Celebrate Revolutionary War Major General Lafayette’s
September 16, 1824 visit to Poughkeepsie
12:00 noon to 1:30 pm at FDR Presidential Library
Monday. September 16, 2024
The most powerful way to celebrate Lafayette is to celebrate the achievements of the American people who have invoked his name or were inspired by his example in their effort to create a more perfect union: a government of, by and for the people. Since 1776.
The program consists of a 30 minute talk followed by a short performance over lunch. Complimentary access to the Library’s special exhibition, Black Americans, Civil Rights and the Roosevelts on September 16. $20 will cover the cost of lunch.
There will be opening remarks by Chuck Schwam, Executive Director of the American Friends of Lafayette. This event is part of that group’s step-by-step bicentennial recognition of Lafayette’s 1824 tour.
FDR Presidential Library & Museum
Wallace Center
4079 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park, NY 12538
Questions? Email [email protected]
Lafayette: How an Uncompromising Commitment to Truth Created American Liberty’s Enduring Ideal
Bill Jeffway, Executive Director of DCHS, will help us understand why Lafayette’s name has been invoked across three centuries and remains so visible today locally in the name of a hamlet, a town, streets and roads, all sorts of organizations, and personal names. Indigenous peoples. Enslaved and free Blacks. General Pershing in WW1. Women suffragists in 1918. Congressman Hamilton Fish during the Cold War. These are some of the examples that allow us to better understand why Lafayette endures and is relevant today.
Journeys
A short play, conceived by DN Bashir, is inspired by, and dedicated to, Dutchess County’s
Lafayette Williams who died serving in the US Colored Troops in the Civil War.
September 16, 2024 marks the 200th anniversary of Revolutionary War Major General Lafayette’s visit to Poughkeepsie, part of what turned out to be a 13-month, late-in-life national tour by the last living Major General of the American Revolution. Lafayette’s rock-star like reception drew the largest public crowds in history up to that time, revealing his broad and diverse appeal. To appropriately recognize the profound importance of the anniversary, we have commissioned DN Bashir, a NY theater-maker, to conceive a theatrical work.
Journeys is a story about the American journey toward a more perfect union. July 4, 2026 will mark the 250th anniversary of the United States’s founding on the principle that all are created equal. This is the first in a series of events and publications by the Dutchess County Historical Society (and partners) that celebrate the achievements of the American people in bringing that promise to life — as a way to honor the anniversary and those individuals.
Based on the true story of a Dutchess County free Black couple, Tom & Jane Williams, who named their son Lafayette Williams shortly after that historic visit, DN Bashir’s work captures the anticipation and feelings of both Lafayette and the young couple, who, despite their very different starting points, journey to a convergence point at the Poughkeepsie Hotel. Lafayette’s words and actions inform us that he, and Tom & Jane Williams, were keenly aware that New York State remained a slave state at the time of the visit. The young Williams couple walked through the Town of Freedom, which was in the process of changing its name to LaGrange in honor of Lafayette’s home in France. The story reveals how Lafayette and the Williams, despite the vast difference in their origins, are mindful of freedom and each other in their journeys. Lafayette Williams is buried in a national cemetery in Virginia.
