Dr. T. Cole Jones publishes article in special issue of Early American Studies

Dr. T. Cole Jones, Associate Professor in the Department of History, has published a new journal article in the Winter 2025 edition of Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal as part of a special issue spotlighting the American Revolution.

In his article, “The Captives of Ticonderoga: Coercing Prisoner-of-War Labor in Revolutionary Connecticut, 1775-1777,” Dr. Jones examines the fate of British prisoners captured at Ticonderoga, highlighting the tension between the humanitarian aspirations of colonial Patriots and the realities of revolutionary conflict.

“This article challenges the prevailing scholarly consensus on prisoner-of-war labor during the American Revolution by highlighting its coercive character and its origins in the colonial conflicts of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries,” explains Dr. Jones. “My research argues for the broad and enduring importance of Fort Ticonderoga in early American history.”

Dr. Jones has served as a member of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum’s Academic Advisory Council since 2016. He has conducted extensive archival research for this article while serving as the 2022-2023 Howard H. Peckham Fellow on Revolutionary America at the William Clements Library, University of Michigan.

He is at work on his next book, which is provisionally entitled, Tory Rising: Insurrection in the Revolutionary South. He has received fellowships to support this research from the Virginia Historical Society, the David Library of the American Revolution, and the Georgian Papers Programme from King's College London and George Washington's Mount Vernon.

Dr. Jones joined the Department of History at Purdue University in 2015. His research focuses on the American Revolution, Colonial British North America, Comparative Revolutions, and the Cultural History of Violence and Warfare. He is author of the book, Captives of Liberty: Prisoners of War and the Politics of Vengeance in the American Revolution (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020). Dr. Jones has authored chapters in two books and has published numerous articles in academic journals and edited collections.

Learn more about Dr. T. Cole Jones: https://cla.purdue.edu/directory/profiles/t.-cole-jones.html

Read the full journal article, “The Captives of Ticonderoga: Coercing Prisoner-of-War Labor in Revolutionary Connecticut, 1775-1777,” at this link: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/951316