Inheriting the Revolution: Antebellum African American Pathways in Saratoga County

Part of Saratoga's Fall Lecture Series presented in partnership with the Friends of Saratoga Battlefield.

How did the American Revolution affect African Americans in Old Saratoga, Saratoga Springs, and their environs? This talk is inspired by historian Joyce Appleby's focus on the first post-Revolutionary War generation and seeks to place Black people within that cohort. By focusing on a few individuals, it will highlight the major avenues they pursued in the early national period and in the years prior to the Civil War. Reservations are required. Email us at sara_reservations@nps.gov to reserve your spot! Please include the date of the program you wish to attend.

Dr. Myra Armstead is the Lyford Paterson Edwards and Helen Gray Edwards Professor of Historical Studies Emerita at Bard College. She received her doctorate in History from the University of Chicago where she interned under the late Dr. John Hope Franklin and concentrated in three fields—U.S. urban history, U.S. diplomatic history, and African colonial history. She holds a Masters in International Relations with a concentration in African Affairs from the University of Chicago, and a Bachelors from Cornell University where she majored in Government. She has published widely on topics relating to African American social and cultural life, including the recently completed Historic Resource Study for Saratoga National Historical Park: Memory and Enslavement: Schuyler House, Old Saratoga, and the Saratoga Patent in History, Historical Practice, and Historical Imagination.