{"id":279161,"date":"2026-06-26T18:25:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/279161\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T18:25:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T18:25:21","slug":"fire-and-freedom-highlights-new-yorks-role-in-american-revolution-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/279161\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFire and Freedom\u201d Highlights New York\u2019s Role in American Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Despite the efforts of the Gotham Center for New York City History<\/a> and the Lower Manhattan Historical Association<\/a>, the Empire State\u2019s central role in the American Revolution is often overlooked. Millions recently celebrated the Knicks\u2019 ride up the Canyon of Heroes but how many know the stories of nearby Castle Clinton, Federal Hall or Fraunces Tavern, let alone Fort Washington uptown, or the Battle of Brooklyn, or the Prison Ship Martyrs\u2019 Monument in Fort Greene Park? But with America\u2019s 250th anniversary<\/a> approaching, some New York historians and scholars have set out to change that.<\/p>\n

\u201cFire and Freedom: The American Revolution in New York\u201d is a 2026 book exploring New York\u2019s integral role in the American Revolution through essays on hidden stories and political upheaval. Edited by Thomas S. Wermuth, Devin Lander, Jennifer Lemak, and Robert Chiles, and published by Cornell University Press, the book moves beyond traditional battle narratives to highlight events that were previously ignored by many historians including events such as the Great Fire of 1776. The September 20-21 conflagration broke out early in the British occupation of lower Manhattan, killed hundreds and destroyed an estimated 20 percent of the city\u2019s buildings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we approach the 250th anniversary of the revolution, the chapters in this book illuminate how wide-ranging this event was […] \u201d Wermuth wrote in his introduction. \u201cIt is clear in these chapters that a diverse group of New Yorkers\u2013soldiers, Loyalists, Indigenous peoples, and the enslaved, among others\u2013many of whom were previously ignored or viewed as inconsequential, were important participants in the revolutionary process.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to fellow editor Jennifer Lemak, Wermuth was the one to first conceptualize the book. Three of the book\u2019s four editors \u2014 Lemak, Lander, and Chiles\u2014serve as co-editors of the academic journal New York History, where Wermouth sits on the Advisory Board.<\/p>\n

Lemak said that \u201cFire and Freedom\u201d was conceived when Wermuth approached the journal\u2019s editors to pitch a special issue commemorating America\u2019s 250th anniversary and New York State\u2019s role in the Revolution. Wermuth is the co-founder and director of the Hudson River Valley Institute and the Dr. Frank T. Bumpus Chair in Hudson River Valley History at Marist University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe book brings together eight historians to argue that New York should be considered as the center of the American Revolution,\u201d Lemak said. \u201cThe book presents more of a bottom-up and local level approach than works on the Revolution in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Essays and New Assessments<\/p>\n

Each essay in \u201cFire and Freedom\u201d was crafted precisely for the book and its semiquincentennial context. Wermuth put a call out to historians to solicit essays, according to Lemak, and then the editors parsed through the approximately two dozen submissions they received.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really happy with the nice mix of topics that ultimately ended up in the book,\u201d Lemak said. \u201c[…] There is something for everyone and as a whole, the book offers a full look at the whole revolutionary period.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book begins with a chapter from historian Dillon L. Streifeneder, who examines how New York\u2019s wartime experiences helped shape the early state government. Emily Sneff then traces the publication and circulation of the Declaration of Independence in New York through printer John Holt\u2019s New-York Journal, highlighting how quickly the city shifted from a place where publishers promoted independence in the press (as Holt did) to becoming a British-controlled Loyalist stronghold. Not long after, the city emerged as the nation\u2019s first capital.<\/p>\n

Sneff, an expert on the Declaration of Independence and Pennsylvania resident, said in an interview that living in the Philadelphia area means seeing the Revolution\u2019s legacy \u2014 and the city\u2019s British occupation \u2014 physically embodied all around, through statues, buildings, and the like. New York, however, had a comparatively long British occupation before \u201cvery quickly transition[ing] to the capital of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dChangeability is still very much part of New York,\u201d Sneff said. \u201cThe financial district looks totally different than it would have in 1776,\u201d and the city\u2019s \u201cconstant change, constant growth sort of reflects the city that doesn\u2019t sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the third chapter, Benjamin L. Carp revisits the Great Fire of 1776, arguing that its place in history has long been distorted because the event exposes a messier, more nuanced Revolution than Americans usually care to remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Revolution is tricky because we think we ought to all agree on its meaning, even though that\u2019s never been true,\u201d Carp said. \u201cI think we all accept the idea that we\u2019re going to disagree about contemporary politics. We have all sorts of uncomfortable truths we refuse to face: the inequitable way we fund public schools, the infrastructure we build for cars instead of mass transit, the tax policies that favor the wealthy instead of working people, and plenty more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to America\u2019s 250th anniversary, Carp said revisiting the Great Fire and New York\u2019s revolutionary history reveals that the Revolution was a \u201cmuch messier and more radical event than the staid, conservative event we sometimes think we\u2019re celebrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the fourth chapter, Christopher F. Minty and John Cording collaborate to explore the complexities of Loyalist identity on Long Island during British occupation. Elena Krischer examines how the Revolution affected the Haudenosaunee and accelerated the loss of Indigenous lands. Iris de Rode then highlights the Franco-American alliance and the strategic decisions that led to victory at Yorktown. Finally, Lucien Holness focuses on emancipation efforts in western New York and the region\u2019s unique political landscape.<\/p>\n

Underlining all seven chapters is the notion that New York had a central role in the American Revolution, a far more essential role than it is given credit for, and one that comprised far more people than mainstream historical memory recognizes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy bringing these historical actors back into the story, a more complete understanding of the revolution in New York emerges, enriching our knowledge of what the revolution was and what it means to the many thousands who participated in it,\u201d Wermuth wrote in \u201cFire and Freedom\u201d\u2019s introduction.<\/p>\n

Lemak commented on the broader aims behind the book\u2019s creation: \u201cUltimately, we are hoping in 50 and 100 years, historians can read \u201cFire and Freedom\u201d and understand where scholarship on the Revolution was at the semi-quincentennial,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York was the most influential state in the Nation from the Dutch founding well into the 20th century,\u201d Lemak said. \u201cNew York has been indispensable through every chapter in American history […] from Indigenous trade routes and Dutch colonization to the Revolutionary War, the Erie Canal, immigration, finance, industrialization, reform movements, and global culture. New York has influenced the nation\u2019s development for more than four centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite the efforts of the Gotham Center for New York City History and the Lower Manhattan Historical Association,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[107104,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-279161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-madeleine-farr","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}