Introduction

Abstract

Yorktown is a name, like Valmy or Verdun, that evokes strong images. A decisive battle, a critical point in history, a closing of one set of possibilities and the opening of another -- this was the meaning of what happened at Yorktown, Virginia, a minor port town at the mouth of the York River, on Chesapeake Bay, in October 1781. A British general surrendered 8,000 men to a combined French and American force twice as large, a government in London fell, and negotiations began that led to the international acceptance of the United States as an independent nation. How and why it happened have interested historians for two centuries. But in the endless effort to describe, analyze, and explain this world-historical event, other aspects of the event have slipped from sight.