Today marks the 238th anniversary of the ratification of the Treaty of Paris, on January 14, 1784.

This treaty marked the official end of the American Revolutionary War, with the United Kingdom recognizing the sovereignty and autonomy of the United States of America.

Here are just a few of the books featured at Danville Public Library that center on the years of the American Revolution.

George Washington’s Secret Six: The spy ring that saved the American Revolution, by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger

When General George Washington beat a hasty retreat from New York City in August 1776, many thought the American Revolution might soon be over. Instead, Washington rallied—thanks in large part to a little-known, top-secret group called the Culper Spy Ring.

Washington realized that he couldn’t beat the British with military might, so he recruited a sophisticated and deeply secretive intelligence network to infiltrate New York. So carefully guarded were the members’ identities that one spy’s name was not uncovered until the twentieth century, and one remains unknown today.

But by now, historians have discovered enough information about the ring’s activities to piece together evidence that these six individuals turned the tide of the war.

Drawing on extensive research, Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger have painted compelling portraits of George Washington’s secret six.

 

The Whiskey Rebels, by David Liss

Ethan Saunders, a former spy for George Washington, is recruited by Alexander Hamilton to find his ex-fiancee’s missing husband.

Meanwhile, Joan Maycott and her veteran husband, amid hardship and deprivation on the western Pennsylvania frontier, find unlikely friendship and a chance for prosperity with a new method of distilling whiskey. The Maycotts’ success however attracts the brutal attention of men in Hamilton’s orbit, men who threaten to destroy all Joan holds dear.

As their causes intertwine, Joan and Saunders–both patriots in their own way–find themselves on opposing sides of a daring scheme that will forever change their lives and their new country.

 

 

 

 

 

The end of the American Revolutionary War: the colonists defeat the British at Yorktown, by Allison Stark Draper.

This book briefly surveys the Revolutionary War and describes the battle at Yorktown which forced the British to surrender and ended the war. It takes the reader through the final stages of the Revolutionary War, from battle to surrender to peace, in a memorable and accessible manner.

 

 

 

 

 

Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Book 1 of the “Seeds of America” trilogy by author Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains explores the story of Isabel, a slave during the American Revolutionary War. When their owner dies at the start of the Revolution, Isabel and her younger sister are sold to Loyalists in New York, where Isabel is offered the chance to spy for the Patriots. As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight for freedom.

Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel.

When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.