The New American Mindset: War Begins

Historian Sue Craig discusses how New Jersey residents thought about the Revolution after the signing of the Declaration of Independence Historian Sue Craig discusses how New Jersey residents thought about the Revolution after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, followed by a disastrous defeat in battle in New York City. She will focus on the philosophical and legal framework that dominated colonial thinking, and how it mixed with rage and a "phrenzy of revenge" that Jefferson found so prominent in the months after the British began bringing down the hammer in 1775. Despite the fear and aggression that marks this period, high-minded philosophies and legal ideals of the rebellion shaped how the new “United States” set up their governing structures while coping with increasing economic pressure and danger as the war spread out of New York into New Jersey. Meet us in the Stone Barn, near the Johnson Ferry House in Washington Crossing State Park.