With the outbreak of the American Revolution, solitude gave way to service as Livingston served as a delegate to the Continental Congress until he was named Brigadier General of the New Jersey militia and, in August 1776, was elected governor of New Jersey, a role he filled until his death in 1790.  As governor during the Revolution, he worked closely with George Washington to ensure that national military needs were supported on the state level through the recruitment and provisioning of troops, and the suppression of loyalists.  To shore up support for the Patriot cause, he turned once more to print.  Knowing the importance of communicating directly with the American public, he not only collaborated with printer Isaac Collins to create the New Jersey Gazette when New York and Philadelphia newspapers fell under loyalist control, but also put pen to paper in writing propaganda in support of the war for Independence.  Indeed, he was the most prolific and effective propagandist on the Patriot side of the war.

As the site of more than 500 engagements, from major battles at Trenton and Monmouth to unnamed skirmishes between local militia, New Jersey has earned its moniker as “Crossroads of the Revolution.” The war for independence was, especially in New Jersey, a civil war with families, towns, and congregations often divided. Each side sought to take advantage when the regular army was located nearby and the conflict featured the constant movement of armies across the state.

The American Revolution was the defining event of William Livingston’s life and certainly of his career as governor of New Jersey. Given the centrality of New Jersey to the war, Livingston found himself with the incredible challenge of leading the Patriot forces in what was a Civil War within New Jersey, with the population dividing between loyalties to their King or to a new and far from fully established government. At the same time, Governor Livingston was tasked with creating the governing bureaucracy for the newly independent state. During these years, New Jersey did not have a capital city. Rather, the ‘capital’ was wherever Livingston was. Given the challenges of leading the state, as well as multiple attempts to capture or kill him, he was constantly on the move. As you read through his letters, speeches, etc., make sure to note from where Livingston is writing.

The political needs in New Jersey were varied and unprecedented. Time and again Livingston implemented new practices and policies, such as county and state courts, an executive council to act as the central decision-making body, and the creation of various economic laws to try and ensure the continuation of civil society, even in the midst of a war.

           In addition to violence and politics, New Jersey served as the winter garrison for the Continental Army in two winters, most notably the brutal winter of 1779-1780. Most of the major characters of the era, including Washington, Hamilton, Knox, Cornwallis, Howe, and other military commanders spent considerable amounts of time in the state. Women frequently found themselves caught up in the conflict, whether the women whose actions would be memorialized in the fictionalized persona of ‘Molly Pitcher,’ or the wives and daughters of captured soldiers on both sides. Livingston’s daughters were present in New Jersey throughout the war, and their letters shed light on the experiences of those who remained at home in the conflict zone. Enslaved persons, perhaps most famously the runaway turned militia leader Colonel Tye, are also central to the history of the revolution in New Jersey and the revolution as experienced domestically.