly ominous insistence,
sought for and demanded his allegiance. This he never ceded. The
very act of keeping a journal became dangerous. His written account
of his attempt to sustain his liberty has long been a significant
window into the turbulence of the Revolution. In offering this
singular view of liberty during the Revolution, Nicholas Cresswell
stood and still stands as a rebuke to subsequent historians of the
Revolution, patriot leaning or loyalist leaning, who had difficulty
in accommodating this journal into their generalized views of
causation and justification. As a consequence, much of Cresswell's
real perspectives were either lost or misinformed. In 1928, an
edition of Cresswell's journal was published, but it was expurgated
and not annotated. This edition of the Cresswell journal is the
first unexpurgated and annotated edition ever published. As such,
it offers new light for the better illumination of the turbulent
world of revolutionary politics and personalities.
The American Revolution radically changed the lives of many, some
of them friends of the Revolution, some not, and some who wished to
have no part of it for either side. Rarely did one of these
reluctant witnesses leave a narrative journal. Nicholas Cresswell,
a young English gentry farmer, was one. Arriving in Virginia during
the momentous month of May 1774, Cresswell set out to seek his
fortune as a farmer in the newer settlements in northwest Virginia.
Soon the fortunes of Revolution overwhelmed him and his plans to
begin a new life in America. For the next three years, Cresswell
struggled to sustain his mission. Time was against him as his
combatants on both sides, with increasingly ominous insistence,
sought for and demanded his allegiance. This he never ceded. The
very act of keeping a journal became dangerous. His written account
of his attempt to sustain his liberty has long been a significant
window into the turbulence of the Revolution. In offering this
singular view of liberty during the Revolution, Nicholas Cresswell
stood and still stands as a rebuke to subsequent historians of the
Revolution, patriot leaning or loyalist leaning, who had difficulty
in accommodating this journal into their generalized views of
causation and justification. As a consequence, much of Cresswell's
real perspectives were either lost or misinformed. In 1928, an
edition of Cresswell's journal was published, but it was expurgated
and not annotated. This edition of the Cresswell journal is the
first unexpurgated and annotated edition ever published. As such,
it offers new light for the better illumination of the turbulent
world of revolutionary politics and personalities.
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