Revolutionary War & Colonial History

On the Jersey Shore, the Revolutionary War was more than a contest between the Continental and British Armies. In this neglected region, locals divided into pro- and anti-independence camps that fought a tumultuous six-year war only intermittently tied to the larger conflict. This war brought unprecedented economic opportunity to the Jersey Shore’s formerly poor and secluded villages, as locals risked their savings on speculative salt-making ventures and risked their lives in privateer vessels. British ships bound for New York were hunted by smaller vessels lurking in shore inlets. Local leaders sought to find and punish stealthy “London Traders” smuggling provisions behind British lines, and militia battled so-called Pine Robber gangs that frequently bested them.

Richly documenting and vividly narrating these events and others, award-winning historian Michael Adelberg explores the shore’s roll in America’s war for independence. 

From daring escapes and naval skirmishes to the resilience of everyday people, The Revolution on Raritan Bay reveals how this region’s sacrifices and conflicts influenced the outcome of America’s independence.

Raritan Bay was more than a body of water during the American Revolution—it was a front line. Its villages, farms, and ports became places where Patriots, Loyalists, and those in between clashed in a struggle that reshaped the colonies. Smugglers, privateers, and spies used its waters and inlets to move men, messages, and supplies. Families were torn apart, neighbors eyed one another with suspicion, and violent raids brought the war directly to the doorsteps of New Jersey residents.

Historian and television host John R. Schneider uncovers these overlooked stories, weaving together local accounts with the broader fight for liberty. 

Discover and celebrate the heritage of Cape May County's revolutionary patriots.

Descendants of whalers and those accustomed to hard living, the people of Cape May County served their emerging country on land and sea. They fought in the Continental army and the local militia at places like Brandywine and Germantown, and they fought at sea and on Delaware Bay, mostly as privateers. Their activities devilled the vaunted British navy and damaged the British war effort. Men like the Stillwell brothers, Nicholas and Enoch, prowled the waters around Egg Harbor and Peck’s Beach. Others, like successful Philadelphia lawyer and merchant Thomas Leaming, financed privateer ventures at the risk of losing everything.

Cape May County author Ray Rebmann tells the story of the roles played by local men and women in securing America’s liberty. 

A Tale of Two Foes

After the Battle of Monmouth Court House, in June 1778, the Revolutionary War in Monmouth County devolved into skirmishes between local militias and British Loyalists. Chief among these warring factions were revered rebel hero Captain Joshua Huddy and his fierce rival, a runaway enslaved Black man called Colonel Tye, who fought for the British. Attempting to bring the captured Huddy to prison, Tye was killed in battle, and when Loyalists murdered Huddy without benefit of trial two years later, the resulting international outrage jeopardized Benjamin Franklin’s Paris peace treaty negotiations. Only when Marie Antoinette pleaded with George Washington to stop the retaliatory hanging of a young British lieutenant did the peace talks resume.

Author Rick Geffken reveals the stories of these two obscure enemies who died and rose to fame for their beliefs in independence.

The revolutionary Battle of Monmouth signaled the end of major combat in the North. Centuries later, reminders of the conflict remain. The Covenhoven House, the Village Inn, Marlpit Hall, the Craig House and the homes of Thomas Seabrook and the murdered Joseph Murray stand open to the public today. Visitors can also behold safehouses for the wounded—such as Old Tennent Church, St. Peter’s and Old First Church—and tread along the same ground as George Washington, General Sir Henry Clinton, Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette. Devoting attention to these sites and to the Battle Monument in Freehold, the Revolution’s most prominent and enduring symbol, historian Randall Gabrielan leads a tour through Monmouth County’s revolutionary heritage.

Join author Joseph Buga on an exploration of this working-class and indefatigable city. Passaic has a history that stretches the imagination. Back when the place was called Acquackanonk, it played a crucial role in the American Revolution. Later, its hospitable attitude toward immigrants established Passaic as a beacon of both stability and innovation. By the late 1800s, the city was becoming a national leader in all things textile and rubber—Edison used Passaic wire to electrify Lower Manhattan. Allen B. Dumont established WABD in Passaic, the fourth national TV network alongside ABC, CBS and NBC. The Passaic High School “Wonder Team” boasted the longest high school winning streak in any sport, and a Passaic athlete became the “world’s fastest man.” Passaic pop legends the Shirelles and Joey Dee and the Starlighters made it big and influenced an upstart British group, the Beatles.

The Delaware Bay area was a pivotal battleground during the Revolutionary War. Follow along with this history of the Cape May Navy and its part in the War for Independence.

The Delaware Bay during the Revolutionary War was vital for trade and home to a host of armed conflicts between British vessels and American privateers. Cape May County captains in their light, fast vessels captured dozens of British merchant ships off the Atlantic coast. At the Battle of Delaware Bay, Lieutenant Joshua Barney aboard the Hyder Ally overcame massive odds and defeated the British warship General Monk. Colonel Elijah Hand, local hero of the skirmish at Quinton's Bridge, took his military talents to the seas, where he dueled with Tory privateers. Still in his twenties, Yelverton Taylor captured the Triton with hundreds of Hessian soldiers on board. Authors James P. Hand and Daniel P. Stites chart the exciting history of the Cape May Navy in the War for Independence.

Eat, Drink, Be Merry and Join the Revolution

New Jersey was the Crossroads of the American Revolution, and its colonial taverns were havens for Patriots and Loyalists alike to debate the political question of independence and even plan much of the Revolution itself. Taverns were the social and political centers of colonial society and the Garden State had a myriad of establishments that played prominent roles in the founding of the nation. Taverns became recruitment stations for colonial militias and provided a meeting place for local committees of safety. George Washington used them as headquarters and safe houses for his spies and local troops.

Discover the intoxicating history of the driving force in the fight for freedom, the colonial tavern in New Jersey.  

Flanked by the Hudson River to the east and the Delaware River to the west, Bergen County comprised one of the most vital theaters of the Revolutionary War.

An army that could control this territory could drive a fateful wedge between New England and the other colonies.In The Revolutionary War in Bergen County, Carol Karels and her team of scholars weave a masterful account of the war in northeastern New Jersey. Here in Bergen County General Washington took the young Marquis de Lafayette under his wing; here in Bergen County the future antagonists Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were baptized by fire; here in Bergen County families—in a prelude to the Civil War—split bitterly along Loyalist and Patriotic lines. From Washington's miraculous November 1776 retreat to the Delaware to the beginning of the Continental Army's epic August 1781 march to destiny at Yorktown, The Revolutionary War in Bergen County, comprehensively encompasses one of the Revolutionary War's most dramatic and pivotal fronts.

A Fabulous Fable of the Supernatural Kind

The saga of the Morristown ghost has been told around campfires and dinner tables in Morris County for generations. Local legend claimed British Loyalists secretly buried stolen Patriot treasure on Schooley Mountain as they fled the oncoming forces of George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Years later in 1788, a former school teacher from Connecticut, Ransford Rodgers, convinced local prominent Morristown families that a ghost was protecting the true location of the treasure and he alone could exercise it. Little did the victims know, Rodgers was perpetuating an elaborate hoax and eventually extorted large sums of money from the embarrassed local elite. The tale has been recounted in various sensational pamphlets and publications ever since, leaving behind a mystery of what is true or myth.

Author Peter Zablocki separates fact from fiction in the story of the great Morristown ghost hoax.

Michael S. Adelberg brings to life the struggles within Monmouth County, a place that New Jersey governor William Livingston called the theatre of spoil and destruction.

Like much of New Jersey during the American Revolution, Monmouth County was contested territory in between the great armies. As the Battles of Trenton, Princeton and Bound Brook raged nearby, the people of Monmouth County fought their own internal revolution; Loyalist partisans led insurrections and raids that laid waste to entire neighborhoods. In 1778, General George Washington rallied his Continental army and fought the British within Monmouth's borders, barely holding the field. Monmouth Countians joined the fight and then spent the following weeks caring for the wounded and burying the dead. The remaining war years brought more hardships, as they grappled with a local civil war charged with racial, religious and economic undercurrents - a local civil war that continued long after the Battle of Yorktown supposedly ended hostilities.

Between the Watchung Mountains to the north and the Sourland Mountains to the west lies the fertile valley of the Raritan River.

Stout Dutch, Huguenot, German, Scottish, and English settlers began to cultivate family farms here as early as the 1680s. For almost a hundred years, the tramp of soldiers' feet and sounds of cannons had been unknown, but that was about to change. With its location astride two major routes between New York and Philadelphia, it is little wonder that Somerset County became the Crossroads of the Revolution. A friendly populace and the protection of the mountains made this a safe haven for General Washington's army. His soldiers camped for three winters, including the harshest winter of the Revolution, in Somerset and in the adjacent areas of central New Jersey. Washington spent more time here than any other place during the War for Independence. It was in this historically significant county that the first military academy in the nation was built, the 13-star flag was first flown over American troops after its adoption by Congress, and the Regulations for the Infantry of the United States was written by General von Steuben.