Check back to this blog post for a review.
YouTube video here.
You can find out more about Mr. Epley's books at www.epleywrites.com.
Our December 16th "Evening With" talk was by Joe Epley on "The Tory David Fanning," based on his new book, "A Passel of Trouble."
Check back to this blog post for a review. YouTube video here. You can find out more about Mr. Epley's books at www.epleywrites.com.
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Our November 18th "Evening With" talk was by Frank Finizia on "The American Revolution and Battle of Yorktown".
Frank’s talk on the Battle of Yorktown was enlightening. He painted a picture of all of the events that helped to shape this final piece in the fight for independence. There is no shortage on qualified speakers here at the museum and if you want to learn not only about the Battle of Yorktown, but also the context behind it, then I would give Frank’s talk a listen. Mark Czapiewski YouTube video here. Our new YouTube Channel is live! Our first video, "Evening With Sheila Ingle: "Elizabeth Jackson: Mother of a President", is already uploaded. Please subscribe!
Mrs. Sheila Ingle gave us a beautiful presentation about the life of Elizabeth Jackson, the mother of Andrew Jackson, our seventh President. Elizabeth Jackson was a person with incredible core values. These values included bravery, family, country, and God to name a few. She possessed incredible fortitude after her husband died, as she saw to her boys' schooling and well-being. Also an incredible Patriot, she allowed her boys to serve in the militia. Her family was very important to her. Her sons Robert and Andrew were captured and imprisoned by British forces. She actually went to the jail to bargain for their release. Elizabeth continued to serve her country and family by traveling to Charleston to rescue her imprisoned nephews. Her values pushed her to care for other sick soldiers. She contracted cholera and died, which left Andrew an orphan at age 14. Her sacrifice was not in vain, as Andrew grew up to be a man of strong character.
You can find more information about Mrs. Ingle's work at sheilaingle.com. Mark Czapiewski Thank you Mr. Alan Bell for an informative presentation about the Continental Army’s stay in Morristown, New Jersey. Alan did a wonderful job of informing us about what life was like during those years. The soldiers faced hardship after hardship: food shortages, harsh winters, and mutinies, to name a few. Despite all of these, Morristown proved to be a successful and strategic military outpost in the winter months when fighting ceased. Mr. Bell also mentioned many interesting areas to visit in New Jersey as it is an important historical site in the American struggle for independence. This was my first “An Evening With” talk and I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend them to anyone that loves history.
Mark Czapiewski 2016 has been rife with difficult events here at home and abroad. Each new day seems to tear away another piece that unites us as Americans. The cacophony of opinions and slurs plays out on a precipice of tyranny vs. freedom. We are in turmoil over the future of our great republic. Yet, within this din of chaos the Library and Museum of Revolutionary War History celebrated America’s 240th birthday on Friday July 15th at the museum’s monthly Evening With Program.
We were privileged to learn from patriot Judge Robert Chumley who enlightened us about the signers of the Declaration of Independence. These great men risked their lives and fortunes to declare to the world The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America. Mr. Chumley read a few paragraphs of the Declaration and then asked us “What do these words mean?” In order to answer that question, we had to first understand the context of history that influenced Thomas Jefferson’s inspirational writing and the signers to pen their name to a document separating the citizens of the unanimous states from King George III. The first readers of the Declaration would have easily understood Mr. Jefferson’s eloquent words, because both were steeped in British political thought and philosophy. Ideas such as consent of the governed and trial by jury were considered the rights of the people based on over 300 years of British history. In 1066 England was governed by “rex lex”: whatever the king says is law. However, by 1215 the Magna Carta was established, which weakened the power of the king and allowed the nobles to rule. By 1640 England was in a civil war called The Glorious Revolution - The Parliament (Round Heads) vs. The Cavaliers (supporters of the divine right of kings) – over the consent of the governed. Parliament won and beheaded King Charles I and the citizens of England won the right to govern themselves. Therefore in 1776 when the signers read such phrases as “the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle men” or “endowed by their creator with certain and unalienable rights” they understood those phrases to mean that rights do not come from government, but from God. The government is merely an institution to preserve man’s God-given rights, not to parse or hand those rights out to the governed according to whims. Based on this historical political doctrine Mr. Jefferson then laid out an indictment of King George’s egregious usurpations of the colonials’ rights as British citizens. The citizens of the thirteen colonies informed King George and their brethren in Parliament that when a government denies the natural freedoms of its citizens – the citizens have a moral duty to throw off the government. And so our founding fathers formed a government fit to rule a free people whose rights are derived from Nature’s God. In closing Mr. Chumley asked us two questions. The first was. “Do we have the same caliber of leaders today?” and the second was “Is freedom dangerous?” Would our current leaders sign a document ensuring their loss of wealth, loss of reputation and loss of life? To paraphrase signer Benjamin Franklin, would our leaders agree to hang together figuratively and physically for freedom’s sake? 56 patriot leaders on July 4th, 1776 were courageous enough to tell a despotic government that they wanted their rights restored. They preferred freedom over safety. Mr. Chumley reminded us what Edmund Burke said regarding freedom. “Freedom requires strength and sacrifice, it requires a moral and self-disciplined people to keep freedom. If we are unable to restrain ourselves, a powerful tyrant will step in to do so. “ So the Library and Museum of Revolutionary War History asks you – do you want liberty under a restrained government or death under a tyrant? Liberty is ours, if we can keep it. |
AboutHere you can read about upcoming and past events at the museum. Also, we post frequently about different historical figures and moments from the Battle of Cane Brake Archives
August 2018
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