ISSUED: 12 November 2020
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University’s George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War (GTMC) is hosting a virtual roundtable discussion on the role of African Americans in the American Revolution in history and memory. The event will take place on Tuesday, December 1, from 7-8 p.m. and will be streamed live on the center’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/georgetylermoorecenter/.
Panelists will include Marvin-Alonzo Greer, lead historic interpretation and community engagement officer, Prince George’s County Parks; Katherine E. Gruber, special exhibition curator, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation; John U. Rees, independent scholar and author of “‘They Were Good Soldiers’: African-Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775-1783”; and Travis Shaw, public programs coordinator, Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area. Dr. James J. Broomall, Shepherd associate professor of history and director of the GTMC, will moderate the discussion.
In 1775, African Americans faced difficult decisions as war broke out between the American colonies and Great Britain. Scores of Blacks fought for both American and British military forces. By the war’s end tens of thousands of slaves had fled from southern plantations. Yet, in the decades after the American Revolution the extensive role of Blacks had been both marginalized and forgotten.
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