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Course: The Forgotten Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary Virginia (OSH-FORGOT)
At the onset of the American Revolution, Virginia's last royal governor, Lord Dunmore, was cast as a villain by patriots for burning Norfolk on January 1, 1776, and for emancipating those enslaved. Both acts helped convince wavering Americans to demand independence from Britain. Fresh research, however, paints a radically different picture of this controversial Scottish earl and the events in and around Norfolk that shaped the new nation, including the role of enslaved Black Americans in the fight for freedom.
Andrew Lawler will discuss these finds, based on his new book, A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis That Spurred the American Revolution, which The New York Times calls 'absorbing' and The Virginian Pilot 'masterful.' A book signing will follow the program.
Andrew is a Virginia-born journalist covering history, archaeology and science, and recipient of many awards and fellowships. His articles have appeared in Archaeology, Science, The New York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian and others. He is also the author of the national bestseller The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke (2018); and the award-winning Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World's Most Contested City (2021).