Speaker-Claire Bellerjeau

Join historian and author Claire Bellerjeau for a one-hour program as she discusses

the discovery of a new founding figure named Elizabeth, or Liss. Liss was enslaved by

the Townsend family of Oyster Bay, New York, whose most famous member was

Robert Townsend aka “Culper, Jr.”, George Washington's lead spy in Manhattan

during the Revolutionary War. As Robert and Liss’s story unfolds, prominent figures

cross their path, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander

Hamilton, John Jay, Benedict Arnold, John Graves Simcoe, John André and John

Adams; as well as participants in the Culper Spy Ring, the Boston Massacre, the Battle

of Long Island, and the Benedict Arnold treason plot. Liss’s escape with the British,

re-enslavement in Manhattan and later Charleston, and her complex struggle for

freedom gives new insight into the country's founding era, through the eyes of an

enslaved Black woman seeking liberty in a country fighting for its own. Fee: $10; $8

seniors. Members free. Check is to be payable to the Friends of Rock Hall. Space limited.

Reservations required.