Guest blogger George Weghorst shares a deceptively familiar story from the earliest days of the American Revolution.
Kate shares an account of a stop on The Liberty Trail in New Jersey, centered around the dramatic capture of the British supply ship HMS Blue Mountain Valley during the American Revolution. After a grueling 13-week voyage, the ship limped into Sandy Hook, where Patriots seized its first mate and launched a surprise boarding operation. Expecting military supplies, they instead found a cargo of coal, porter, beans, potatoes, sauerkraut, and hogs—more fit for a feast than a fight.
Learn more about how The Liberty Trail is blazing paths across the east coast.
Visiting historical sites provides unrivaled experiences and education opportunities.
John Laurens, a Revolutionary War hero and close friend of Alexander Hamilton, was a strong opponent of slavery despite his father being a wealthy slave trader. He proposed enlisting enslaved people into the Continental Army and freeing them after the war. Laurens was killed at the Battle of Tar Bluff in 1782 at just 27 years old. Recent excavations at the site uncovered relics from the battle, including a slave tag from 1836, highlighting the ongoing struggle against slavery. Laurens would likely have supported later efforts like Harriet Tubman’s 1863 Combahee Ferry Raid, which freed over 700 slaves.
Uncovering History
We invite you to visit the preserved locations along the Liberty Trail and to immerse
yourself in the extraordinary events that determined the fate of a nation.
In the days leading up the Battle of Lexington and Concord, James Barrett stored military supplies, including small cannons, from that were smuggled out of Boston amid rising tensions with the British.
An ingenious Patriot deception provokes a prominent Loyalist to surrender his outpost
Once owned and operated by Founding Father Patrick Henry, it was while living in this home that Patrick Henry coined the phrase "Give me liberty or give me death!"
A home to a Quaker family, it served as a hospital following the Battle of Red Bank.
Once a simple ferry site, it gained prominence after Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox," mustered the Williamsburg militia into his ranks in August of 1780
The Battle of Camden was a devastating defeat suffered by the Americans in the British military offensive in the South.
The Caldwell Parsonage is a site of tragedy outside of the battlefield of Connecticut Farms & Springfield. The events that transpired that day still have lasting legacies for the township.
In the final days of the Revolutionary War, Rockingham became General George Washington’s last wartime headquarters, where he penned his Farewell Orders to the Armies of the United States. As he prepared to step away from military command, news arrived that the Treaty of Paris had been signed, securing America’s independence.
As part of their Southern Campaign, the British set their sights on taking the vital port of Charleston.
Middleton Place is America’s Oldest Landscaped Gardens and home to a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
A surprise Patriot attack on Loyalist recruits is a blow to the British
The second engagement of the Boston Campaign, the Battle of Chelsea Creek marked a stunning defeat for the British as their resources began to dwindle in Boston.