Rending the Social Fabric: Revolution in Gloucester County, New Jersey, 1774-1779

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Beyond Battlefields: Culture and Conflict through the Philadelphia Campaign" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 1774, New Jerseyans agreed: No taxation without representation. This unity disintegrated when a New Jersey Provincial Congress prepared for armed resistance to Great Britain. The population split between those that wanted to remain part of the British empire (Tories or Loyalists), those that wanted autonomy or independence (Whigs or Rebels), and those that wanted to be left alone.

In Gloucester County, in late 1774 and early 1775, seventy-seven Quakers, Anglicans, and Presbyterians cooperated in a “Committee of Observation” to enforce an embargo against imports from Great Britain. Three years later, some of these men were officers in opposing armies, armies that foraged and plundered. Loyalists burned Rebel officers’ homes, and the Rebel State government confiscated Loyalist possessions. March 1778, Gloucester County’s 1st Militia Regiment revolted against the “tyranny of Congresses Committees & other usurped powers.”

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Beyond Battlefields: Culture and Conflict through the Philadelphia Campaign   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology