In 1774, a group of 40 residents of Greenwich disguised as Indians torched a boatload of tea that had been offloaded there in the hope of sneaking it into Philadelphia by land. The last royal governor in New Jersey, William Franklin, son of Benjamin Franklin (by an unknown woman who was not his wife), tried to slow the colony’s move toward independence – at the cost of his freedom and his previously close relationship with his father.
The provincial Congress had him arrested in June 1776 and sent to Connecticut, though he was later released. After the war, despite William’s pleas for reconciliation, his father disowned him.
During the War for Independence, geography was destiny for the approximately 100,000 inhabitants of New Jersey. The state witnessed five major battles and many hundreds of minor encounters. Shortly after Franklin was incarcerated, British forces gained control of New York, pushing the Continentals across the river to New Jersey. Under threat of invasion, lacking a governor, and deeply divided on the issue of breaking with the king, New Jersey’s provincial congress hastily drafted a constitution. Written in five days during late June 1776, the new charter created a strong, annually-elected legislature, and a weak governor. Whether by accident or design, the constitution allowed property-owning women (of whom there were few) and free blacks with property (of whom there were fewer) to vote: a right the legislature removed in 1807, due to its alleged abuse.
When British troops crossed the Hudson and captured Fort Lee in the fall of 1776, Washington began a hasty retreat across New Jersey heading for safety on the far side of the Delaware River. His forces narrowly averted a quick defeat in Bergen County in late November by outrunning British forces to a drawbridge spanning the Hackensack River at New Bridge Landing, where British General Charles Cornwallis had been hoping to hem them in. For supporters of independence those were indeed “times that try men’s souls,” as Thomas Paine famously wrote during the hurried evacuation, and to which President Barack Obama referred in his inaugural address. It was also a pivotal moment when American military fortunes were reversed.
With a daring sneak attack, Washington scored his well-known victory at Trenton in late 1776, followed by another at Princeton in early 1777. The Continental Army wintered in Morristown, where the Great Swamp and the Watchung hills protected it, and from where Washington could defend the crucial iron industry in the highlands: a source of ammunition, tools, and other vital military needs. The wins strengthened American resolve, and Washington began reorganizing his forces for a protracted struggle.
British troops took Philadelphia in September 1777, but they did not gain control of Delaware Bay, which they needed to hold the city, until late November when they defeated a small, but very determined, American force stationed at Fort Mercer in Red Bank, Gloucester County.
Washington’s refortified troops passed their first major test at the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778, when they fought the British to a stand still before the Redcoats sneaked off under cover of darkness. This was the last major engagement in the northern theater of war. American General Charles Lee was later convicted by a court-martial of disobeying Washington’s orders during the battle.
Following the Battle of Monmouth, the fighting in New Jersey was mostly “desultory,” according to Washington. The Continental Army spent one of the worst winters on record in Morristown in 1779-1780, after which it faltered. Looking to exploit this weakness, British forces stationed in Elizabethtown tried in June 1780 to punch through Hobart’s Gap and reach Morristown. This last major British incursion onto New Jersey soil was stopped in Springfield. But before retreating, the Redcoats burned the village.
For many New Jerseyans, conditions of life during the Revolution resembled a civil war. Important supply routes crossed the state, and there were numerous skirmishes as rival foraging parties scoured the countryside. Roughly one third or a little more of New Jersey’s population actively sympathized with the cause of the revolution, and nearly another third sided with the loyalists. Some New Jerseyans changed sides mid conflict. A large group – mainly Quaker pacifists – strove to remain neutral.
All told, New Jersey played a pivotal role in the war. Washington’s main army spent roughly a quarter of the war on New Jersey soil, wintering three times in the northwestern hills, including important encampments at Middlebrook and Pluckemin. The Continental Congress, which had been forced to flee Philadelphia, was meeting at Nassau Hall in Princeton when news reached it, in late 1783, that the Treaty of Paris had been signed, formally ending the conflict. New Jersey’s central place in the struggle for independence is marked by Morristown National Historical Park, the first historical park to enter the national parks system.
The end result of the war in New Jersey was a badly tattered social fabric. The hope that a strengthened central government, as provided for in the United States Constitution, would hasten recovery, led New Jersey to quickly ratify both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
THE CONTOURS OF NEW JERSEY HISTORY
An Essay on Context for the Heritage Tourism Master Plan
Howard Green, Author. By permission of the New Jersey Historic Trust
