Bibliographical Essay

Despite the importance of this period in American history, there has until recently been no satisfactory overall treatment. Fortunately, this lack has now been remedied with the completion of Bernhard Knollenberg’s two-volume masterpiece on the development of the American Revolution: Origin of the American Revolution, 1759–1766 (1960), and Growth of the American Revolution, 1766–1775 (1975). The Knollenberg volumes are thorough in detail and masterly and up to date in interpretation. Also useful but far less sound in interpretation is Merrill Jensen, The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution, 1763–1776 (1968). Highly inaccurate is the old standby of John C. Miller, Origins of the American Revolution (1943). A realistic account of the use of mobs in the resistance movement is presented in Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765–1776 (1972). Lawrence H. Gipson, The Coming of the Revolution, 1763–1775 (1954), and The British Empire Before the American Revolution, vols. 9–12 (1956–1965), presents the British imperalist point of view. There are useful essays in Herbert Aptheker, The American Revolution, 1763–1783 (1960).

The libertarian ideology animating the American revolutionaries is made clear in the deservedly influential work by Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967), an expansion of his “General Introduction” to Bernard Bailyn, ed., Pamphlets of the American Revolution, 1750–1776, vol. 1, 1750–1765 (1965). The influence of French libertarian thought may be found in Howard Mumford Jones, America and French Culture, 1750–1848 (1927); see also H. Trevor Colbourn, The Lamp of Experience: Whig History and the Intellectual Origins of the American Revolution (1965). The influence of, and the colonists’ relations with, the Wilkite movement may be found in George Rudé, Wilkes and Liberty: A Social Study of 1763 to 1774 (1962); Pauline Maier, “John Wilkes and American Disillusionment with Britain,” William and Mary Quarterly (1963), pp. 373–95; and Jack P. Greene, “Bridge to Revolution: The Wilkes Fund Controversy in South Carolina, 1769–1775,” Journal of Southern History (1963), pp. 19–52. English libertarians are depicted in Caroline Robbins’ great work, The Eighteenth Century Commonwealthman (1959), and the activities of a particularly influential though neglected libertarian organizer in Robbins, “The Strenuous Whig: Thomas Hollis of Lincoln’s Inn,” William and Mary Quarterly (1950), pp. 406–53.

Religion played an important role in the development of revolutionary ideas. The best work on the “black regiment” of Congregationalist ministers is still Alice M. Baldwin, The New England Clergy and the American Revolution (1928). While scarcely definitive, Herbert M. Morais, Deism in EighteenthCentury America (1934), is still the only work on this important subject. Arthur L. Cross’s classic work on the struggle over Anglican bishops in America, The Anglican Episcopate and the American Colonies (1902), has now been supplemented and partially replaced by Carl Bridenbaugh, Mitre and Sceptre: Transatlantic Faiths, Ideas, Personalities, and Politics, 1689–1775 (1962). The great radical Massachusetts minister Jonathan Mayhew is studied in Charles W. Akers, Called unto Liberty: A Life of Jonathan Mayhew, 1720–1766 (1964).

Mercantilist acts and enforcement by Britain as causes of the American resistance are treated in Oliver M. Dickerson, The Navigation Acts and the American Revolution (1951); Carl Ubbelohde, The Vice-Admiralty Courts and the American Revolution (1960); and Joseph J. Malone, Pine Trees and Politics: The Naval Stores and Forest Policy in Colonial New England, 1691–1775 (1964). While marred by errors of interpretation, Arthur M. Schlesinger’s The Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution, 1763–1776 (1918) is an important, thorough, and still definitive account of the merchants and the various movements and struggles for nonimportation from England. There are still useful essays in Richard B. Morris, ed., The Era of the American Revolution (1939).

The important influence of land-grabbing and speculation in the Western lands is covered in Clarence W. Alvord, Mississippi Valley in British Politics: A Study of the Trade, Land Speculation, and Experiments in Imperialism Culminating in the American Revolution (2 vols., 1917); and Thomas P. Abernethy, Western Lands and the American Revolution (1937). Dale Van Every, Forth to the Wilderness: The First American Frontier, 1754–1774 (1961), is a vivid story of relations with Indians in the West; and Nicholas B. Wainwright, George Croghan: Wilderness Diplomat (1959), is an excellent account of the adventurer and swindler important to frontier and Indian relations in the early part of our period. Howard H. Peckham, Pontiac and the Indian Uprising (1947), supersedes the old classic by Francis Parkman, The Conspiracy of Pontiac (1851, 1962), as an account of the Pontiac Rebellion. Francis S. Philbrick, The Rise of the West, 1754–1830 (1965), is a good overall account of the Western frontier.

The best discussion of the struggles over the British army and the growth of American resistance before the Revolution is in John Shy, Toward Lexington: The Role of the British Army in the Coming of the American Revolution (1965). The reader should also consult the excellent and up-to-date first two chapters on the military background of the American Revolution in Don Higginbotham, The War of American Independence: Military Attitudes, Policies, and Practice, 1763–1789 (1971).

The role of the press in revolutionary agitation is admirably treated in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence: The Newspaper War on Britain, 1764–1776 (1958). This volume supersedes Philip G. Davidson, Propaganda and the American Revolution, 1763–1783 (1941), which is fatally marred by the view that all ideology is mere “propaganda.”

The vital role of colonial agents in London is treated in Michael G. Kammen, A Rope of Sand: The Colonial Agents, British Politics, and the American Revolution (1968); and Jack M. Sosin, Agents and Merchants: British Colonial Policy and the Origins of the American Revolution, 1763–1775 (1965). The letters of the most important of these agents are included in Ross J. S. Hoffman, ed., EdmundBurke, New York Agent (1956). The best treatment of British politics in relation to the developing American resistance is Charles R. Ritcheson, British Politics and the American Revolution (1954). Jack M. Sosin, Whitehall and the Wilderness: The Middle West in British Colonial Policy, 1760–1775 (1961), is a pro-British account of imperial policy in Western lands. The Whig and radical opposition to British imperial designs and to Tory government at home is discussed in Rudé, Wilkes and Liberty (1962); Eugene C. Black, The Association: British Extraparliamentary Political Organization, 1769–1793 (1963); Archibald S. Foord, His Majesty’s Opposition, 1714–1830 (1964); George H. Guttridge, English Whiggism and the American Revolution (1942); and Lucy S. Sutherland, The City of London and the Opposition to Government, 1768–1774: A Study in the Rise of Metropolitan Radicalism (1959). The definitive, but difficult, political biography of the great Whig leader is Ross J. S. Hoffman, The Marquis: A Study of Lord Rockingham, 1730–1782 (1973). The most relevant discussion of Burke in this period is Carl B. Cone, Burke and the Nature of Politics, vol. 1, The Age of the American Revolution (1957). The Tory, or “Namierite,” point of view is presented in Sir Lewis Bernstein Namier, England in the Age of the American Revolution (2nd ed., 1961); Ian R. Christie, Wilkes, Wyvill, and Reform: The Parliamentary Movement in British Politics, 1760–1785 (1962); and John Brooke, The Chatham Administration, 1766–1768 (1956).

An excellent study of American resistance to the Stamp Act is Edmund S. and Helen M. Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution (2nd ed., 1962). Supporting documents are contained in Edmund S. Morgan, ed., Prologue to Revolution: Sources and Documents on the Stamp Act Crisis, 1764–1766 (1959). The Boston Massacre has now been treated fully in Hiller B. Zobel, The Boston Massacre (1970), and the Boston Tea Party in Benjamin W. Labaree, The Boston Tea Party (1964). The only study on the committees of correspondence is an old and brief work by Edward D. Collins, Committees of Correspondence of the American Revolution (1902). Disgracefully, there is no overall history of the Sons of Liberty; as a result, we have to make do with a few sectional accounts: Roger Champagne, “The Military Association of the Sons of Liberty,” New York Historical Society Quarterly (1957), pp. 338–50; Champagne, “Liberty Boys and Mechanics of New York City, 1764–1774,” Labor History (1967), pp. 115–35; the older Herbert M. Morais, “The Sons of Liberty in New York,” in R. Morris, ed., The Era of the American Revolution (1939), pp. 269–89; and the most substantial study, Richard Walsh’s Charleston’s Sons of Liberty: A Study of the Artisans, 1763–1789 (1959). The battles of Lexington and Concord are treated fully in Arthur B. Tourtellot, William Diamond’s Drum (1959).

Turning to the individual colonies, Richard F. Upton’s Revolutionary New Hampshire (1936) has been supplemented by Jere R. Daniell, Experiment in Republicanism: New Hampshire Politics and the American Revolution, 1741–1794 (1970); see also Lawrence S. Mayo, John Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire, 1767–1775 (1921). Frederic F. Van de Water, The Reluctant Republic: Vermont, 1724–1791 (1941), is a lively account of the Vermont rebellion; see also Chilton Williamson, Vermont in Quandary, 1763–1825 (1949). For a biography of the great Ethan Allen, John Pell’s Ethan Allen (1929) has been supplemented by Charles A. Jellison, Ethan Allen (1969).

Robert E. Brown, Middle-Class Democracy and the Revolution in Massachusetts, 1691–1780 (1955), is a basic work, even though his stress on “democracy” is overdrawn. Rural Massachusetts is treated in Lee N. Newcomer, The Embattled Farmers: A Massachusetts Countryside in the American Revolution (1953), and in the important work by Robert J. Taylor, Western Massachusetts in the Revolution (1954). E. Francis Brown, Joseph Hawley: Colonial Radical (1931), is a biography of the revolutionary leader in western Massachusetts. Merchant families, on the other hand, are treated in Benjamin W. Labaree, Patriots and Partisans: The Merchants of Newburyport, 1764–1815 (1962), and William T. Baxter, The House of Hancock, Business in Boston, 1724–1774 (1945).

The great Sam Adams has been ill-served by his biographers: John C. Miller, Sam Adams (1936), under the influence of the “propaganda” school of historiography, is hostile and vituperative. John Adams, on the other hand, has had numerous biographers. Best for our purposes is Catherine Drinker Bowen, John Adams and the American Revolution (1950). Page Smith’s John Adams (2 vols., 1962), though mired in detail, is weak on Adams’ political and economic thought. Bernard Bailyn, The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson (1974), is sensitive, but overly sympathetic to the Tory Leader. The heroic Dr. Joseph Warren is treated in John Cary, Joseph Warren: Physician, Politician, Patriot (1961).

The outstanding work on Connecticut in this period is Oscar Zeichner, Connecticut’s Years of Controversy, 1750–1776 (1949). The best account of Rhode Island politics in this era is David S. Lovejoy, Rhode Island Politics and the American Revolution, 1760–1776 (1958); see also Mack E. Thompson, “The Ward-Hopkins Controversy and the American Revolution in Rhode Island: An Interpretation,” William and Mary Quarterly (1959), pp. 363–75.

Carl L. Becker’s The History of Political Parties in the Province of New York, 1760–1776 (1909) is a much criticized “Beardian” classic, but still the best work on New York political struggles in this era. Bernard Mason, The Road to Independence: The Revolutionary Movement in New York, 1773–1777 (1966), presents a different interpretation, as do the later chapters of Patricia U. Bonomi, A Factious People: Politics and Society in Colonial New York (1971). However, the neo-Beardian approach to New York politics is rehabilitated in the early chapters of the brilliant work by Alfred F. Young, The Democratic Republicans of New York: The Origins, 1763–1797 (1967). The indispensable work on land conflicts in New York is Irving Mark, Agrarian Conflicts in Colonial New York, 1711–1775 (1940), which should be supplemented by the account of the New York tenant rising of 1766 in chapter three of Staughton Lynd, Anti-Federalism in Dutchess County, New York: A Study of Democracy and Class Conflict in the Revolutionary Era (1962); see also the early chapters of Bonomi, A Factious People. Dorothy Dillon, The New York Triumvirate: A Study of the Legal and Political Careers of William Livingston, John Morin Scott, William Smith, Jr. (1949), deals with the radical leadership in New York. The conservative figures are covered in biographies: George Dangerfield, Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, 1746–1813 (1960); Frank Monaghan, John Jay (1935); Edward P. Alexander, Revolutionary Conservative: James Duane of New York(1938); and Max M. Mintz, Gouverneur Morris and the American Revolution (1970).

For New Jersey we must go to general works on the colonial period: Donald L. Kemmerer, Path to Freedom: The Struggle for Self-Government in Colonial New Jersey, 1703–1776 (1940), supplemented by Richard P. McCormick, New Jersey from Colony to State, 1609–1789 (1964).

Theodore Thayer, Pennsylvania Politics and the Growth of Democracy, 1740–1776 (1953), is the book on Pennsylvania politics for this period. Although old, Charles H. Lincoln’s The Revolutionary Movement in Pennsylvania, 1760–1776 (1901) has not been replaced. Various aspects of Philadelphia life are treated in Frederick B. Tolles, Meeting House and Counting House: The Quaker Merchants of Colonial Philadelphia (1948); and Carl and Jessica Bridenbaugh, Rebels and Gentlemen: Philadelphia in the Age of franklin (1942). Some rebel leaders have been treated: Burton A. Konkle’s George Bryan and the Constitution of Pennsylvania, 1731–1791 (1922); David L. Jacobson, John Dickinson and Revolution in Pennsylvania (1965); and the great Charles Thomson in an article, John J. Zimmerman, “Charles Thomson: The Sam Adams of Philadelphia,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review (1958), p. 464. Of the innumerable works on Benjamin Franklin, the standard, though uncritical, account is Carl Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin (1938). For Delaware, we must still fall back on the unsatisfactory and aged John T. Scharf et al., History of Delaware, 1609–1888 (2 vols., 1888).

For politics in the southern colonies, John R. Alden, The South in the Revolution, 1763–1789 (1957), is excellent. On Maryland, see Charles A. Barker, The Background of the Revolution in Maryland (1943); and James Haw, “Maryland Politics on the Eve of Revolution: The Provincial Controversy, 1770–1773.” Maryland Historical Magazine (1970), pp. 103–29.

The Parsons’ Cause and other Virginia grievances down to 1763 are treated in the latter chapters of volume two of Richard L. Morton’s excellent Colonial Virginia (1960). On the revisionist view of Virginia’s debts to British merchants, see J. H. Soltow, “Scottish Traders in Virginia, 1750–1775,” Economic History Review (1959), pp. 83–98; and Emory G. Evans, “Planter Indebtedness and the Coming of the Revolution in Virginia,” William and Mary Quarterly (1962), pp. 511–33. Charley S. Sydnor’s Gentlemen Freeholders: Political Practices in Washington’s Virginia (1952) is an excellent study of the political scene in the leading southern colony. On Patrick Henry, see the biography by Robert D. Meade, Patrick Henry, vol. 1 (1957); see also the older work by Moses Coit Tyler, Patrick Henry (1898), which includes long excerpts from Henry’s notable speeches. The great Richard Henry Lee now has found his biographer in Oliver P. Chitwood, Richard Henry Lee: Statesman of the Revolution (1968).

The literature on North Carolina is sparse. Robert D. W. Connor, History of North Carolina, vol. 1 (1919), covers the colonial and revolutionary periods. “The War of the Regulation: Its Place in History” (1942), an unpublished master’s theses, is the only modern study of the North Carolina Regulator movement. An earlier study is by John S. Bassett: “The Regulators of North Carolina, 1765–1771,” American Historical Association, Annual Report (1894), pp. 141–212.

South Carolina is better served. The classic history of the colony is Edward McCrady, The History of South Carolina Under the Royal Government, 1719–1776 (1899). The standard modern work is David D. Wallace, History of South Carolina, vol. 1 (1934). The only good history of the Sons of Liberty for any area is Richard Walsh, Charleston’s Sons of Liberty: A Study of the Artisans, 1763–1789 (1959). The most recent study is Robert M. Weir, “A Most Important Epoch”: The Coming of the Revolution in South Carolina (1970). An excellent history of the South Carolina Regulators is Richard M. Brown, The South Carolina Regulators (1963). There is, unfortunately, no biography of the memorable Christopher Gadsden, although Richard Walsh has collected his Writings, 1746–1805 (1966).

On the coming of the Revolution in Georgia, see Kenneth Coleman, The American Revolution in Georgia, 1763–1789 (1958); see also Marjorie L. Daniel, The Revolutionary Movement in Georgia, 1763–1777 (1937).