Well, we've wrapped up another great year of events and we're beginning to plan for 2010. Stay tuned!
Calendar of Events
J. Robert Maguire Lecture: Nancy Rubin Stuart
Saturday, August 29, 1:00 p.m.
The Mount Independence Coalition is pleased to be bringing Nancy Rubin Stuart to the Mount to be this year's J. Robert Maguire lecturer. Ms. Stuart, the author of The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation, will talk about her new book and the role of women's voices in the founding of the United States.
The sister of firebrand James “the Patriot” Otis, who first declared that “taxation without representation is tyranny,” the highly educated Mercy Otis Warren was the mother of five sons and the wife of James Warren, Speaker of the Massachusetts House and paymaster general of the Continental Army. In 1775 patriotic Mrs. Warren served as her husband’s private secretary at the headquarters of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety and the Provincial Congress, where she heard news about the Revolution that few men—and virtually no women—enjoyed.
Mercy Otis Warren was a close friend of both John and Abigail Adams; she and Abigail shared their fears, comforted each other in their husbands’ absences, exchanged theories about child-rearing, and even ran a small importing business together. John Adams, who was impressed with Mrs. Warren’s acumen and literary abilities, praised her “real genius” and encouraged her to write satirical plays, poems, and a history of the American Revolution.
Nancy Rubin Stuart is an award-winning author specializing in women’s and social history. The author of five books, she has appeared on national television and NPR and has written for the New York Times and other publications.
Praise for Ms. Stuart and The Muse of the Revolution:
“Stuart has artfully set the story in the context of the Revolution . . . . A lively introduction to the great Mercy Otis Warren.”—Edith Gelles, Wilson Quarterly
“Stuart reminds us that the U.S. Constitution—notably the Bill of Rights—carries Mercy Otis Warren’s fingerprints as much if not more than those of most constitutional delegates. . . . This wonderfully researched and readable book has done an excellent job of giving another view of what it took to make this country.” —Library Journal, starred review
“Should be required reading in American history classes . . . . Warren was one of the great scribes of our American Revolutionary era.” —Larry and Saralee Woods, American Spirit
“When John Adams observed that ‘History is not the province of the ladies,’ he had in mind his former protégé, the accomplished and prolific Mercy Otis Warren. Here Nancy Rubin Stuart restores Mrs. Warren to vibrant life, offering up a vivid picture of colonial America and, incidentally, proving John Adams twice wrong.” —Pulitzer Prize–winner Stacy Schiff, author of A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America
Stark Returns for Bennington Battle Day
Orwell, VT—Gen. John Stark, hero of the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington on August 16,1777, is the subject of a talk at the Mount Independence State Historic Site in Orwell exactly 232 years after the battle—on Sunday, August 16 at 1:00 pm.
Historian and reenactor Karl Crannell of Ticonderoga, NY, will be speaking about this remarkable man. Crannell is the author of a book for youth, John Stark: Live Free or Die.
During the Revolution Stark was active in the Northern Campaign, was in charge of one of the brigades at Mount Independence in Orwell, and was the leader of the victorious American forces at the Battle of Bennington on August 16, 1777. A later reward for his services was being one of the proprietors of the Town of Starksboro when it was charted in 1780. John Stark was involved in the construction of the Crown Point Road, built 250 years ago—in 1759, between Charlestown, NH, and Crown Point, New York. The road ran across Vermont and not only facilitated travel in an easterly/westerly direction during the French and Indian War, but later was traveled by settlers coming in to this area.
The program is free and open to the public, as part of the Vermont State Historic Sites’ commemoration of the Battle of Bennington, when all state historic sites are open free to the public.
The Mount Independence State Historic Site is one of the best-preserved Revolutionary War sites in America. It is located nearly the end of Mount Independence Road, six miles west of the intersections of Vermont Routes 22A and 73 near Orwell village; carefully follow the signs. Regular hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily through October 12.
Call 802-948-2000 for more information.