Category: History
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The Death of General Richard Montgomery
Richard Montgomery is famous for leading the American invasion of Canada in 1775. Born in Swords, Dublin in the Kingdom of Ireland in 1738, he served in the British Army, but then joined the American patriots and became a Major General in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Taking over the invasion of Canada…
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The Journal of Esther Edwards Burr
She was the daughter of the famous theologian, Jonathan Edwards, and the wife of the second President of Princeton University, but Esther Edwards Burr is best known today as the mother of Aaron Burr, Jr., the third Vice President of the United States. What did she have to say about her famous son? The only significant…
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The Diverse Interests of Jean Laffite: Money, Medicine, and Temperance
It would probably come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the privateer Jean Laffite that he took a lifelong interest in the money market. He wanted to know how different currencies held up to each other, and how many Spanish Doubloons could be exchanged for a United States Treasury Note on any given day.…
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Jean Laffite and the Laflin Connection
Although the “Journal of Jean Laffite” was introduced to the public by John Andrechyne Laflin, a person with a shady past and a reputation as a forger, we cannot entirely discount his claim that there was some connection between the well-established Laflin family and Jean Laffite. Toward the end of the journal — actually…
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The Scrapbook of Jean Laffite
“The Journal of Jean Laffite” is a historical manuscript that surfaced in 1948 when John Andrechyne Laflin presented it to the Missouri Historical Society. He claimed that it was a journal kept by Jean Laffite from 1845 to 1850. The authenticity of “the Journal” has been questioned by many, and while not everyone believes it…
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The Beloved Buccaneer of St. Catharines
Captain Job Northrup led a double life. As a Patriot privateer in the early 1800s he captured Spanish ships, seizing their goods with a singular fervor. Prize money was carefully banked in the West Indies while Northrup combed the Gulf of Mexico, waiting for the end of a successful cruise, so he could make his…
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Edward Livingston: A Famous Man That Few Have Heard Of
Many people are born into obscurity, lead undistinguished lives, and die in obscurity. They never arrive at prominence, and neither do they feel any particular need to appear in the limelight. No statues are erected in their honor, no streets are named after them. And neither they nor their descendants feel at all slighted…