Bøger af David W Maxey

In the fall of 1778 John Roberts, a prosperous Quaker miller who owned valuable property located about 10 miles from Phila., stood trial before a jury that found him guilty of having committed treason. If not entirely innocent, did Roberts nevertheless deserve a trip to the gallows a month after the jury returned its verdict? Relying on two long-neglected contemporary records of this treason trial, Maxey explores in depth the issue of Roberts's guilt while capturing the atmosphere of confusion, conflicting loyalties, political bickering, and religious tension that prevailed in and around Phila. during that period. This is a study, replete in characters and contradictions, of the American Revolution as a civil war that divided neighbors and neighborhoods and of pardon that came haltingly when it came at all. Illus.

When did a person living in one of the rebellious colonies cease to be the subject of George III and become a citizen of a newly constituted American state? Well into the 19th cent., uncertainty persisted regarding citizenship acquired (or lost) during the Revolution. Turning to original sources, Maxey brings into clear focus a family dispute over inheritance rights and the task the Supreme Court faced in determining the status of Daniel Coxe -- either as a citizen of New Jersey entitled to inherit, or as an alien barred from doing so. Having heard the arguments on two separate occasions, the Supreme Court announced its decision in 1808. Twenty years later, the Court measurably diverged from the rationale supporting that decision. Illus.

Drawing on original manuscript sources, Maxey has produced a persuasive study of a late-18th-century portrait and its subject. He has focused attention on an enigmatic painting, and the person portrayed in it -- a woman of talent and verve, whose life has remained undeservedly obscure. Elizabeth Willing Powel presided over a salon; spoke her mind freely; and maintained, for a period of 40 years, an extensive, illuminating correspondence. She was the trusted confidante of the country's first president, whom she did not hesitate to instruct on where duty summoned him. At a critical moment, the Philadelphia painter, Matthew Pratt, was commissioned to capture on canvas the grief she experienced. Color portrait.