Lafayette In The Age Of The American Revolution

The second volume in this distinguished series provides a comprehensive picture of the Franco-American alliance and of the day-to-day problems of conducting the War of Independence as reported by Lafayette and his correspondents on both sides of the Atlantic. Volume II begins with Lafayette's reunion with the main army at Valley Forge in the spring of 1778, after an assignment to Albany. It follows him on his return to France in January 1779, on leave from the American army, and ends in the spring of 1780, when he was sent back to America to announce the coming of the French expeditionary force and to help formulate American plans for cooperation with the French forces. Complementing Lafayette 's personal memoirs, which open the two parts of the book, are exchanges of letters with such prominent figures as George Washington1 Henry Laurens, Benjamin Franklin, the Comte d'Estaing, John Paul Jones, and the Comte de Vergennes. The documents and letters written in English are published as they appear in the manuscripts; those written in French appear both in the original and in translation. Much of the basic material for this series, which will comprise six volumes, is drawn from Lafayette's own collection of manuscripts. A brilliant portrait of Lafayette in his own words, the books reveal much more complex elements in his character and outlook than have been apparent before.

The fourth volume in this distinguished series is a documentary chronicle of the 1781 campaign that culminated in the October surrender of Cornwallis and his army to the joint American and French forces at Yorktown. As leader of the American troops in Virginia from April through September 1781, Lafayette played a major role in planning this campaign; the greatest American victory of the war was also an outstanding personal triumph. In this volume Lafayette's correspondents include American military figures such as Washington, Greene, Steuben, and Wayne; the British commanders Phillips and Cornwallis; and such civil authorities as Jefferson, Thomas Nelson, William Davies, and Thomas Sim Lee. Their exchanges provide a vivid picture, with all the immediacy and authenticity that only documents can give, of the problems and frustrations of the campaign, and they draw attention to the specific decisions that led to the allied containment of the British forces.

When the Revolutionary War began, the odds of a united, continental effort to resist the British seemed nearly impossible. Few on either side of the Atlantic expected thirteen colonies to stick together in a war against their cultural cousins. In this pathbreaking book, Robert Parkinson argues that to unify the patriot side, political and communications leaders linked British tyranny to colonial prejudices, stereotypes, and fears about insurrectionary slaves and violent Indians. Manipulating newspaper networks, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, and their fellow agitators broadcast stories of British agents inciting African Americans and Indians to take up arms against the American rebellion. Using rhetoric like "domestic insurrectionists" and "merciless savages," the founding fathers rallied the people around a common enemy and made racial prejudice a cornerstone of the new Republic. In a fresh reading of the founding moment, Parkinson demonstrates the dual projection of the "common cause." Patriots through both an ideological appeal to popular rights and a wartime movement against a host of British-recruited slaves and Indians forged a racialized, exclusionary model of American citizenship.

This book is a compilation of the letters of General Lafayette, ranging in topics from military to political to personal matters and correspondence. The editors have written translation and editorial explanations, and provide background and otherwise secondary information to accompany the letters.

From the bestselling author of The Storm Before the Storm and host of the Revolutions podcast comes the thrilling story of the Marquis de Lafayette’s lifelong quest to defend the principles of liberty and equality A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A #1 ABA INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE BESTSELLER Few in history can match the revolutionary career of the Marquis de Lafayette. Over fifty incredible years at the heart of the Age of Revolution, he fought courageously on both sides of the Atlantic. He was a soldier, statesman, idealist, philanthropist, and abolitionist. As a teenager, Lafayette ran away from France to join the American Revolution. Returning home a national hero, he helped launch the French Revolution, eventually spending five years locked in dungeon prisons. After his release, Lafayette sparred with Napoleon, joined an underground conspiracy to overthrow King Louis XVIII, and became an international symbol of liberty. Finally, as a revered elder statesman, he was instrumental in the overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty in the Revolution of 1830. From enthusiastic youth to world-weary old age, from the pinnacle of glory to the depths of despair, Lafayette never stopped fighting for the rights of all mankind. His remarkable life is the story of where we come from, and an inspiration to defend the ideals he held dear.

The fourth volume in this distinguished series is a documentary chronicle of the 1781 campaign that culminated in the October surrender of Cornwallis and his army to the joint American and French forces at Yorktown. As leader of the American troops in Virginia from April through September 1781, Lafayette played a major role in planning this campaign; the greatest American victory of the war was also an outstanding personal triumph. In this volume Lafayette's correspondents include American military figures such as Washington, Greene, Steuben, and Wayne; the British commanders Phillips and Cornwallis; and such civil authorities as Jefferson, Thomas Nelson, William Davies, and Thomas Sim Lee. Their exchanges provide a vivid picture, with all the immediacy and authenticity that only documents can give, of the problems and frustrations of the campaign, and they draw attention to the specific decisions that led to the allied containment of the British forces.