Historian and documentary editor Robb Haberman examines the perilous voyage of Sgt. James Selkirk and the Second New York Regiment on their way to Yorktown in September 1781, when their transport schooner was separated and ran aground while sailing from Baltimore to Williamsburg. Using Selkirk’s unpublished papers, this talk examines his harrowing experience and the endurance of the Continental forces during the Yorktown campaign.
About the Speaker
Robb Haberman is a historian of early America. He earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Connecticut, and currently serves as an adjunct assistant professor of history at Fordham University. He has held visiting lectureships at Trinity College Colby College. His work on politics, media and memory in Revolutionary-era New York has appeared in several print and online publications, including the peer-reviewed journals New York History, Early American Studies and American Periodicals. Dr. Haberman also worked for seven years at Columbia University as an associate editor for the John Jay Papers. During that period, he helped produce volumes four through seven of The Selected Papers of John Jay, which were published by the University of Virginia Press and which also appear on Founders Online, a free and open-access database created by the National Archives. In 2023, Dr. Haberman was awarded the New York State Society of the Cincinnati Fellowship to study James Selkirk and his memoirs in our library.