American Citizen in a Revolutionary World
Publication Year: 2011
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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List of Illustrations
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American Citizen in a Revolutionary World
Publication Year: 2011
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Download PDF (63.6 KB)
List of Illustrations
Download PDF (45.8 KB)
Download PDF (50.6 KB)
Picture the crowded, still medieval city of Algiers in July 1796. Joel Barlow had recently accepted appointment as the U.S. consul there, at the urging of his long-time friend and fellow Yale graduate, David Humphreys, then U.S. minister to Portugal. The administration of George Washington needed someone of Barlow’s stature to resolve an urgent problem. Before 1793 only a few American vessels...
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In 1754 the first Sabbath of spring, March 24, coincided with the fourth Sunday in Lent. On that day Esther (Hester) Barlow, second wife of Samuel Barlow, gave birth to their fourth and last son in their Redding farmhouse in western Connecticut. At the time Redding was an outlying part of northwestern Fairfield, a dozen miles from the shoreline where the original European settlers had established a...
2 Ambitious Goals
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On the Sabbath following the senior ceremony, two brigades of the continental army (approximately 4,000 men) passed through New Haven on their way to rendezvous with Charles Hector, the Comte d’Estaing’s expeditionary force in Narragansett Bay. Detachments of militia followed them. Ezra Stiles commented on the “amazing Spirit for rushing towards Rh. Isld. spread 100 miles...
3 Uncharted Waters
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...“I never was so happy... in my life,” Barlow wrote to Ruth soon after they were married. At last he was confident that “my plans will in some measure be answered.” Barlow had dropped Ruth off at a friend’s house at Waterbury before heading back to Hartford and work, but their marriage now allowed him to address her with a new freedom.1 In his letters, he referred to her as “you little...
4 Dead Ends
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Joel Barlow and Elisha Babcock began their partnership in difficult times. The first issue of the four-panel American Mercury appeared on July 12, 1784. Though it was still a town of little more than five thousand inhabitants, Hartford already boasted a newspaper. The Connecticut Courant had helped define Hartford as the commercial hub of the Connecticut River Valley, circulating in all the settlements...
5 Literary Recognition
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As a childless couple the Barlows faced fewer financial demands than they would have had their marriage been fertile. But at least their unwelcome fate allowed them to serve as the social center for a circle of talented friends despite their constrained circumstances. Noah Webster recorded in his diary frequently dining with the Barlows, who also regularly entertained John Trumbull and Lemuel...
6 Land Fever
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The literary recognition Barlow received during 1787 still left him unable to make a living by his poetry. Nor was he tempted to embark on another heroic epic as a friendly critic had suggested. Instead, the appearance of The Vision of Columbus raised with new urgency questions about the course he and Ruth should take. Though Barlow continued to do some legal work, it did not s