The American Revolution in New Jersey: Where the Battlefront Meets the Home Front

Published by Rutgers University Press 2015

The American Revolution in New Jersey

Where the Battlefront Meets the Home Front

Edited by: James J. Gigantino
With contributions by: Michael Adelberg , Bruce Bendler , Todd W. Braisted , Larry Kidder , Eleanor H McConnell , Robert A Selig , Donald E Sherblom and Gregory F Walsh

In the series Rivergate Regionals Collection

https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813571935

Overview
Contents

About this book

Winner of the 2016 New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance Authors Award for the Edited Works Category

Battles were fought in many colonies during the American Revolution, but New Jersey was home to more sustained and intense fighting over a longer period of time. The nine essays in The American Revolution in New Jersey, depict the many challenges New Jersey residents faced at the intersection of the front lines and the home front.

Unlike other colonies, New Jersey had significant economic power in part because of its location between the major ports of New York and Philadelphia. New people and new ideas arriving in the colony fostered tensions between Loyalists and Patriots that were at the core of the Revolution. Enlightenment thinking shaped the minds of New Jersey’s settlers as they began to question the meaning of freedom in the colony. Yeoman farmers demanded ownership of the land they worked on and members of the growing Quaker denomination decried the evils of slavery and spearheaded the abolitionist movement in the state. When larger portions of New Jersey were occupied by British forces early in the war, the unity of the state was crippled, pitting neighbor against neighbor for seven years.

The essays in this collection identify and explore the interconnections between the events on the battlefield and the daily lives of ordinary colonists during the Revolution. Using a wide historical lens, the contributors to The American Revolution in New Jersey capture the decades before and after the conflict as they interpret the causes of the war and the consequences of New Jersey’s reaction to the Revolution.

Author / Editor information

JAMES J. GIGANTINO II is the author of The Ragged Road to Abolition: Slavery and Freedom in New Jersey, 1775–1865.

Reviews

"Useful to scholars of New Jersey and may provide avenues for broader conversations about the Revolutionary War at home."

— Pennsylvania History

"By broadening the geographical and topical coverage of revolutionary New Jersey, this volume makes a substantial contribution to the field with chapters that should prove informative to general readers, students, and academic specialists ... Overall, the works assembled here indicate that New Jersey's revolutionary experience remains fertile ground for new inquiries."

— New Jersey Studies

"There is still much we can learn about the Revolution in New Jersey and this volume is an important step toward that better understanding."

— Jonathan Mercantini, Kean University

"In the case of New Jersey during the Revolution, boundaries between social, economic, political, and military history were (and are) wholly artificial. Gigantino’s authors address different questions, but each convincingly demonstrates that the stories of the home and fighting fronts, in all their various facets, were part of the same narrative. Kudos to James Gigantino and his fellow essayists."

— Journal of the Early Republic

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction James J. Gigantino Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART ONE. A Revolutionary Experience
1. A Disproportionate Burden on the Willing William L. Kidder Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2. “Most Boundless Avarice”: Illegal Trade in Revolutionary Essex Gregory F. Walsh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
3. Blasting, Scraping, and Scavenging: Iron and Salt Production in Revolutionary New Jersey Eleanor H. McConnell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
4. A Nest of Tories: The American-versus-American Battle of Fort Lee, 1781 Todd W. Braisted Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
5. Rochambeau in New Jersey: The Good French Ally Robert A. Selig Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
PART TWO. The Impact of the Revolutionary Experience
6. Destitute of Almost Everything to Support Life: The Acquisition and Loss of Wealth in Revolutionary Monmouth County, New Jersey Michael S. Adelberg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
7. Discharging Their Duty: Salem Quakers and Slavery, 1730–1780 Bruce A. Bendler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
8. Slavery, Abolition, and African Americans in New Jersey’s American Revolution James J. Gigantino Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
9. A Loyalist Homestead in a World Turned Upside Down Donald Sherblom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Notes on Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195

Language: English
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 222
Illustrations
- Other: 7 tables
Keywords: American Revolution; New Jersey; NJ; Garden State; history; New Jersey history; US history; battlefront; home front; battles; colonies; front lines; economic power; power; New York; Philadelphia; loyalists; patriots; freedom; settlers; Yeoman; ownership; Quaker; slavery; abolitionist movement; British; forces; battlefield; colonists; war; revolution; revolt; intersection; tension; colony; farmers; America; American history

eBook

Published: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 9780813571935