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The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution

byBenjamin Carp

Benjamin L. Carp investigates the enormous fire that consumed New York City in September 1776, days after British forces captured it during the American Revolution. Patriots, Loyalists, soldiers, enslaved people, refugees, and officials offered conflicting explanations as flames destroyed hundreds of buildings. Was the disaster accidental, an act of sabotage, or part of a scorched-earth plan? Carp reconstructs the evidence and political uses of uncertainty while portraying a divided occupied city. The book restores the fire as a major revolutionary event whose destruction, accusations, and displaced residents shaped wartime New York.

Publisher

Yale University Press

Publication date

2023

Format

Print edition

Pages

—

ISBN

9780300246957