When news of independence reached New Jersey in July 1776, the state faced extraordinary military pressure: tens of thousands of British and Hessian troops massed on Staten Island, Loyalists from Monmouth County rowing out to greet them, and royal governor William Franklin recently placed under house arrest for trying to convene the loyal assembly. An extralegal Provincial Congress under Samuel Tucker served as the de facto government, and the Declaration instantly created a crisis of legitimacy. Signer Richard Stockton of Princeton, captured by Loyalist forces late in 1776, signed an oath of allegiance to the Crown within weeks. He then recanted after the Continental Army's victories at Trenton and Princeton shifted the balance. Allegiances across the state fluctuated with whichever army held a given territory, and property protection often mattered as much as conviction. As the “Crossroads of the American Revolution,” with more battles fought on its soil than any other state, New Jersey experienced independence less as a single moment than a prolonged, contested struggle.
Interviewees
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William Krakower
- Resource Interpretive Specialist, Princeton Battlefield State Park
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Todd Braisted
- Royal Provincial Research
