Andrew Lawler

Blaming the British for the destruction helped persuade some colonists to back the fight for independence. But the source of the inferno was not what it seemed.

It was founded 250 years ago today—and, oddly, was promptly ordered to attack what is today its biggest base.

Thousands of African Americans fought for the British—then fled the United States to avoid a return to enslavement.

The Declaration of Independence condemns King George III. But the British were not to blame for one of the war’s most infamous conflagrations.

The commander-in-chief initially barred black soldiers from joining the ranks, but he came to understand the value—both moral and strategic—of a diverse force.

How a dispute with a Scottish lord over westward expansion, gunpowder, and the future of enslaved labor made the southern colonies’ embrace the radical cause.

The revolutionary roots of a corrosive national pastime.

Virginia Dare and the myth of American whiteness.