Special Evening Lectures
Beginning at 6:30pm In Fraunces Tavern Museum’s Flag Gallery. Cost: $8/ free for FTM members,
Includes light refreshments. Tickets sold at the door only, first come first serve.
The Peasant Prince
Thaddeus Kosciuszko
And The Age of Revolution
Presented by Alex Storozynski †
Thursday, September 16th
Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish-Lithuanian born in 1746, was one of the most important figures of the modern world. Fleeing his home-land after a death sentence was placed on his head, he came to America & literally showed up on Benjamin Franklinfs doorstep one month after the signing of the Decla-ration of Independence. With little more than a revolutionary spirit and a genius for engineering, Kosciuszko entered the fray as a volunteer in the war effort & quickly proved his capa-bilities to become the most talented engineer of the Continental Army. From devising battle strategies that were integral to the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga, designing the plans for West Point, & oversee-ing a ring of African-American spies in the Southern Army, he was truly a man ahead of his time.
Thomas Jefferson, with whom Kosciuszko had an ongoing correspondence on the immorality of slaveholding, called him "as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known."
Winner of the 2010 Fraunces TavernR Book Award, this definitive and exhaus-tively researched biography fills a long-standing gap in historical litera-ture with its account of a dashing and inspiring revolutionary figure.
Fatal Journey
Henry Hudson’s Final Expedition
Presented by Peter Mancall†
Thursday, October 14th
*Rescheduled from February Lecture Date
After a year of celebrating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s Euro-pean discovery of New York, 2010 finds us remembering another one of his journeys – his final voyage. In April of 1610, Hudson set sail on the Discovery with a crew of 22 on his 4th expedition in search of a shorter route to the Far East. Rather than return to England as winter approached, Hud-son set anchor in the bay named for him and the Discovery became stuck in ice for seven months. With their provisions dwindling, the crew finally mutinied in the spring, forcing Hudson, his son, and seven other sailors in a skiff to float in the bay, & headed home to England. This tragic story of adventure & desperation reveals that the resolute will which served Hudson so well in exploration also led to his demise.
Indian Slavery in Colonial America
Presented by Alan Gallay †
Thursday, October 28th
European enslavement of American Indians began with Columbus’ arrival in the New World. As the slave trade expanded with European colonies, & though African slave labor filled many needs, huge numbers of America’s indigenous peoples continued to be captured & forced into slavery. Although central to the process of colony-building in what became the United States, this phenomena has received scant attention from historians. Gallay, along with other contributors, examines the complicated dynamics of Indian enslavement such as the fact that natives became both slaves & willing suppliers of slavery’s victims to the Europeans.
The Many Faces of
Childhood In Early America
Presented by Anna Mae Duane †
Wednesday*, November 17th
*Please Note Different Day
Going back to the nation’s violent beginnings, this talk examines how ideas about childhood helped forge emergent concepts of ethnicity, race, and gender. Long used to symbolize sub-servience, such old associations of children in early America took on new meanings. By examining iconic American narratives including the Salem Witch Trials, stories of Indian captivity, and tales of freed slaves, Duane explores how the figure of a suffering child accrued political weight as the child-victim became linked indigenous and oppressed social groups. In turn, new meanings attached to children altered how early Americans thought about both discipline and government.
Revolutionary Conceptions
Women, Fertility, and Family
Limitation in America
Presented by Susan Klepp †
Thursday, December 9th
In the Age of Revolution, how did American women conceive their lives and marital obligations? By examining the attitudes & behaviors surrounding the contentious issues of family, contraception, abortion, sexuality, & beauty, Susan Klepp demonstrates that many women—rural & urban, free & enslaved—began to radically redefine motherhood. Liberty, equality, & heartfelt religion led to new conceptions of virtuous, rational womanhood & responsible parenting. Women might not have won the vote in the new Republic & they might not have gained formal rights in other spheres, but evidence shows that there was a women's revolution nonetheless.
† Books will be available for purchase -discounts apply for Museum members
Directions:
FTM is located at 54 Pearl Street, at the corner of Broad Street, in Lower Manhat-tan. Subway R/W to Whitehall St., 4/5 to Bowling Green, 2/3 to Wall Street, 1 to South Ferry, J/M/Z to Broad Street. Buses: M1, M6, M15.
Lunchtime Lectures
These talks begin at 12:30 in the Flag Gallery and are free with museum admission: $10/$5 students and seniors. (Museum members always free.)
TBA
|
|
