SPEAKER SERIES #2: Robert Parkinson

Speaker Series #2

THE COMMON CAUSE: Creating Race and Nation in the American Revolution

Robert Parkinson - Historian, Author,  Associate Professor

June 19th  |  7:00 p.m.

When the Revolutionary War began, the odds of a united, continental effort to resist the British seemed nearly impossible. Few on either side of the Atlantic expected thirteen colonies to stick together in a war against their cultural cousins. In this pathbreaking book, Robert Parkinson argues that to unify the patriot side, political and communications leaders linked British tyranny to colonial prejudices, stereotypes, and fears about insurrectionary slaves and violent Indians. Manipulating newspaper networks, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, and their fellow agitators broadcast stories of British agents inciting African Americans and Indians to take up arms against the American rebellion. Using rhetoric like “domestic insurrectionists” and “merciless savages,” the founding fathers rallied the people around a common enemy and made racial prejudice a cornerstone of the new Republic.

 

Parkinson has held fellowships at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Rockefeller Library at Colonial Williamsburg, the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, the David Library of the American Revolution, the Clements Library at the University of Michigan, and the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. His teaching interests include the American Revolution, colonial America, the history of American slavery, Native American history, and nation-making and race in the early modern world.

 

FREE to the public. Seating is limited; make reservations online at www.sotterley.org or call 301-373-2280.

 

The Boeing Company has generously sponsored the Speaker Series at Sotterley for the past 12 years.

 

2019 Speaker Series Presenters Announced

 

2019 Speaker Series at Historic Sotterley

Presenters Announced

Historic Sotterley is pleased to announce the presenters for the 2019 Speaker Series. An important community outreach, this series is yet another way that this National Historic Landmark fulfills its mission of serving as an educational and cultural resource.

The Boeing Company has generously sponsored the Speaker Series at Historic Sotterley for the past 12 years. Because they are dedicated to promoting education and the arts within the Southern Maryland community, these events are free to the public.

Due to limited seating, please sign up on our website or call 301-373-2280 for reservations.

 

SAVING MONTICELLO:

The Levy Family's Epic Quest to Rescue the House That Jefferson Built

Marc Leepson - Historian, Author, Journalist

May 22nd  |  7:00 p.m.

THE COMMON CAUSE: Creating Race and Nation in the American Revolution

Robert Parkinson - Historian, Author,  Associate Professor

June 19th  |  7:00 p.m. 

HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND PLACE-BASED TEACHING:

The Importance of Knowing our History and

Culture in Order to Preserve our Democratic Republic 

O. James Lighthizer - President of the American Battlefield Trust

August 28th  |  7:00 p.m. 

SPY PILOT

Gary Powers, Jr. - Author, Historian

September 18th  |  7:00 p.m.

SINKING LANDS AND RISING SEAS:

Climate Change, Evolution of Chesapeake Bay & Effects on Cultural Resources

Ralph Eshelman - Paleontologist, Historian

October 9th  |  7:00 p.m.

FLORAL DIPLOMACY: At the White House

Laura Dowling - Author, Floral Designer

October 30th  |  7:00 pm

THE GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK

Karen Abbott - Author, Historian

November 13th  |  7:00 p.m.