Excavating the Historical Memory of the American Revolution

In this book, Shawn Thomson excavates Charles Anthon’s personal notes to reveal revolutionary memory and the presence of historical melancholy in this era of radical turnover and shifting alliances. In these notes, Charles Anthon recorded his personal inquiries into all aspects of life in the Loyalist stronghold of Staten Island from October 13, 1850 to January 8, 1853. Through this written record, Anthon provides a counter history of the Loyalists of Staten Island to the grand narrative of the Patriots of the American Revolution. Through a close reading of Anthon’s notes, Shawn Thomson examines how these personal records and historical research hold the places, ruins, artifacts, and, most significantly, the collective and personal memory of Staten Island Loyalists and New Jersey Whigs. Through this close reading, Thomson highlights the indelible link between landscape and memory and offers the reader a sense of the Loyalist melancholy of their abandonment on the day of the British evacuation.