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A painting of Congress Hall and the New Theater in colonial Philadelphia.

The Mutiny of 1783

America’s only successful insurrection.
by Andrew A. Zellers-Frederick via Journal of the American Revolution on November 19, 2024
Benjamin Franklin reading a draft of the Declaration of Independence.

The Evolution of the American Declaration of Independence

The Declaration drew on Enlightenment ideas to assert equality, justify independence, and inspire lasting debates over rights and slavery.
by Jane Sinden Spiegel via Journal of the American Revolution on December 18, 2025
When the U.S. Navy was half the age it is now: an artist’s depiction of American warships bombarding San Juan, Puerto Rico on May 12, 1898 during the Spanish-American War. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The Birth Pangs of the U.S. Navy

It was founded 250 years ago today—and, oddly, was promptly ordered to attack what is today its biggest base.
by Andrew Lawler via The Bulwark on October 13, 2025
Table set with an 18th-century meal of wine, meat, and vegetables.

So Much Madeira

What the Founding Fathers ate—and drank—on July 4, 1777.
by Victoria Flexner via The Atlantic on October 9, 2025
Gouverneur Morris.

The One-Legged Founding Father Who Escaped the French Revolution

Gouverneur Morris wrote the preamble to the Constitution. Later in life, he rejected the foundational document as a failure.
by Zachary Clary via Smithsonian Magazine on September 2, 2025
Illustration of John Dickinson with flowers in the barrel of his musket.

The Prudent Patriot

There’s a lot more to Founding Father John Dickinson than not signing the Declaration of Independence.
by Dennis Drabelle via The Pennsylvania Gazette on August 22, 2025
John Trumbull painting of the death of American General Richard Montgomery at the Battle of Quebec.

How the Thirteen Colonies Tried—and Failed—to Convince Canada to Side With Them In the Revolution

After peaceful attempts at alliance-building stalled, the Continental Army launched an ill-fated invasion of Quebec in June 1775.
by Eli Wizevich via Smithsonian Magazine on May 12, 2025
Patrick Henry giving a speech to a crowd of Virginians.

What Spurred the South to Join the American Revolution?

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.
by Andrew Lawler via Smithsonian Magazine on April 4, 2025
View of a Boston Street, circa 1778.

Commissary Notes and the Dark History of Revolutionary Financing

From the outset of the American Revolution, a lingering problem that plagued the minds of the Continental Congress dealt with its financing.
by Zach Thompson via Journal of the American Revolution on October 12, 2023
Colonists in front of the Old State House in Boston.

‘King Hancock’ Review: The Biggest Name in Boston

More than an artful calligrapher, John Hancock forswore the austerity of his fellow Bostonians, and their extremism.
by William Anthony Hay via The Wall Street Journal on October 6, 2023
Jacob Duché delivers the first prayer in the Continental Congress, 1774.

The Traitor Chaplain Who Gave Government Prayer to America — A 4th of July Corrective

When drafting the Constitution, our founders had no need of prayer.
by Andrew L. Seidel via Religion Dispatches on July 3, 2023
Painting of Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap by George Caleb Bingham. (Washington University, St. Louis)

The Articles of Confederation and Western Expansion

In settling a rivalry between Maryland and Virginia and preventing individual states from getting into bed with France and Spain, maybe the Articles weren't a failure after all.
by Richard J. Werther via Journal of the American Revolution on June 14, 2022
Abraham Lincoln speaking to a crowd.

Stop Making Sense

Are the truths in the Declaration of Independence really self-evident?
by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on November 8, 2021

Was Declaring Independence Even Important?

Reflections on the latest public debate between historians about the causes of the American Revolution.
by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on September 15, 2021
Painting of smallpox vaccination

The Long History of Mandated Vaccines in the United States

Vaccines against smallpox during the Revolutionary War are one example of how mandates have protected the health of Americans for more than two centuries.
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via Governing on August 5, 2021
1747 map of Nova Scotia

Phraseology and the "Fourteenth Colony"

There have been at least eight provinces in British North America labeled the "fourteenth colony." They cannot all claim the same title.
by George Kotlik via Journal of the American Revolution on August 4, 2021
Title page of a collection of the letters that debated Great Britain, inscribed to President John Adams.

Massachusettensis and Novanglus: The Last Great Debate Prior to the American Revolution

James M. Smith explains the last debates between Loyalists and Patriots prior to the official outbreak of the American Revolution.
by James M. Smith via Journal of the American Revolution on May 25, 2021
A cartoon of Boston colonists in a cage.

How Did the Colonies Unite?

The drive for American independence coalesced in only a few years of rapidly accelerating political change.
by T. H. Breen via New York Review of Books on March 1, 2021

Foreign Support of the American Cause Prior to the French Alliance

Richard J. Werther discusses how being outmanned by the best army in the world led American revolutionaries to look overseas for the help they needed.
by Richard J. Werther via Journal of the American Revolution on September 8, 2020
Illustration of Founders signing the Declaration of Independence.

How the Meaning of the Declaration of Independence Changed Over Time

When Thomas Jefferson penned ‘all men are created equal,’ he did not mean individual equality, says Stanford scholar.
by Jack Rakove, Melissa De Witte via Stanford University on July 1, 2020

What Two Crucial Words in the Constitution Actually Mean

I reviewed publications from the founding era, and discovered that “executive power” doesn’t imply what most scholars thought.
by Julian Davis Mortenson via The Atlantic on June 2, 2019

The American Revolution’s Starving, Barefoot, Heroic Troops

Our young nation was very poor, the war was very expensive, and Congress and the states wanted everyone else to pay.
by Jay Cost via National Review on May 27, 2019
A stone marker for a post road, slightly chipped, reading "Boston 8 miles 1734 A.I."

"To Undertake a News-Paper in This Town"

How printers in the 1770s assembled the news for their papers, how they used the postal system, and how they may have approached Twitter.
by Emily Sneff via Declaration Resources Project on September 20, 2017

America's 100 Other Declarations of Independence

The document we celebrate today wasn't just the work of Thomas Jefferson's individual genius. Everyone was doing it.
by David Greenberg via Politico Magazine on July 4, 2017

Was John Hancock’s Signature Too Big? Or Was Everyone Else’s Too Small?

We hold this truth to be self-evident: John Hancock's signature on the Declaration of Independence was too big.
by Ben Blatt via Slate on August 5, 2014
Trumbull painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Dusting Off the Declaration

The Declaration of Independence seems to Pauline Maier to be "peculiarly unsuited" for the role that it eventually came to play in America.
by Gordon S. Wood via New York Review of Books on August 14, 1997
The Boston Massacre, printed by Paul Revere Jr., 1770.
partner

Deploying Federal Troops to U.S. Cities Is a Second Amendment Issue

But not because the founders wanted to see more guns in the hands of Americans.
by Noah Shusterman via HNN on December 3, 2025
Thomas Paine alongside the front cover of "Common Sense"

Thomas Paine, Common Sense and a Plan for America

The constitutional ideas in Thomas Paine's famous pamphlet.
by Jett Conner via Journal of the American Revolution on November 20, 2025
John Adams, Jefferson's pamphlet on the Rights of British America, and Franklin's "Join or Die" cartoon.

What Actually Changed in 1776

The most consequential shift that year was not one of battle lines but of ideology.
by Edward J. Larson via The Atlantic on November 10, 2025
William Franklin

Why Did Benjamin Franklin’s Son Remain Loyal to the British?

One of the most influential and ardent Patriots couldn’t persuade his son to join the Revolution.
by Stacy Schiff via The Atlantic on October 8, 2025
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