This remarkably comprehensive anthology brings new life to the rich and turbulent late 18th-century period in New Jersey. Originally conceived for the state's 225th Anniversary of the Revolution Celebration Commission.

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.

Many of the critical events and dreadful realities of the intense warfare in New Jersey during the American Revolution have been forgotten, neglected, or lost to history. Sites in the Garden State where patriots fought and died remain unmarked, shrouded in mystery, clouded in mythology, or concealed by obscure accounts and dull statistics. Many places in the "Crossroads of the Revolution" state have entirely disappeared, while others languish unnoticed or have been built over by town development and local highways. Many of the Garden State residents who commute every day over heavily trafficked streets are completely unaware of the fierce struggles that occurred along their route during America's most important war. In "Revolutionary New Jersey" New Jersey-based author Robert Mayers has rediscovered and revived the history of previously forsaken locations by exploring them in person. He then enhances his observations from on-site visits with fresh research from original documents, often discovered in obscure British, Hessian and French records. The reader is subsequently transported to the battlefields and encampments in three theaters of the conflict in New Jersey- "The War in the Countryside," "The War at the Shore" and "New Jersey Campgrounds"-by describing Revolutionary events which occurred in more than 100 present-day towns. This narrative escorts readers back in time to feel, see, and hear the action that occurred over 200 years ago in familiar settings. It is hoped that all readers of Bob Mayers's newest book will acquire a new respect for the Revolutionary War events that took place locally (and in some instances in their own backyards). It is through this awareness that local sites might be maintained, and the glorious memory of those individuals who fought for our freedom preserved for the future.

This book tells the history of Monmouth County, NJ during the Revolutionary War.

Often overlooked in histories of the American Revolution, New Jersey played a crucial role in the struggle for independence. Follow the campaigns and battles fought on its soil, from Trenton and Princeton to Monmouth and Morristown, and gain a deeper understanding of this pivotal moment in American history. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.