Philip Freneau

Philip Freneau (1752–1832) was an American poet, journalist, and political writer associated with the Revolutionary era. Born in New York City, he graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1771. Freneau wrote satirical and patriotic verse that supported the American cause, earning him the later nickname “Poet of the American Revolution.” He also worked as a newspaper editor and pamphleteer, using print to argue political positions in the early republic. During the 1790s he edited the *National Gazette* in Philadelphia, a paper aligned with Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican viewpoint. He later lived in New Jersey, where he died in 1832.