Supporting scholarship and promoting popular understanding of the American Revolution is central to the work of the American Revolution Institute. The Institute welcomes distinguished scholars and authors to share their insights and discuss their latest research with the public at Anderson House through lectures, author's talks and panel discussions. The Institute also hosts a variety of other historical programs throughout the year, including our Lunch Bite object talks, battlefield tours, special Anderson House tour programs and other events. Many of the events we offer are free.
August 2021
Virtual Author’s Talk – Espionage and Enslavement in the Revolution: The True Story of Robert Townsend and Elizabeth
In January 1785, a young African American woman named Elizabeth was put on board the Lucretia in New York Harbor, bound for Charleston, where she would be sold to her fifth master in just twenty-two years. Leaving behind a small child she had little hope of ever seeing again, Elizabeth was faced with the stark reality of being sold south to a life quite different from any she had known before. She had no idea that Robert Townsend, a son…
Find out more »Virtual Lecture – The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina
Join the Institute in observing the 250th anniversary of events of the American Revolutionary era with a lecture on the Regulator Rebellion from Marjoleine Kars. Years before shots rang out at Lexington and Concord, backcountry settlers in the North Carolina Piedmont launched their own defiant bid for economic independence and political liberty. The Regulator Rebellion of 1766-1771 arose from the conflict created by competing ideologies and goals between the religious outlook of evangelical Protestants and mainstream Anglicans; between the aspirations…
Find out more »September 2021
Virtual Author’s Talk – Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History
For most of the eighteenth century, British Protestantism was driven neither by the primacy of denominations nor by fundamental discord between them. Instead, it thrived as part of a complex transatlantic system that bound religious institutions to imperial politics. As Dr. Carté argues, British imperial Protestantism proved remarkably effective in advancing both the interests of empire and the cause of religion until the war for American independence disrupted it. The American Revolution forced a reassessment of the role of religion…
Find out more »October 2021
Livestream – The British Are Coming: The War for America Begins
Watch live online as Rick Atkinson delivers the annual George Rogers Clark Lecture on the beginning of the Revolutionary War and the fight for American independence. Who can doubt that the creation story of our founding in the American Revolution remains valid, vivid and thrilling? Even in 2021, at a moment when national unity is elusive, when our partisan rancor seems ever more toxic, when the simple concept of truth is assailed, that story informs who we are, where we…
Find out more »November 2021
Virtual Author’s Talk – George Washington, the Society of the Cincinnati, and the Origins of American Neutrality
George Washington and his cabinet issued the Neutrality Proclamation in 1793 to shield the United States from European warfare. This proclamation owed its existence to numerous sources, including Washington’s military experiences and European diplomatic precedents. A lesser known, but highly influential, inspiration came from the Society of the Cincinnati, whose French members had served alongside Washington in the Revolutionary War and then were faced with the French Revolution. The Society of the Cincinnati provided the platform for Washington and these…
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