There was the Rev, White & Blue celebration at Rutgers on July 2, celebrating the 250th
anniversary of New Jersey establishing its first constitution.
And, of course, there were celebrations everywhere on July 4.
But don’t think the state is done recognizing important historical events.
Carrie Fellows, executive director of Crossroads of the American Revolution National
Heritage Area and co-chair of RevolutionNJ, said we’re just getting started.
“We have so many anniversaries,” she said. “There’s going to be continued activity
around New Jersey for many years to come.”
There’s a good reason for that.
No state saw more Revolutionary War battles fought on its soil than New Jersey. And
George Washington spent more nights here during the war than in any other state.
Simply put, New Jersey’s Revolutionary War history didn’t wrap up in a single afternoon,
and neither will the state’s commemoration of it.
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Sara Cureton, executive director of the New Jersey Historical Commission and the other
co-chair of RevNJ, says the next 250th milestone is already on the calendar.
And it’s arguably the biggest one of all.
Everyone is familiar with Washington’s crossing of the Delaware, reenacted annually on
Christmas Day. Some know about the string of key victories at Trenton and Princeton
that came about in the next eight days.
RevNJ will recognize the 250th anniversary of that campaign during a condensed three-
day event, Dec. 25-27, later this year.
The scheduling is by design. It will help the group better utilize what they call ‘living
history practitioners’ – most call them reenactors. It also lines up with when families
actually have time off.
“It’s right over the holiday break for kids from school,” Cureton said. “A lot of people are
off, so we structured it around that.”
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Revolution NJ is about more than just retelling the stories we all first learned about in
grade school.
Fellows said the state is dotted with lesser-known Revolutionary War history still waiting
to be highlighted — sites and stories that don’t carry the name recognition of
Washington’s crossing but shaped the war just the same.
New Jersey, after all, was in the middle of the fight the entire way through.
“So many communities, so many historic sites,” Fellows said. “There’s going to be
continued activity around New Jersey for many years to come.”
Part of what’s still to come, Fellows and Cureton said, is who gets included in the story.
The role of Blacks, Native Americans and women have too often been lost on the pages
of history. There also is a push to elevate the importance played by so-called “ordinary
citizens.”
“We’re really trying to raise up the stories of ordinary people who were either
intentionally or unintentionally caught up in the events of the American Revolution,
because sometimes those stories are the most fascinating and courageous — the
unexpected heroes that emerge,” Fellows said.
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RevNJ’s approach — moving fast, tying events to the calendar people actually have,
bringing somewhat hidden facts and figures to life — traces back to how the initiative
was built in the first place.
Most other states formed formal state commissions to plan their own 250th
commemorations, a process that took considerable time to stand up through state
government. New Jersey took a different route.
“New Jersey creating legislation that allowed this partnership to occur, and the funding
to support it, allowed us to get started much sooner than most of our colleagues in the
other states,” Fellows said.
That legislation passed in 2018, meaning RevNJ has been building toward moments
like the July 2 celebration, and the December events to come, for the better part of
seven years.
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For Cureton, the goal is personal as much as historical.
“I think New Jersey has been a diverse place for centuries, and our goal is to enable our
neighbors today to be able to see their own stories reflected in the stories that we tell,”
she said.
That’s why Rev, White & Blue celebration was just the start.
“We have so much more planned,” she said.
