Amy Noel Ellison Defends Dissertation, Accepts Fellowship at American Philosophical Society
On Monday, April 4, Amy Noel Ellison successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, entitled “‘Reverse of Fortune’: The Invasion of Canada and the Coming of American Independence, 1774-1776.” In the autumn of 1775, American revolutionaries invaded Canada in the hope of winning a fourteenth colony for the cause, dealing a fatal blow to the British war effort, and forcing London to reconcile on American terms. Despite initial victories, the Northern Army was forced to retreat from the province in the summer of 1776. Having failed either to secure an alliance with Canada or to achieve reconciliation with Britain, the campaign proved a total disaster, and has therefore been understudied or ignored completely by most historians. Ellison argues, however, that the invasion of Canada proved crucial in destroying the British empire in America and creating the social logic for independence. When the campaign failed to deliver on its primary objectives, American leaders in Philadelphia and colonists throughout the home front recognized that reconciliation was impossible. Historians frequently give credit to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense for igniting widespread calls for independence, but it was the failure of the Canadian campaign that lent urgency to these arguments, occasioning the swift transition from colonial rebellion to all-out civil war for American independence. The nature of the conflict had changed, creating a political-military context that made foreign assistance and a declaration of independence essential to sustaining the Revolution.
Ellison will receive her Ph.D. at commencement in May and has accepted a two-year Mellon Post-Doctoral Curatorial fellowship at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
