Community Calendar

Dr. Graham Hodges: The Black American Revolution: African American Freedom Choices

Dr. Graham Russell Hodges, George Dorland Langdon, Jr. Professor of History and African Studies at Colgate University, will explore the choices that Patriot and Loyalist Black Americans made during the American Revolution.

A sizable number of Black Americans sided with the British forces, with thousands ultimately choosing exile for a mixed freedom in the British Empire. At least 5,000 Black soldiers served in the American army, showing honor and courage in key battles. The lecture will discuss why Black Americans made their choices and the eventual outcome of such major alliances. Hodges is the author of over ten books, including the forthcoming biography: "Henry Highland Garnet: A Passion for the Freedom-Idea" (Yale University Press, 2027). Admission is free.

Wade Catts: The Historic Battlefield Presented a Very Peaceful and Prosperous Appearance: The Role of Archaeology in Interpreting and Preserving Revolutionary War Battlefields.

Wade Catts, President of South River Heritage Consulting in Delaware, adjunct professor of history at Rowan University, and co-director of the award-winning Red Bank Battlefield Archaeology Project, will offer his personal insights and experiences from a variety of Revolutionary War military sites. Using examples from battlefields throughout the Middle Atlantic and Northeast, he will look at what the field of archaeology brings to the investigation, interpretation, and preservation of these places. He will discuss new research and how it informs our current understanding of 18th-century warfare and reflect on the role of material culture and landscape in the public’s renewed interest in our Revolutionary War as we commemorate America’s semiquincentennial. Catts is a Registered Professional Archaeologist (RPA) with 45 years of experience as an historical archaeologist specializing in history, archaeology, and historic preservation. Admission is free.

Dr. David Gellman, the 2026-27 A. Lindsay O’Connor Chair of American Institutions in the history department at Colgate University, will discuss that as America’s 250th gives way to the 2027 bicentennial of the final abolition of slavery in New York, the moment is ideal to contemplate the relationship between independence and emancipation in the Empire State.

John Jay, diplomat, US Supreme Court Chief Justice, governor, slaveholder, and antislavery society president, provides a powerful prism for making sense of an uneven but profound transformation. The relationship between Caesar, Clarinda, Zilpah, and members of the Jay family who enslaved and later freed them entwines with the ways that this influential political family navigated the fulfillment of their antislavery beliefs. The talk thus merges public and private lives to contemplate the limits and the potential of the American Revolution. Gellman is the author of "Liberty’s Chain: Slavery, Abolition, and the Jay Family of New York," winner of the Herbert H. Lehman Prize.