Spring Virtual Lecture Series: “Lafayette in the American Revolution and his Evolution as an Anti-slavery Advocate”
April 7 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EDT
Lafayette played a critically important role in the American Revolution, both as a general and as an intermediary between the United States and France. Moreover, experiences with African Americans during the war transformed him into a leading anti-slavery advocate. Lafayette’s most significant military achievement was the Virginia Campaign of 1781 which led to the siege of Yorktown and victory in the last major battle of the War. His signal diplomatic achievement was the dispatch of General Rochambeau’s army to America in 1780. Lafayette’s relationship with African Americans in the War, especially with the First Rhode Island Regiment and an enslaved double agent in Lord Cornwallis’s camp was the genesis of a 50-year commitment to the anti-slavery cause.
Speaker: Alan Hoffman
ALAN R. HOFFMAN obtained a BA in history from Yale before earning a JD at Harvard Law School. An avid reader of early American history, he “discovered” Lafayette in 2002 and spent two years—2003 to 2005—translating Auguste Levasseur’s Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825, the first-hand account of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour of America written by his secretary. Mr. Hoffman has lectured widely on Lafayette—over 260 talks—and has spoken in each of the 24 states (and Washington, D.C.) which Lafayette visited during the Farewell Tour. Mr. Hoffman co-produced and was the principal author of virtual travelogues covering Lafayette’s Farewell Tour visits to four states: New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and New Hampshire (with TravelStorysGPS). Most recently, he edited and contributed to Lafayette and the Enduring Struggle for Human Rights and Democratic Governments (American Friends of Lafayette, Gaithersburg, Maryland: 2025). Mr. Hoffman currently serves as President of the American Friends of Lafayette and President of the Massachusetts Lafayette Society. He is also the editor of The Gazette of The American Friends of Lafayette. During the AFL’s Farewell Tour Bicentennial, he served on the Steering Committee that organized commemorative events in 24 states.
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