Accents Of The Founding Fathers
If we were to hear them speak today, most of the Founding Fathers of the United States would be considered to have an American accent, but it would have sounded…
Politicians & Activists
Learn about the key poiliticians, diplomats, and political activists of the American Revolution.
The Presidents Before Washington
Before George Washington became the first president of the United States on April 30, 1789, there were others who led the federal government in the time leading up to and…
Thomas Jefferson’s Role in the American Revolution
Thomas Jefferson played a crucial role in the Patriot cause as a political leader and writer during the Revolutionary War. Leadup to Revolution In 1769, Thomas Jefferson, a young, well-educated…
I Have Not Yet Begun to Fight – John Paul Jones Quote
“I have not yet begun to fight” is one of the most famous quotes of the American Revolution, declared by Captain John Paul Jones during the 1779 Battle of Flamborough…
Loyal Nine – Explained | Founding, Actions, Legacy
The Loyal Nine (also known as the Loyall Nine) were one of the first organized resistance groups against British overreach in colonial America. Establishment In March 1765, the British implemented…
Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania by John Dickinson
Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies was a series of essays written by John Dickinson, a lawyer from Pennsylvania, in late 1767 and early…
Committees of Correspondence | Summary, Significance, Role
The Committees of Correspondence were groups of Patriot leaders that sought to organize inter-colonial cooperation and resistance to British rule, in the lead-up to and during the American Revolution. Summary…
Daughters Of Liberty | Who They Were & What They Did
The Daughters of Liberty was a group of Patriot women that helped promote resistance to British oppression in the lead-up to the American Revolution. Who they were The Daughters of…
Sons of Liberty Explained | Who They Were & What They Did
The Sons of Liberty was an underground Patriot political organization that formed in the Thirteen Colonies in the lead-up to the American Revolution. From 1765 until the start of the…
10 Most Famous American Revolution Quotes
The Revolutionary War gave rise to a number of important quotes, which are remembered today as milestones on the journey towards American independence. Below, we’ve collated 10 of the most…
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 24 January 1732 in Paris. Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a French polymath, best known as a playwright, inventor, musician, diplomat, spy, and arms dealer. He is…
Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 20 December 1719 in Dijon, France. Charles Gravier, Count of Vergennes, was a prominent French diplomat and statesman, serving as the Foreign Minister under King Louis XVI.…
Thomas Paine Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 9 February 1737 in Thetford, Norfolk, England. Prior to arriving in Philadelphia (30-Nov-1774) at age 37, Thomas Paine had only succeeded at failure. He had been a…
Thomas Jefferson Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 13 April 1743 at Shadwell, in Albermarle County, Virginia. Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United…
Thomas Hutchinson Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 9 September 1711 in Boston, Massachusetts. Born and raised in the Province of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson was an American who was also British subject — forced by…
Silas Deane Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 24 December 1737 in Groton, Connecticut. Silas Deane was an American diplomat and politician, serving as one of the first foreign diplomats from the United States to…
Roger Sherman Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 19 April 1721 in Newton, Massachusetts. Roger Sherman was a founding father of the United States, known for his significant contributions as a politician and lawyer. He…
Robert Morris Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 20 January 1734 in Liverpool, England. Robert Morris was a Founding Father of the United States, known for his critical role in financing the American Revolution and…
Robert R. Livingston Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 27 November 1746 in New York, New York. Robert R. Livingston was a prominent American lawyer, politician, and diplomat, playing an influential role in the early years…
Peyton Randolph Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 10 September 1721 in Williamsburg, Virginia. Peyton Randolph was an influential figure in early American history, serving as the first President of the Continental Congress. Before his…
Patrick Henry Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 29 May 1736 in Studley (in Hanover County), Virginia. Patrick Henry was a prominent figure in the American Revolution, best known for his declaration “Give me liberty,…
William Lee Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 1739 at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia. William Lee, son of Thomas Lee (1690 – 1750) and Hannah Harrison Ludwell (1701 – 50), was born into one…
Richard Henry Lee Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 20 January 1732 at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Richard Henry Lee, son of Thomas Lee (1690 – 1750) and Hannah Harrison Ludwell (1701 – 50), was…
Henry Lee III Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 29 January 1756 at Leesylvania, the family plantation near Dumfries, Virginia. Henry Lee III, also known as “Light-Horse Harry”, was an American Patriot, politician, and cavalry officer…
Arthur Lee Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 20 December 1740 at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Arthur Lee, son of Thomas Lee (1690 – 1750) and Hannah Harrison Ludwell (1701 – 50), was born…
Joseph Warren Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 11 June 1741 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Joseph Warren was an influential American physician, soldier, and Patriot, known for his key role in the early stages of the…
John Witherspoon Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 5 February 1723 at Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland. John Witherspoon was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister and a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a…
John Sullivan Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 17 February 1740 in Somersworth, New Hampshire. John Sullivan was a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and later served as a delegate…
John Rutledge Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 17 September 1739 in Charleston, South Carolina. As Governor of South Carolina (1779 – 82) when the War moved South, he had such broad emergency powers and…
John Marshall Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 24 September 1755 near Germantown (in what is now Fauquier County), Virginia. As a boy, Marshall was influenced and encouraged by his father’s friend, George Washington. During…
John Jay Biography & Facts
Quick facts Peter Jay, a wealthy trader and merchant, married Mary Van Cortlandt in 1728. John Jay, the eighth of ten children (seven of whom survived into adulthood), was born…
John Hancock Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 23 January 1737 in Braintree, Massachusetts. John Hancock was a prominent Patriot of the American Revolution, best known for his large and bold signature on the United…
John Dickinson Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 8 November 1732 at the family plantation in Talbot County, Maryland. John Dickinson was known as the “Penman of the Revolution” for his influential letters and writings…
James Wilson Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 14 September 1742 in Carskerdo, Scotland. Wilson’s family wanted him to become a minister, and at 15 he entered St. Andrews University — but a family crisis…
James Otis, Jr. Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 5 February 1725 in Barnstable, Massachusetts. James Otis Jr. was a prominent lawyer and political activist in colonial Massachusetts, famously arguing against the Writs of Assistance and…
James Monroe Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 28 April 1758 in Westmoreland County, Virginia. James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States, serving two terms from 1817 to 1825, a period known…
James Madison Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 16 March 1751 at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway, Virginia. James Madison, known as the “Father of the Constitution,” was instrumental in drafting and promoting the…
Henry Laurens Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 6 March 1724 in Charleston, South Carolina. Henry Laurens was an apprentice in Crokatt’s Counting House (a record-keeping office) in London (1744 – 47). Unable to become…
Henry Knox Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 25 July 1750 in Boston, Massachusetts. Henry Knox was a key figure in the American Revolutionary War, serving as the chief artillery officer of the Continental Army.…
Gouverneur Morris Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 31 January 1752 at the family estate, Morrisania, in New York (now in the Bronx). At age 14, Morris accidentally scalded his right arm with boiling water,…
George Washington Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 22 February 1732 at the family Pope Creek Estate (near present-day Colonial Beach, Virgina). George Washington served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797…
George Mason Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 11 December 1725 at the family plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia. George Mason was a prominent Virginia planter, politician, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of…
George Clinton Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 26 July 1739 in New Britain, New York. George Clinton was an American soldier and statesman, serving as the first Governor of New York from 1777 to…
Elbridge Gerry Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 17 July 1744 in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Elbridge Gerry was a statesman and diplomat who played a significant role in the American Revolution and early American politics. He…
Edmund Randolph Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 10 August 1753 in Williamsburg. Edmund Randolph was a prominent lawyer and statesman who served as the seventh Governor of Virginia, the first United States Attorney General,…
Charles Pinckney Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 26 October 1757 in Charleston, South Carolina. Charles Pinckney was taught privately and studied law under his father. He was admitted to the South Carolina bar in…
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 25 February 1746 in Charleston, South Carolina. Largely educated in England, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was admitted to the bar there in 1769. He returned to South Carolina…
Charles Carroll of Carrollton Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 19 September 1737 in Annapolis, Maryland. A Catholic, educated in France by Jesuits, Carroll achieved widespread political influence in Annapolis through his writings, since by law Catholics…
Benjamin Rush Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 4 January 1746 in Byberry, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. Following graduation from Medical School at the University of Edinburgh (1768), Rush met some of the famous men of…
Benjamin Franklin Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 17 January 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. Though associated with Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin was born and raised in Boston. He did not arrive in Philadelphia until he was…
Alexander Hamilton Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 11 January 1755 (or 1757) in Charlestown on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies. Hamilton was born on the West Indian Island of Nevis,…
Samuel Adams Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 27 September 1722 in Boston, Massachusetts. Samuel Adams was a Founding Father of the United States, known for his leading role in organizing the American Revolution’s early…
John Quincy Adams Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 11 July 1767 in the north precinct of Braintree, Massachusetts (now Quincy). John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829, and was the…
John Adams Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 30 October 1735 in the north precinct of Braintree, Massachusetts (now Quincy). John Adams was the second President of the United States (1797–1801) and a leading advocate for American independence as…
Aaron Burr Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 6 February 1756 in Newark, New Jersey. Grandson of Congregationalist preacher and theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703—58). Prevented a duel between James Monroe and Alexander Hamilton, 1797. Nearly…
John Burgoyne Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 24 February 1722 in Sutton, Bedfordshire, England. John Burgoyne was a British army officer, politician, and playwright who is best known for his role in the American…
George Germain Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 26 January 1716 in London, England. George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, was a British statesman and army officer, serving as Secretary of State for the American Department…
Frederick North Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 13 April 1732 in London, England. The eldest of six children, Frederick North was educated at Eton and Oxford; after leaving university, he traveled for three years…
Edmund Burke Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 12 January 1729 in Dublin, Ireland. Edmund Burke was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher, who served as a member of the British Parliament…
Charles Cornwallis Biography & Facts
Quick facts Born: 31 December 1738 in London, England. Charles Cornwallis was a British Army officer and colonial administrator, best known for his role in the American Revolutionary War as…