Re-imagining the Salem Witch Trials: A Poetry Reading and Discussion

During the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts (1691-93), twenty-four people were executed or died while incarcerated and many others were imprisoned. More than three hundred years later, the Salem witch trials still retain an enormous cultural power. In this presentation, poet Nicole Cooley will read from her recently published book of poems, The Afflicted Girls, which focuses on this event, and will discuss the background, research, and writing of the project.

Revolutionary Muse

In this lecture based upon her latest book, The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen Of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation (Beacon, 2008), Nancy Rubin Stuart will illuminate the life and times of America's first woman playwright and historian. Mercy Otis Warren was also the fiery wife of Massachusetts patriot James Warren, the mother of five sons, and friend and close colleague to John and Abigail Adams.

Finding Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon: Behind the Stories at an American Shrine

Scott Casper will return to Antiquarian Hall to describe the process of researching and writing his latest book, Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon (Macmillan, 2008) It is a process that began in the collections of the Society ten years ago. In this work Casper recovers the remarkable history of former slave Sarah Johnson, who spent more than fifty years at Mount Vernon, before and after emancipation. Through her life and the lives of her family and friends, Casper provides an intimate picture of Mount Vernon's operation during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Why Samuel Adams Matters

When the top British general in America, Thomas Gage offered a general amnesty in June 1775 to all revolutionaries who would lay down their arms, he excepted only two men: John Hancock and Sam Adams. These two would hang. Speaking about his new book Samuel Adams: A Life, Worcester native, historian and journalist Ira Stoll will describe the pivotal role that Adams played in the fight for our nation's formation and the vital role religion played in the American Revolution. In doing so Stoll also restores Adams to the first tier of the founding fathers.

Discovering the Great Divorce

In 1814, Eunice Chapman's estranged husband stole away her three children and took them to live among the Shakers. At a time when wives and mothers had few rights to speak of, Eunice Chapman waged a colossal campaign for her children's return, lobbying the New York legislature year after year, courting politicians, penning thrilling narratives about Shaker captivity, and finally rallying a mob to bring her children home. In the process she drew the attention of such luminaries as Thomas Jefferson and Martin Van Buren and won unprecedented rights as a wife and mother.

Betsy Ross: The Life behind the Legend

Legend has it that Betsy Ross created the first American flag. The truth is far less certain and far more interesting. In this program Marla Miller, author of the recently published Betsy Ross and the Making of America, describes how she came to research and write the first scholarly biography of Ross. The story she uncovers is a richly textured study of Ross's long and remarkable life, which included three marriages, seven children, and a successful career as a seamstress and upholsterer.

Celebrating the American Antiquarian Society, 1812-2012

Philip Gura, William S. Newman Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the author of The American Antiquarian Society, 1812-2012: A Bicentennial History. He will tell the story of the Society and its directors and librarians who have shaped and nurtured it into the twenty-first century. Gura, a long-time friend of the American Antiquarian Society, considers his election to membership in 1988 one of his highest honors.