American Revolution
Key Figures of the Revolution
The leaders, thinkers, soldiers, and pivotal personalities who shaped the American Revolution.
Key Figures of the Revolution
Alexander Hamilton: Immigrant, Soldier, and Architect of American Finance
Alexander Hamilton (c. 1755–1804) arrived in the American colonies as an ambitious teenager from the Caribbean with no family connections,…
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Baron von Steuben: The Prussian Who Built the Continental Army
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730–1794) arrived at Valley Forge in February 1778 and found an army in chaos. The Continental Army was…
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Benedict Arnold: From Revolutionary Hero to America’s Most Notorious Traitor
Benedict Arnold (1741–1801) was, for the first five years of the American Revolution, one of the Continental Army's most aggressive and…
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Benjamin Franklin: Diplomat, Scientist, and the Revolution’s Elder Statesman
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) was the oldest and most internationally famous American involved in the revolution. By the time the imperial…
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Founding Fathers and Key Figures of the American Revolution
The American Revolution was not made by a handful of men in Philadelphia. It was propelled by a sprawling cast of characters—planters and…
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George Washington: Commander, President, Paradox
George Washington (1732–1799) commanded the Continental Army through eight years of war, presided over the Constitutional Convention, and…
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Henry Knox: The Bookseller Who Became the Army’s Artillery Chief
Henry Knox (1750–1806) was a Boston bookseller with no formal military training when the Revolutionary War began. By its end, he was the…
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Horatio Gates: The Complex Legacy of Saratoga’s Victor
Horatio Gates (1727–1806) commanded the American forces at the Battle of Saratoga, the victory that brought France into the war and changed
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John Adams: Lawyer, Diplomat, and the Revolution’s Most Candid Voice
John Adams (1735–1826) was the American Revolution's most intellectually rigorous advocate and its most politically inconvenient…
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John Hancock: Merchant, Patriot, and President of the Continental Congress
John Hancock (1737–1793) was the wealthiest man in New England, the president of the Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of…
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King George III and British Leadership During the Revolution
King George III (1738–1820) reigned over the British Empire for sixty years, longer than any of his predecessors. The American Revolution…
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Marquis de Lafayette: The French Aristocrat Who Fought for American Liberty
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834), was a nineteen-year-old French aristocrat when he crossed…
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Nathanael Greene: Washington’s Most Trusted General
Nathanael Greene (1742–1786) was, by the end of the Revolutionary War, the most effective American field commander after George Washington.
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Patrick Henry: Voice of the Revolution
Patrick Henry (1736–1799) was the American Revolution's most electrifying orator and one of its most paradoxical figures. His cry of "Give…
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Samuel Adams: The Revolution’s Master Organizer
Samuel Adams (1722–1803) was the American Revolution's most effective political organizer and one of its most uncompromising radicals.…
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Thomas Jefferson: Philosopher of Liberty, Architect of Contradiction
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) wrote the words that defined the American Revolution's meaning: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
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Thomas Paine: The Radical Voice of Revolution
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was an English-born corset-maker, excise officer, and political writer whose pamphlet Common Sense (1776)…
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