February 24, 2020: Frontier Rebels: The Fight for Independence in the American West 1765-1776
The untold story of the “Black Boys,” a rebellion on the American frontier in 1765 that sparked the American Revolution. A little-known rebellion that erupted in western Pennsylvania a decade before Lexington and Concord to expose pre-revolutionary America in all its ambiguity. This lecture broadens the horizons on the meaning of American independence, expanding the […]
March 18, 2020: The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation
Special Presentation of our 2018 ARRTOP Book Award Winner, The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation. George Washington’s place in the foundations of the Republic remains unrivaled. His life story from his beginnings as a surveyor and farmer, to colonial soldier in the Virginia […]
March 30, 2020: George Washington’s Nemesis: The Outrageous Treason and Unfair Court-martial of Major General Charles Lee during the American Revolution
General Lee, second in command in the Continental Army led by George Washington, was captured by the British in December 1776. While a prisoner, he prepared and submitted to his captors a military plan on how to defeat Washington’s army as quickly as possible. This extraordinary act of treason, arguably on a par with Benedict […]
April 27, 2020: The Contest for Liberty: Military Leadership in the Continental Army, 1775–1783
In the summer of 1775, a Virginia gentleman-planter was given command of a New England army laying siege to British-occupied Boston. With his appointment, the Continental Army was born. Yet the cultural differences between those serving in the army and their new commander-in-chief led to conflicts from the very beginning that threatened to end the […]
May 18, 2020: Outside the Encampment: Impact of the Valley Forge Encampment on the Local Area
We have heard many accounts of what went on inside the Valley Forge encampment, but very little of the impact on the local community. What did the people do with Washington’s army staying the winter and spring right in their own back yard? How far out were picket posts from the main encampment area? What […]
June 29, 2020: The Quaker and the Gamecock
As the newly appointed commander of the Southern Continental Army in December 1780, Nathanael Greene quickly realized victory would not only require defeating the British Army, but also subduing the region’s brutal civil war. “The division among the people is much greater than I imagined, and the Whigs and the Tories persecute each other, with […]