Pulitzer Prize-winning author and New York Times bestseller Dr. Gordon S. Wood joins the Museum of the American Revolution for a conversation and Q&A on his new book, Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution, with Museum Chief Historian and Curator Dr. Philip C. Mead. Wood's latest book distills a lifetime of work on constitutional innovations during the Revolutionary era. Exploring how Americans have experienced the nature of power, liberty, representation, rights, and other issues, Wood presents debates over the foundational legal and political documents of the United States with timely insights on the Constitution HERE.

Pictures printed from engraved plates often teach our historic tradespeople more about 18th-century practices than printed words do. Join our engravers as they demonstrate some of the techniques used to create these plates and lead a discussion with several tradespeople on period printed images, what they can teach us about the past, and their limitations HERE.

There are no known first-hand accounts of Christmas holidays written by a member of Monticello’s enslaved community or a descendant. Yet other primary sources shed light on a season that was at once a complicated mix of labor, resistance, celebration, and family reunion. Please join for a live Q&A with Emmanuel Dabney, Museum Curator at the Petersburg National Battlefield, and Brandon Dillard, Monticello’s Manager of Historic Interpretation, as we discuss winter holidays for those who lived and labored in bondage.

The idea of celebrity has been around since the dawn of creation and was as much a driving cultural force in the 18th century as it is today. Join America’s first celebrity actress, Nancy Hallam, as she discusses her career on the 18th-century stage and the repercussions of being a public figure on her private life HERE.

Ann Wager (ca. 1716–1774) took up teaching after the death of her husband William in 1748, working for two years as governess to the Burwell children at Carter's Grove. She had at least two children of her own, William and Mary. In 1760 the Associates of Dr. Bray, a group of philanthropists in England, followed Ben Franklin’s recommendation to establish a school “for the instruction of Negro Children in the Principles of the Christian religion.” They hired Wager to teach at the Bray School, where, over the course of fourteen years, she taught over 400 African American boys and girls. Please join Mrs. Wager in 1773 as she speaks about her experience over the holiday season, and its connection to her school.

Michael W. Twitty is an African-American Jewish writer, culinary historian and educator. He is the author of The Cooking Gene, published by HarperCollins/Amistad, which won the 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Book of the Year as well as the category for writing. Please join the acclaimed culinary historian, author, and interpreter for this special presentation to learn about how food for the holiday season was prepared and consumed in 18th century Virginia.

The tailors will discuss past and current projects highlighting collaboration with other trades, Colonial Williamsburg's collections and conservation departments, and other museums HERE.

From Philadelphia in 1776 to Paris in the 1780s, Thomas Jefferson spent time in the august company of his “great and dear friend” Benjamin Franklin. Born more than a generation apart and differing on some issues like slavery, they were nevertheless great companions and intellectual colleagues. In this week’s livestreams we’ll explore the relationship between Jefferson and Franklin and its impact on the early Republic. First, please join us for a live Q&A with Thomas Jefferson, interpreted by Bill Barker, and Benjamin Franklin, interpreted by Bill Robling HERE.

What was music like in Early America? How did different early Americans—Native Americans, African Americans, and White Americans—integrate and use music in their daily lives? Your questions about music inspired this 5-episode series about music in Early America. Our exploration begins with music in Native America. Chad Hamill, a Professor of Applied Indigenous Studies at Northern Arizona University, is an ethnomusicologist who studies Native American and Indigenous music. He will guide us through Native North America’s musical landscapes before European colonization HERE.

Engraving was a historically important method of producing images on paper in artistic printmaking, in mapmaking, for commercial reproductions and illustrations for books and magazines, and also for decorating and identifying objects. Whether the latter use is undertaken for decoration, identification, commemoration, memorialization, or documentation, there are many ways engraving can enhance an object. Visit with Colonial Williamsburg’s Engravers to find out how engraving is done and the role it has played throughout history HERE.

Our study of music in Early America continues with this third episode in our five-episode series. Our last two episodes (Episode 343 and Episode 344) helped us better understand the musical landscapes of Native North America around 1492 and colonial British America before 1776. In this episode, we jump forward in time to the early days of the United States. Glenda Goodman, an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of the book Cultivated by Hand: Amateur Musicians in the Early American Republic, joins us to investigate the role of music in the lives of wealthy white Americans during the earliest days of the early American republic HERE.

Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin’s friendship was significant in the founding of America. Please join us at Monticello for a live Q&A with Philipp Ziesche, Associate Editor of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin at Yale University Library. We’ll discuss Jefferson and Franklin’s collaborations, shared and differing political visions, and their impact on American history HERE.

How are the many buildings in the historic area of Colonial Williamsburg kept clean, safe, and secure? The Historic Interiors & Collections Care staff of the Conservation Department are the heroes here! Learn about what happens behind the scenes before we open our doors each morning, the skills it takes to create the historic settings and displays, and how we work with other departments to provide safe and creative care of collections that are open to guests daily HERE.

Martha Washington (1731 – May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first President of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington served as the inaugural First Lady of the United States. During her lifetime, she was "Lady Washington", famous for her courage, good cheer, and hospitality. Please join Mrs. Washington in 1773 as she discusses her family’s difficult year, their hopes for the coming time, and her family's Christmas traditions.

Edith Cumbo (born ca. 1735) was born a free black woman in the Tidewater region of Virginia. By the late 1770s, she was living in Williamsburg as one of only a handful of free blacks in the city. Independent and resourceful, Cumbo headed her household and used her housewifery skills to earn a living. Her story illuminates the lives of free blacks during the American Revolution. Please join host Rose McAphee for her discussion with Nation Builder character interpreter Emily James as they reflect on their decades of experience at Colonial Williamsburg as historical interpreters and researchers. Why do they do it? How is it done? What has changed over the last 40 years?

Christmas is a time of feast, celebration, and remembering. At Colonial Williamsburg, it is a time to learn about the foods of Christmas past! Please join members of our Historic Foodways team live from the Palace kitchen as they prepare a holiday supper fit for a royal governor. How has holiday cooking changed over time, and what would we still recognize today? Bring your questions of prepare for a Christmas feast HERE.

Colonial Williamsburg has a lot of holiday traditions of its own, developed over nearly a century of operations. But our modern holiday practices are very different from the way our 18th-century forebears experienced the holiday season. Please gather round as veteran interpreters Al Lovelace and Robert Watson join Stacy Loveland for this fascinating program about how the holidays were really celebrated by 18th-century Virginians, live and archived HERE.

The Frogs tells the story of the god Dionysus, who, despairing of the state of Athens' tragedians, travels to Hades to bring the playwright Euripides back from the dead. After a debate in Hades, Dionysus decides to take Aeschylus back instead. Pluto allows Aeschylus to return to life so that Athens may be succoured in her hour of need. The rollicking comedy concludes with a round of farewell drinks. Hosted by Joel Christensen, with a cast of thousands! Presented by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, the Kosmos Society, and the Out of Chaos Theatre. Stream this archived video here.

Join Colonial Williamsburg as we celebrate Christmastide this Thursday the 24th at 2pm EST with the premiere of "What We Hold." Follow a journey across Williamsburg to experience how, through personal connection, small gestures can have large impacts. What do you hold? What do you possess? What gesture of common human kindness is within your power to give?

In Japanese tea ceremony, the host serves traditional kaiseki cuisine, sake, and tea to guests. The ritual, established as an art form more than four centuries ago, is believed to be the foundation of Japan’s “omotenashi” hospitality. In this short film, one woman has decided to embark on a unique nationwide pilgrimage to immerse herself in the art. At 70, Tsuruko Hanzawa has loaded her pots, pans, and tools for making tea into a van and set off in her kimono, serving food using local ingredients and tea to the people she meets along the way. This documentary follows Tsuruko for two years as she battles illness to continue her pilgrimage.

A Black Artist’s Haven on a (mostly) White Vineyard. Martha’s Vineyard has long been seen as primarily a summer getaway paradise for the East Coast elite. Its reality, however, is far more complex. Dotted throughout the posh homes in this gorgeous island are substantial communities of minorities. One of the biggest and most popular, the town of Oak Bluffs, has welcomed and inspired generations of Black Americans, including an artist and doll maker named Janice Frame. In the winter issue of Craftsmanship Quarterly, we examine the world of Black artists on Martha’s Vineyard HERE.

Dr. Robert Gross is Draper Professor of Early American History Emeritus at the University of Connecticut, and Founding Member of the Advisory Council of the Innermost House Foundation. He is author of the Bancroft Prize-winning classic, The Minutemen and their World, and now introduces its long-awaited sequel, The Transcendentalists and Their World. We invite you to join the Thoreau Society at Thoreau Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, for this free introduction to a book destined to play a central role in the future of the Innermost House project HERE.

Born in the same year on the same plantation, Thomas Jefferson and an enslaved manservant, Jupiter (whose surname may have been Evans), grew up alongside each other, met their respective wives in Williamsburg, and lived out the rest of their days at Monticello. Join us on for a live Q&A with Thomas Jefferson, interpreted by Bill Barker, and Jupiter, interpreted by Colonial Williamsburg’s Jamar Jones. These two veteran interpreters will discuss the relationship between Jefferson and Jupiter in character, and then take a step back to share insight into the challenges that first-person interpreters face when sharing difficult history.

In the British colony of Virginia, there was one state established church, the Church of England. What role did the established church play in the lives of Virginians, and how did those who practiced dissenting faiths live under this system? What happened when the American Revolution disrupted ties with the Church of England? Please join our Colonial Williamsburg interpreters to discuss these questions and more HERE.

Humans have used bows and arrows for hunting and war since long before recorded history, and the practice was common to many prehistoric cultures. They were important weapons from ancient history until the early modern period. In this country, bow and arrow technology is especially identified with the native American Indian. Please join Talon Silverhorn of Colonial Williamsburg's American Indian Initiative to learn about the process of traditional bowmaking HERE.

This evocative collection by internationally acclaimed photographer Sally Mann is a masterful reinvention of the art of landscape photography. Sally Mann is among the most innovative and daring artists working with a camera today. DEEP SOUTH is a collection of her exquisite, ethereal landscape photographs, taken in the years since she rose to international fame with her groundbreaking book Immediate Family. Masterfully adapting technical methods employed by early masters of landscape photography, the photographs in DEEP SOUTH capture what Mann calls the radical light of the American South. Watch this short film of her startlingly powerful images here.

You are cordially invited to join Colonel and Mrs. George Washington on the anniversary of their wedding. Hear about their courtship and the work behind uniting two households HERE.

The blacksmiths will demonstrate how to make a tanged paring chisel for woodworking. Join them as they form the tool from wrought iron, then hammer-weld steel laminate to form the edge HERE.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” On March 25, 1965, at the conclusion of a march from Montgomery to Selma, Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Alabama state capitol and delivered a speech called ‘Our God is Marching On!" The full speech is difficult to secure online. Here it appears in five parts of five minutes each. Here also are the concluding two minutes, which have given the speech the name by which it is most famously known today, “How Long, Not Long."

We at Innermost House are excited to invite our community to a new year’s program of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, "US: Past, Present, Future," a national conversation series exploring the vital intersection of current events, shared history, and the enduring promises of America. January’s topic focuses on Religious Freedom, and includes Rev. James Ingram, who portrays Nation Builder Gowan Pamphlet at CW; Connie Matthews Harshaw, member of First Baptist Church and president of the Let Freedom Ring Foundation; and Razi Hashmi, representing the Office of International Religious Freedom at the State Department. Please join this important live and archived conversation HERE.

We at Colonial Williamsburg are excited to invite you to "US: Past, Present, Future," a national conversation series exploring the vital intersection of current events, our shared history, and the enduring promises of America. This month: Religion is an important part of our communities and identity as Americans. Please join us to discuss the role of one of the country’s earliest African American congregations, and churches like it elsewhere, in shaping communities and the nation HERE.

Betty is an enslaved woman belonging to the prominent Randolph family of Williamsburg. Listen to the moving story of how she came to be part of their household, how she survives, the freedoms she has created for herself, and who she has become in spite of her circumstances HERE.

James Innes was a Lieutenant Colonel of Virginia’s 15th Regiment in the Revolutionary War. He was an eloquent supporter of the Constitution at Virginia’s ratifying convention, and served ten years as the Virginia Attorney General. His friends considered James Innes “the most elegant belles-lettres scholar and the most eloquent orator I ever heard.” Now it is January of 1798. James Innes has returned to Williamsburg to with his fellow soldiers. Please join the conversation to discuss why Virginia joined the American Revolution and what citizens of a republic owe to their country and one another HERE.

George Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789, taking the oath of office at Federal Hall in New York City. His coach was led by militia and a marching band and followed by statesmen and foreign dignitaries in an inaugural parade, with a crowd of 10,000. Chancellor Robert R. Livingston administered the oath, using a Bible provided by the Masons, after which the militia fired a 13-gun salute. Washington rasked "that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations—and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, consecrate the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States". Join Ron Carnegie for this behind the scenes look at our first president’s oath of office.

Marshal Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau (1 July 1725 – 10 May 1807) was a French nobleman and general whose army played the decisive role in helping the United States defeat the British army at Yorktown in 1781 during the American Revolution. He was commander-in-chief of the French Expeditionary Force sent by France in order to help the American Continental Army fight against British forces. Please join le Comte de Rochambeau live from January 21, 1782 for a discussion of the French experience in Williamsburg after Yorktown HERE.

Thomas Jefferson described himself as having a "canine" appetite for reading, and his granddaughter Ellen Wayles Randolph recalled that "books were at all times his chosen companions." Jefferson certainly did surround himself with books—especially at Monticello, where he once kept almost 7,000 volumes. In this video, Tabitha Corradi and Endrina Tay discuss how Jefferson organized his monumental collection and Preserving Monticello's recent efforts to restore book boxes and install the books on display in the Private Suite in the same order as Jefferson would have had them.

Members of The Governor's Musick Jenny Edenborn and Brady Lanier, in collaboration with the Collections Department, will perform on and discuss 18th-century bowed stringed instruments owned by Colonial Williamsburg HERE.

In authoring the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1779, Thomas Jefferson created the legal precedent for a fundamental American principle, enshrined in the First Amendment: freedom of religion. Yet the implications of religious freedom have created complexities and ambiguities that continue to impact American society. Join us for a live Q&A with Charlottesville Clergy Collective secretary and Baptist minister, Dr. Michael Cheuk, and Associate Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, attorney Holly Hollman. This panel will discuss the ideal of religious freedom and how it intersects with social movements and legal doctrine today HERE.

The expert staff at Colonial Williamsburg’s Costume Design Center dresses all its many costumed interpreters. The clothes range from silk gowns and caps for the ladies, to cotton and linen wear for the middling sort, to handmade leather gloves and embroidered coats for the male gentry. The CDC also designs and sews the uniforms for the famous Fifes and Drums, all with minute attention to historical detail. Please join the Costume Design Center for a virtual open house as we follow the complicated path of an historic interpreter's garment HERE.

The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) houses one of the world’s great cultural resources, with collections representing the Native peoples of the Americas from their earliest history to the present day. Infinity of Nations presents more than two hundred of these works chosen from nearly seven hundred objects of cultural, historical, and aesthetic importance on view at the museum’s George Gustav Heye Center in New York. Please visit this free online source of extraordinary images HERE.

See how many hands make light work, as our carpenters - and a few friends - raise the walls for the drying shed at the new brickyard. Constructed on-site with traditional timber framing techniques (and a few modern ones to satisfy building codes), this post-in-ground structure was typical for colonial Virginia's industrial buildings. Be sure to watch the carpenters and brickmakers and hear about the exciting collaborative projects that they have planned for the future, live, on Tuesday, January 31 at 1:00PM on Facebook or at bit.ly/3xCNf4Y.

See the progress our carpenters and brickmakers have made at the new brickyard site and hear about the exciting collaborative projects that will be coming out of the expanded building trades site in the near future HERE.

Explore with us the only known painted overmantel from an original historic area building. From the Reid house here at Colonial Williamsburg, the painting was originally incorporated over a fireplace mantel. This program will focus on the story of the how the painting was made, and necessary care for its exhibition. Using analytical tools, Shelley Svoboda, Senior Conservator of Paintings, and her colleagues, will share their in-depth examination of this special painting HERE.

Before the American Revolution became a war and a fight for independence, the Revolution was a movement and protest for more local control of government. So how did the American Revolution get started? Who worked to transform a series of protests into a revolution? Stacy Schiff, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, joins us to explore and investigate the life, deeds, and contributions of Samuel Adams using details from her book, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams HERE

Tova has been living in a tiny cabin in the forest for 8 years. In this video she gives you a tour of her home. This is a vlog about our struggles and joys of living off the grid in the forests of Jämtland, Sweden. See and hear her story HERE.

What did freedom look like in early America? On July 4, 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence to lay out the reasons why the thirteen British American colonies decided to declare independence from Great Britain: Freedom and Equality. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at an Independence Day commemoration entitled “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.” This video pairs excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and Frederick Douglass’s speech, encouraging viewers to reflect on what freedom means to them HERE.

Harvard University Professor John Stauffer talks about African Americans and the Civil War. He examines Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, focusing on the president’s claim that secession was unconstitutional. He also teaches about President Lincoln’s efforts to keep the border states in the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the involvement of black soldiers in the Union and Confederate armies HERE.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of African and African American music to the United States’ musical traditions. Steven Lewis, a Curator of Music and Performing Arts at the Smithsonian, notes that “African American influences are so fundamental to American music there would be no American music without them.” Jon Beebe, a Jazz pianist, professional musician, and an interpretive ranger at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, leads us on an exploration of how and why African rhythms and beats came to play important roles in the musical history and musical evolution of the United States HERE.

Tidewater Virginia was the center of the first sustained English settlements in North America. For two centuries its houses and towns were clustered along its waterways, which often served in the stead of any overland roads. Virginia's waterways played a major role in the colony's economy at every level. Please join interpreter Michael Romero to learn about the enslaved and free Black mariners of 18th-century Virginia HERE.

In 1785 Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain.” Join Colonial Williamsburg's Foodways team for a cup of chocolate as they roast, roll, and make the traditional hot beverage in this special edition of Trades Tuesdays HERE.

In the 1770's, Black residents made up more than half of Williamsburg's population. The majority were enslaved, but some free Black residents lived, worked, and had families in the city. Today, the African American Interpretation program at Colonial Williamsburg is the oldest and largest of its kind in the nation. Please join actor Interpreters Katrinah Carol Lewis, Deirdre Jones, Jamar Jones, and Jeremy Morris as they reflect upon the meaning of freedom to free Black residents of 18th century Williamsburg HERE.

When Gowan Pamphlet was ordained in 1772, he became the only ordained black preacher of any denomination in the colonies. Inspired by the Great Awakening, Pamphlet preached a message of equality before God during the Revolution. He followed his calling to build Williamsburg’s First Baptist Church, which continues to this day. Please join Senior Pasto Gowan Pamphlet in 1800 as he discusses his growing congregation HERE.

Episode one-hundred and eight, in which we show you what an ordinary day looks like for a young Swedish family at Talasbuan. See and hear their story HERE.

African chattel slavery, the predominant type of slavery practiced in colonial North America and the early United States, did not represent one monolithic practice of slavery. Practices of slavery varied by region, labor systems, legal codes, and empire. Slavery also wasn’t just about enslavers enslaving people for their labor. Enslavers used enslaved people to make statements about their social status, as areas of economic investment that built generational wealth, and as a form of currency. Join Nicole Maskiell, an associate professor of History at the University of South Carolina and the author of Bound By Bondage: Slavery and the Creation of the Northern Gentry HERE.

Harvard University Professor John Stauffer talks about African Americans and the Civil War. He examines Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, focusing on the president’s claim that secession was unconstitutional. He also teaches about President Lincoln’s efforts to keep the border states in the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the involvement of black soldiers in the Union and Confederate armies HERE.

Williamsburg at the time of the revolution was half African American, half European American. Yet its fight for freedom began as a one-sided war. How do we survive our wars of slavery, freedom, and independence, and how do we form of our past a better future? Join Randolph House supervisor Janice Canaday LIVE to learn about storytelling and the significance of oral tradition HERE.

Ever wonder what it takes to plan and implement a new exhibition in a museum? See what is done at Colonial Williamsburg’s Art museums to bring an exhibit to guests. From inception to theme development, object choices to label writing, gallery design to mount construction, join us for a visit with the conservation, curatorial and exhibits staff HERE.

As the Getting Word African American Oral History Project approaches its 28th anniversary, a new generation of descendants is rising. Active in education, the arts, politics, and in their communities, they share an ambition: racial and social justice. Join us for a virtual conversation with three descendants of Monticello’s enslaved community: historian Andrew M. Davenport, artist Jabari C. Jefferson, and activist Myra Anderson as part of Monticello’s annual Black History Month programming HERE.

Williamsburg at the time of the revolution was half African American, half European American. Yet its fight for freedom began as a one-sided war. Join Colonial Williamsburg for a conversation on Williamsburg’s Black community from its founding through today. Our US: Past, Present, Future panelists this month include Bobby Braxton, Williamsburg City Council member and community leader, Janice Canaday, supervisor of Colonial Williamsburg’s Randolph House and lifelong Williamsburg resident, and Brian Smalls, former York-James City-Williamsburg NAACP President. Please join this live and archived conversation HERE.

Join Washington, Jefferson, and Madison this Presidents' Day weekend for a special LIVE! from History online evening event. The Presidents will explore how their administrations navigated party, faction, and the extensive differences that challenged America during their times. Recognizing that throughout our history, the United States has been a nation divided politically with different opinions and points of view. This was as much the case in our infancy as it is today. Hosted by Barbara Hamm Lee HERE.

When Peter Deadfoot ran away from enslavement, he was described as "an indifferent shoemaker, a good butcher, plowman, and carter; an excellent sawyer and waterman, understands breaking oxen well, and is one of the best scythemen...in America; in short, he is so ingenious a fellow, that he can turn his hand to any thing." Join a group of Historic Tradespeople for an exploration of these many skills, what it would have taken for one man to learn them all, and the lives of skilled enslaved people in colonial Virginia HERE.

Black history is American history. As the way we talk about and teach Black history continues to be debated and legislated, Colonial Williamsburg will remain a destination for discussions on our shared history. Join Deborah Canty-Downs, teacher at Katherine Johnson Elementary School and educator with The Bob and Marion Wilson Teacher Institute of Colonial Williamsburg, Jeremy Morris and Hope Wright, Colonial Williamsburg Actor Interpreters, and special guests Teens with a Purpose for a program about Black history in the United States HERE.

The Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS) is a Monticello initiative that collaborates with archaeologists working across North America and the Caribbean to bring the material and social lives of enslaved and free people to the public. Dr. Ayana Omilade Flewellen, Dr. Alexandra Jones, Dr. William White, and Ms. Gabrielle Miller will discuss how their research and community education programs on St. Croix are empowering Crucian communities while deepening local and regional understandings of enslavement. Join us for a live panel on DAACS’s collaboration with the Society of Black Archaeologists through their groundbreaking work on 18th and 19th c. sites on St. Croix.

Hairdressing and barbering were a complex and vital aspect of Black culture in 18th-century Virginia. Join Actor Interpreter Hope Wright and Apprentice Wigmaker Edith Edds as they explore how hair was used to both express and suppress Black voices and experiences in early America. Please join the conversation HERE.

After repeatedly risking his life to spy on British troops for the Marquis de Lafayette, James was denied his perilously won freedom, and continued to fight for years after to gain it. He fought even longer to ensure the freedom of his family. Looking back on his life, James Lafayette talks of the challenges he faced being a newly freed Black man in a lawfully unequal society. Please join us to hear James’s heartbreaking, inspiring story HERE.

Ivan McClellen wants to change the conversation about black cowboy culture. For the last six years, Ivan has been weaving his way between horse trailers and bucking chutes at rodeos documenting the daily life of black cowboys through photographs. It's not a novelty. This is a rich culture that has long written the story of the West, albeit an undercurrent to what the general public perceives as a cowboy. With the support of EPIC Provisions, Modern Huntsman’s interview with Ivan is a continuation of our exploration of blackness in western culture through "The Forgotten Cowboys" and brings a muted scene to the forefront of discussion HERE. See host Modern Huntsman HERE.

The AP recently covered the history of Black coachmen in Colonial Williamsburg, with a special focus on the upcoming reveal of the Benjamin Spraggins Carriage. The article also features insights on the visibility of Black guides and workers throughout CW's history. The Dedication of the Benjamin Spraggins carriage begins with a carriage processional at the Capitol building and concludes with the dedication at the Colonial Courthouse. This event is free and open to the public. Please visit the recorded live even HERE.

Since the second half of the twentieth century, archaeological studies of slave life in Virginia have proliferated, resulting in a new body of evidence to support historical interpretations at historic sites and museums. This presentation uses data from archaeological sites, mainly in Williamsburg, to discuss cultural practices relating to locally made items, imported goods, the landscape, and the use of animals for foods and medicines. Please join us with Dr. Ywone Edwards-Ingram, Asst. Professor of Archaeology at the Virginia Commonwealth University and past Staff Archaeologist and Coordinator of African-American Archaeology at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation HERE.

First U.S. president, general and statesman George Washington occupies such an unassailable place in American history that he almost seems not human—"more a monument than a man," wrote Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian Gordon Wood. But George Washington was human, and in an address Monday, February 25, 2013 in the Marvin Center's Continental Ballroom, Dr. Wood discussed some of the unique characteristics that shaped the man into a hero and influenced him—and our emerging nation HERE.

As a child growing up in rural Mississippi, Lusia “Lucy” Harris often stayed up past her bedtime watching her favorite N.B.A. players, dreaming of one day playing on the same courts. Reaching 6 feet 3 inches by the time she was in high school, Harris was often called “long and tall and that’s all” by her classmates — but she knew her height would be an asset on the court. And she wasn’t just tall enough to play the game. She was a rare talent who would go on to be a three-time national college champion and an Olympic silver medalist, making her a national sensation. View this beautiful short film HERE.

Join our Coach & Livestock team as they discuss the history of Black coachmen, their impact on Colonial Williamsburg, and what plans are in place to carry their stories into the future HERE.

People of African descent have made great contributions to the United States and its history. Think about all of the food, music, dance, medicine, farming and religious practices that people of African descent have contributed to American culture. Think about the sacrifices they’ve made to create and protect the United States as an independent nation. Matthew Skic, a Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, joins us to investigate the life and deeds of the Forten Family, a family of African-descended people who worked in the revolutionary era and beyond to build a better world for their family, community, state, and nation HERE.

Join us at the Concord Museum for the ceremony of the Massachusetts Historical Society’s 2022 Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize awarded to Robert A. Gross for his book The Transcendentalists and Their World, published in 2021 by Macmillan Publishers. The Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize is given to the best nonfiction work on the history of Massachusetts published during the preceding year. The ceremony at the Concord Museum will feature Robert A. Gross in conversation with Dennis Fiori, former Concord Museum Executive Director and MHS President Emeritus HERE.

Please join this week’s Online Reading of Greek Tragedy with Sophocles’ stunning dramatic work, “Oedipus Colonus,” widely regarded as among the masterpieces of ancient Greek tragedy. Like Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” the characters and plot of this powerful dramatic series have become archetypes of world culture. Hosted by Joel Christensen, with special guest Laura Slatkin (New York University). Presented by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, the Kosmos Society, and the Out of Chaos Theatre. Stream this archived video here.