Greetings. We are taking our winter break. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday,
March 4, at the Mount Vernon Inn starting at 6 p.m.
Here are some upcoming local events of interest:
November 14, 2019, 7:30 p.m.: Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, Alexandria,
Virginia: George Washington’s Tomb
Join Matthew Costello, Senior Historian of the White House Historical
Society, as he shares from his new book The Property of the Nation: George
Washington’s Tomb, Mount Vernon, and the Memory of the First President. He
traces the shift of America’s attention from the official days of commemoration
around Washington’s death to spontaneous visits by citizens through the story
of his tomb. This history reflects the building of a memory of America’s first
president—of, by, and for the American people. Book signing after lecture.
November 15, 12:30 p.m.: American Revolution Institute (Society of
the Cincinnati), Anderson House: A Pensioner of the Revolution
Join Deputy Director and Curator Emily Schulz Parsons for a discussion
of the oil portrait A Pensioner of the Revolution, painted in 1830 by
John Neagle (1796-1865), and its role in the struggle for federal pensions for
Revolutionary War veterans. This somber and arresting view of a poor, elderly
man hints at the financial struggles many soldiers of the Revolution faced
after the war. According to the artist, the portrait depicts Joseph Winter, a
German-born veteran who was living on the streets of Philadelphia when Neagle
met him. Moved by the story of this “lone wanderer in a world evincing but
little feeling or sympathy for him,” Neagle painted Winter’s portrait and
arranged for it to be published as a mezzotint, in the hopes that it would
bring attention to the need for comprehensive pension legislation for the men
who fought for American freedom. The presentation will last approximately
30 minutes with time afterwards for up-close viewing of the painting, which is
featured in the exhibition America’s First Veterans.
November 19, 6:30 p.m.: Society of Naval Architects (SNAME):
Larrie D. Ferreiro on How Naval Architecture Saved the American Revolution
Larrie D. Ferreiro, PhD, will present a talk at the Society of Naval
Architects (SNAME), Hampton Roads section, titled “How Naval Architecture Saved
the American Revolution.” For more information, click on this link:
https://www.sname.org/hamptonroadssection/home This program
will be held at the Hampton Yacht Club, 4707 Victoria Blvd, Hampton, Virginia.
Non-SNAME members can attend. Contact: David Laurence Hansch by email at dhansch@vt.edu.
December 5, 7 p.m.: The Fred W. Smith National Library at Mount
Vernon: Life of John Andre: The Redcoat Who Turned Benedict Arnold
Mount Vernon welcomes you to a lecture by author D.A.B. Ronald to
discuss his book, John Andre: The Redcoat Who Turned Benedict Arnold.
Cost is: free. For more information, click on this link:
https://www.mountvernon.org/library/library-events-programs/ford-evening-book-talks/ford-evening-book-talk-dab-ronald
March 20 (6:30 p.m.) to March 22 (noon), 2020: America’s History,
LLC presents its 9th Annual
Conference on the American Revolution
Williamsburg, Virginia –
America’s History, LLC presents its 9th Annual Conference on the American
Revolution. This year’s lineup of presenters include:
Edward G. Lengel, Head of Faculty — ” Some Desperate Glory: The Battles of Connecticut Farms and
Springfield, June 1780
Stephen Brumwell —“Turncoat: Benedict Arnold and the Crisis of American Liberty”
Michael Gabriel —“To Induce the Officers & Soldiery to Exert Themselves’: Plunder
and Trophies in the Revolutionary War.”
T. Cole Jones —“Captives of Liberty: British, German and Loyalist Prisoners of War
and the Politics of Vengeance”
Larry Kidder —“Ten Crucial Days: Washington’s Campaign against Trenton and
Princeton”
Mark Edward Lender —“Cabal!: The Plot against George Washington”
James Kirby Martin —“The American Revolution: For Some of the People or All of the People”
Nathaniel Philbrick —“In the Hurricane’s Eye: The Genius of George Washington, the Battle
of the Capes and the Victory at Yorktown”
Eric Schnitzer —“The Value of Revisionism: Don Troiani’s Campaign to Saratoga – 1777″
Gary Sellick, Emerging Scholar —“Black Men, Red Coats: The Creation of the Carolina Corps in
Revolutionary South Carolina”
Join your colleagues at a Fifes & Drum Cocktail Reception on Friday
evening for Speakers and Attendees. Hear a Revolutionary War sites
preservation update from the American Battlefield Trust. Conference
Registration: includes cocktail reception, lunch and refreshment breaks:
$250, if paid by 2/1/20; and after 2/1/20 registration is $280.
Exclusive Offer: Discounted tickets to the Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area
will be available to all attendees to use before or after the conference. Conference
Hotel: We have booked a block of rooms at the Colonial Williamsburg’s Woodlands
Hotel next to the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor’s Center at a rate of $92.00
per night (double or single occupancy) or suite $112. This hotel provides a hot
and cold breakfast buffet each day. Their 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019
Conferences sold out, so please register early to avoid disappointment. For
more information about the 9th Annual Conference on the American
Revolution and the bus tour on the Friday of “Southside Revolutionary Virginia
1775 Tour,” or to register, please go online at http://americashistoryllc.com/2019/9th-annual-conference-of-the-american-revolution-march-20-22-2020-3/ or call America’s
History at (703) 785-4373.
McBurney Recommendation: New London Merchant Nathaniel Shaw is
Brazen about Evading British Duties
In 1769, Captain William Reid of the Royal Navy sloop Liberty was
prowling about the southern New England coast for suspected smugglers who
sought to avoid paying British duties on imports. On July 17, Liberty
seized two vessels from Connecticut, Sally and Thames, and carried them into
Newport, Rhode Island. According to Michael R. Derderian, in an article
in the Journal of the American Revolution (https://allthingsliberty.com/2017/10/licentious-republic-maritime-skirmishes-narragansett-bay-1763-1769/), “The captain from
one of the captured vessels had an altercation with Captain Reid over the
return of some personal possessions. After he retook his possessions
forcefully, the men of the Liberty open fired with a volley of muskets as the
captain, with his retrieved possessions, escaped to shore. The citizens of
Newport witnessed the events unfolding and became enraged by the actions of the
Royal Navy. Later that evening Captain Reid and most of his crew went ashore to
convene with Rhode Island governor William Wanton to answer for their conduct.
Meanwhile, a group of citizens stormed the Liberty and dumped the vessel’s
armaments into the harbor while cutting the mooring lines and riggings, thus
rendering the ship inoperable. As the Liberty drifted towards Goat
Island, it was set ablaze and destroyed. Captain Reid appealed to local
authorities to apprehend and punish the individuals responsible for destroying
the Liberty. In typical Rhode Island government fashion, they did
practically nothing to find the culprits. Governor Wanton, although a loyalist,
issued a proclamation and offered a reward to find those responsible, but no
one came forward with any information.” This ship burning is considered
in some circles one of the first violent patriotic protests leading to the
American Revolution.
The day after the burning of Liberty, with no armed vessel to
stop them, a Newport mob released one of the seized vessels, the Sally.
The captain of the other seized vessel, Thames, successfully demanded
that his vessel be released for lack of evidence.
Nathaniel Shaw, a prominent New London merchant who bought rum and
molasses from French and Spanish islands in the Caribbean and resold them in
the thirteen colonies, was in Newport when Liberty was destroyed.
Shaw was the owner of the Thames. Indeed, Captain Reid later
stated that prior to the burning of his vessel, Shaw had threatened him unless
Reid freed two French sailors still on board the Thames. It is not
saying too much to suggest that Shaw likely played a prominent role in
persuading the mob of Newport sailors to destroy the Liberty.
J. L. Bell, in his superb website on revolutionary Boston, delves into
the burning of Liberty. Interestingly, he quotes from several letters
written by Nathaniel Shaw to his ship captains and agents, ordering them to pay
as little in British duties as possible. For example, on July 13, 1774, Shaw
wrote to his agent in New York City, “The bearer [Capn?] Tinker has on board
about twenty thousand Gal Melasses in the Brig Mermaid wich you must dispose
off on the best terms you can for my Interest. We have reported 150 hhd &
50 Teirces. I beg you will Cheat them much as you can of ye Duties.”
(Bold added). It is rare to find such a brazen written statement of
the intent to evade British duties on imported goods, but here it is!
Bell writes, “Shaw and Tinker had reported 15,000 gallons in hogsheads
and another 3,300 in the smaller casks called tierces, or about 10% short of
what they actually had brought in. So any way that [Shaw’s agent] could ‘Cheat’
on the duties was added profit. Given Shaw’s normal way of doing
business, Capt. William Reid probably had good reason to be suspicious when he
saw two of the merchant’s ships rendezvousing in Long Island Sound on 17 July
1769. Once Reid had seized those ships, Shaw came roaring into Newport to get
them back.”
You can sign up for J. L. Bell’s “Boston 1775” daily alert at http://boston1775.blogspot.com
