I have to write a research essay on the revolutionary war in NYC, more specifically Brooklyn.
My thesis thus far is: "At what point did Brooklyn develop it's own culture separate from England, and how did that contribute to the Revolutionary war?"
I know that NYC had the largest loyalist sentiment of any of the colonial cities, possibly due to the british garrison.
I also know of the battle of Brooklyn (A.k.a battle of long island).
I'm asking if anyone can direct me towards some sources pertinent to my thesis (statistics, anecdotes, documents, newspapers etc...), as well as perhaps give me a few interesting jumping off points.
Edit: It seems at that point in time brooklyn was primarily farmland. I'm gonna talk about the founding fathers, specifically simon boerum (given that he was a brooklyn famrmer)
I'm not an expert on the Revolutionary War or New York City.
However, I have a couple ideas that might help you.
Your "thesis" isn't actually a thesis, it's a research question. It becomes a thesis when you answer the research question. You have to do some research to answer your question, then the "thesis" is your answer to the question. This can be kind of a big step, and it's hard to know where to start.
Begin by breaking it all down and problematizing it. Define everything. How would you identify or characterize England's culture at the time? How would you differentiate it from Brooklyn's culture? What criteria are you going to use? Answer these questions, and you'll have a starting point. Define both cultures, and see where the differences are, or where differences begin. Then you can use that to answer the second part of your research question.
But the first step is to break your research down into smaller questions and start answering those questions.