One year closer to the 250th anniversary of America’s independence, NNK250 considers the ways that people created and defined democracy. Writes NNK250 about the We the People Speaker Series: “We are a democratic nation of diverse people with different cultures, political ideas, and beliefs. Our diversity contributes to both tension and growth in American society.”
All events are free and the public is encouraged to attend. Events will be recorded and shared on the Northern Neck National Heritage Area YouTube channel.
- Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia, January 26, 2p (University of Mary Washington, Dahlgren Campus, 4224 University Dr, King George): Dr. Woody Holton; In this provocative reinterpretation of one of the best-known events in American history, Dr. Holton shows that when Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and other elite Virginians joined their peers from other colonies in declaring independence from Britain, they acted partly in response to grassroots rebellions against their own rule.
- Material Culture and the Making of America, February 23, 2p (Historic Christ Church, 420 Christ Church Rd, Weems): Dr. Jennifer Van Horn; Over the course of the eighteenth century, Anglo-Americans purchased an unprecedented number and array of goods. This presentation investigates diverse artifacts from portraits to gravestones, dressing furniture, and prosthetic devices to explore how elite American consumers assembled objects to form a new civil society on the margins of the British Empire. Artifacts emerge as key players in the formation of Anglo-American communities and eventually of American citizenship. Deftly interweaving analysis of images with furniture, architecture, clothing, and literary works, Van Horn reconstructs the networks of goods that bound together consumers in early America.
- Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia, March 23, 2p (Rice’s Hotel/Hughlett’s Tavern, 73 Monument Pl, Heathsville): Dr. Kathleen Brown; Dr. Brown examines the origins of racism and slavery in British North America from the perspective of gender. Both a basic social relationship and a model for other social hierarchies, gender helped determine the construction of racial categories and the institution of slavery in Virginia. But the rise of racial slavery also transformed gender relations, including ideals of masculinity.
- The Kidnapping of Pocahontas, Politics, and Mythmaking in Patawomeck Country, April 27, 2p (Rappahannock Indigenous Conservation and Education Center, 2570 Newland Rd, Warsaw): Dr. Brad Hatch; In 1613 one of the most famous events in early American history happened on the Northern Neck, at the Patawomeck village of Passapatanzy in modern-day King George County. The kidnapping of Pocahontas has been portrayed in history and popular culture as a betrayal of Wahunsenacawh’s daughter by the Patawomeck werowance, Japazaw, for over four centuries. However, from the moment it happened, the narrative surrounding this event was controlled by English colonizers with very specific, and nefarious, goals. This presentation takes an Indigenous-centered approach to that specific event, understanding it in reference to the larger social, political, and cultural contexts that were at play during the time. The myth that arose from this highly complex event illustrates how Indigenous history has been manipulated over centuries by non-Indigenous people to justify taking land, genocide, and denying identity. A Patawomeck perspective helps us understand why traditional colonial narratives must be critically examined and how a more complete history is understood through comparison, context, and a less provincial approach to research.
- A History of Stepfamilies in Early America, May 25, 2p (George Washington Birthplace National Monument, 1732 Popes Creek Rd, Colonial Beach): Dr. Lisa Wilson; Based on her book of the same name, A History of Stepfamilies in Early America, Lisa Wilson counters the modern notion that stepfamilies are the unique burden of the present. They were, in fact, quite common in the historical past and were the subject of popular culture and the lived experience of many.
Should you be interested in purchasing A History of Stepfamilies in Early America, support an independent bookstore like East City Bookshop in DC. I derive no benefits from referring to ECB. I’m simply a fan and supporter.