New Jersey’s Revolutionary Generation is a data visualization project that traces the lives of the men and women of New Jersey, Whig and Loyal, free and enslaved, who fought for, survived in, or escaped from the Crossroads of the Revolution during the American War of Independence.
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“I may say I have lived in an eventful period of the world. [I] have not only seen, but have borne some humble part in effecting a revolution involving the dearest interest of man...”
- Thomas Ware, Samuel Forman’s Battalion of “Detached Militia.” Pension S.773, September 22, 1832.
This project builds upon the work of historians Theodore J. Crackel and
Mark Edward Lender and was inspired by the Tennessee State Library & Archives Patriot Paths mapping project.
In September 1981, Theodore J. Crackel, then a professor of history at the United States Military Academy, published Longitudinal Migration in America, 1780–1840: A Study of Revolutionary War Pension Records, which introduced the concept of using Revolutionary War pension files as a source for historical migration data. Three years later, he followed up with Revolutionary War Pension Records and Patterns of American Mobility, 1780–1830, which focused his study of pensioner migration patterns to a sample of 1,400 New Jersey veterans. However, as Crackel himself noted, his findings were only preliminary. They did not separate pensioners out by cohort (those who applied under the 1818 law, and those who applied under the 1832 law), nor were the migrations mapped. This study seeks to fill those gaps in Crackel’s work by mapping the migration of New Jersery’s Revolutionary veterans using….
Mark Edward Lender groundbreaking 1975 dissertation “The Enlisted Line: The Continental Soldiers of New Jersey” viewed the New Jersey Line through the lens of the burgeoning social history movement of the 1970s. Using the descriptive rolls of men draughted for nine months of service just before the Battle of Monmouth in 1778, Lender explored the ages, origins, and socio-economic background of the soldiers. This study of New Jersey’s Revolutionary Generation uses that same social history approach, but widens the scope to a larger number of individuals, and to a period later in life when these soldiers were middle-aged veterans with families. Did these men from “the lower end of the social ladder” when they enlisted improve their social standing? What effects did the war have on their health?
The Tennessee State Library & Archives Patriot Paths mapping project was revelatory to me in its use of Esri’s arcGIS software as a data visualisation tool to map the migrations of Revolutionary veterans.
also includes the “others’ not generally included in - widows, African-Americans, and Loyalist refugees.
Additionally, by also including the widow pensions of 1836-1855, we can further explore the religious background of the veterans and their families,
as well as the ages of widows and how long they waited to apply for pensions after they were widowed.
“I have very often prepared his clothes and his provisions for such [monthly militia tours of duty], and furnished his knapsack with such necessaries as I could provide when he marched off with his company, leaving me to take the care of our children and the farm in his absence."
-Martha Lindsly, Widow of Ephraim Lindsly, Morris County Militiaman. Pension W.860, August 30, 1838.
THE
CONTENTS.
The Data Sources
What are the Revolutionary Veteran Pensions? What are the New Jersey Damage Claims? Discover the archival sources that went into the datasets that are at the core of New Jersey’s Revolutionary Generation Project.
The Continentals
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The Militia
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The Widows
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The Enslaved and the Free
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The Loyalists
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“He states that his services during this tour were performed within the limits of New Jersey and that indeed for several years of the revolutionary struggle that State presented one continual scene of warfare.”
- Zachariah Ross, Essex County Militiaman. Pension R. 9030, April 21, 1843.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
This project would never have been possible without the kind assistance and support of many people.
Sean McHugh, Professor of GIS at Monmouth University and Suzanne White, GISP with the State of Tennessee for their assistance in all things GIS.
