VMHC Lectures

On September 2, 2021 historian Robert P. Watson held a discussed his book about the Confederacy’s infamous Libby Prison and the Civil War’s largest jail break.

Robert Watson provides the definitive account of the Confederacy’s infamous Libby Prison, site of the Civil War’s largest prison break. Libby Prison housed Union officers, high-profile foes of the Confederacy, and political prisoners. Watson captures the wretched conditions, cruel guards, and the story of the daring prison break, called “the most remarkable in American history.”

Robert P. Watson, Distinguished Professor of American History at Lynn University in Boca Raton, is the author of many books on American history and politics, including The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn: The Untold Story of the American Revolution; George Washington's Final Battle: The Epic Struggle to Build a Capital City and a Nation; and Escape!: The Story of the Confederacy's Infamous Libby Prison and the Civil War's Largest Jail Break.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On August 19, 2021 historian John Reeves discussed the battle of the Wilderness, the first clash between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee.

John Reeves has been a teacher, editor, and writer for more than twenty-five years. The Civil War, in particular, has been his passion since he first read Bruce Catton’s The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War as an elementary school student in the 1960s. He is the author of The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee: The Forgotten Case against an American Icon and, most recently, A Fire in the Wilderness: The First Battle Between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On July 15, 2021 historian Carolyn Eastman exanimated the career of James Ogilvie, a now-forgotten celebrity of the very early nineteenth century, and what it tells us about the intersection of political culture and celebrity—at a moment when the United States was in the midst of invention.

Carolyn Eastman is an associate professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University and a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. She specializes in early America with special interest in eighteenth and nineteenth-century political culture, the media, and gender. She is the author of the prizewinning A Nation of Speechifiers: Making an American Public after the Revolution and, most recently, The Strange Genius of Mr. O: The World of the United States’ First Forgotten Celebrity.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On June 24, 2021 historian Vanessa Holden had discussion of her book about how women contributed to America’s most famous slave rebellion, often called Nat Turner’s Rebellion.

In this talk Dr. Holden will speak about material from her forthcoming book, "Surviving Southampton: African American Women and Resistance in Nat Turner’s Community." She will discuss her research process and the types of materials that reveal the Black women’s history of Southampton County, Virginia. She will cover how women contributed to America’s most famous slave rebellion, often called Nat Turner’s Rebellion. And she will talk about her present day public history work in Southampton County.

Dr. Vanessa M. Holden is an assistant professor of History and African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky. Her writing has been published in several academic publications as well as in "Process: A Blog for American History," and "The Rumpus." She also blogs for "Black Perspectives" and "The Junto: A Group Blog on Early American History." She co-organizes the Queering Slavery Working Group (#QSWG) with Jessica Marie Johnson (Johns Hopkins University). She is deeply committed to diversity, inclusion, and equity work and is the 2019–20 recipient of the UKY College of Arts and Sciences Promotion of Diversity and Inclusion Award. She is the author of the forthcoming book, "Surviving Southampton: Women and Resistance in Nat Turner’s Community."

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On May 20, 2021, Christopher Leahy delivered the banner lecture, “President without a Party”

The first president to ascend to the office because of the incumbent’s death, John Tyler also remains the nation’s only chief executive to have been kicked out of his own political party. In September 1841, angry that Tyler’s use of the veto destroyed their legislative agenda, members of the Whig Party held a ceremony at the Capitol and formally banished him from their ranks. Tyler’s excommunication affected him personally, impacted his agenda, and destroyed his chances to win election in his own right in 1844. Portrayed by his contemporaries and by many historians as an ideologue whose rigid devotion to states’ rights and strict construction of the Constitution forestalled compromise and made him a failed president, Leahy instead argues that Tyler largely favored a middle-of-the road, bipartisan approach to the nation’s problems, and that it was his status as a president without a party and rejection by both the Whigs and opposition Democrats that doomed his presidency.

Christopher Leahy is a professor of history at Keuka College in New York and the author of President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler as well as an article in the Virginia Magazine of History & Biography entitled “Playing Her Greatest Role: Priscilla Cooper Tyler and the Politics of the White House Social Scene, 1841–44” (2012).

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On May 5, 2021, Ty Seidule as he delivered a lecture about his book, "Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause"

In a forceful but humane narrative, former soldier and head of the West Point history department Ty Seidule's Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the myths and lies of the Confederate legacy―and explores why some of this country’s oldest wounds have never healed. Ty Seidule grew up revering Robert E. Lee. From his southern childhood to his service in the U.S. Army, every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause myth: that Lee was the greatest man who ever lived, and that the Confederates were underdogs who lost the Civil War with honor. Now, as a retired brigadier general and Professor Emeritus of History at West Point, Ty’s view has radically changed. From a soldier, a scholar, and a southerner, Ty Seidule believes that American history demands a reckoning.

Ty Seidule is Professor Emeritus of History at West Point where he taught for two decades. He served in the U.S. Army for thirty-six years, retiring as a brigadier general. He is the Chamberlain Fellow at Hamilton College as well as a New America Fellow. He has published numerous books, articles, and videos on military history, including the award-winning West Point History of the Civil War. He graduated from Washington and Lee University and holds a PhD from the Ohio State University.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On April 8, 2021, Ryan K. Smith explored the history and recovery of the burial grounds of Richmond, Virginia, through the lens of race.

Virginia's capital holds one of the most dramatic landscapes of death in the nation, with graveyards dating from the city's founding through the Civil War, emancipation, and the long road that followed. Yet too often they are treated in isolation. This lecture by historian Ryan Smith will compare these important sites in terms of their initial dynamics as well as in terms of their ongoing states of preservation and commemoration.

Ryan K. Smith is a professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author several books, including Gothic Arches, Latin Crosses: Anti-Catholicism and American Church Designs in the Nineteenth Century and Death and Rebirth in a Southern City: Richmond's Historic Cemeteries.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On March 18, 2021, Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie delivered the banner lecture, “Rebellious Passage: The Creole Revolt and America's Coastal Slave Trade”

In late October 1841, the Creole left Richmond with 137 slaves bound for New Orleans. It arrived five weeks later minus the captain, one passenger, and most of the captives. Nineteen rebels had seized the U.S. slave ship en route and steered it to the British Bahamas where the slaves gained their liberty. Drawing upon a sweeping array of previously unexamined state, federal, and British colonial sources, Rebellious Passage examines the neglected maritime dimensions of the extensive US slave trade and slave revolt. The focus on south-to-south self-emancipators at sea differs from the familiar narrative of south-to-north fugitive slaves over land. Moreover, a broader hemispheric framework of clashing slavery and antislavery empires replaces an emphasis on U.S. antebellum sectional rivalry. Rebellious Passage chronicles the first comprehensive history of the ship revolt, its consequences, and its relevance to global modern slavery.

Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie is Professor of History at Howard University and author of several books, including Freedpeople in the Tobacco South: Virginia, 1860–1900; Rites of August First: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World; Freedom's Seekers: Essays on Comparative Emancipation; and Rebellious Passage: The Creole Revolt and America's Coastal Slave Trade.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On February 11, 2021 historian Ric Murphy told fascinating story of the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia in 1619.

Based on his book, "Arrival of the First Africans in Virginia," author Ric Murphy will discuss how in 1619, a group of thirty-two African men, women, and children arrived on the shores of Virginia. He will explore how and why they had been kidnapped in the royal city of Kabasa, Angola, and forced aboard the Spanish slave ship San Juan Bautista. He will discuss how the ship was attacked by privateers and how the captives were taken by the English to their New World colony in Virginia. He will also share how this group of Angolans were shrouded in controversy because of colonialism, treason, piracy, kidnapping, enslavement, and English law, and their present-day legacy.

Ric Murphy is a historian, scholar, lecturer, and award-winning author exploring the rich contributions made by African Americans in United States history. His latest book is "Arrival of the First Africans in Virginia."

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On January 14, 2021 author and historian Scott Dawson delivered the lecture "The Lost Colony was Never Lost!"

Scott Dawson has participated in ten years of archaeological digs on Hatteras Island, where it was discovered that the infamous Lost Colony assimilated with the local Croatoan Indians. The true history has been buried under a mountain of mythology and lies. Learn the real story and what was discovered in the Croatoan Indian Village.

Scott Dawson is an Outer Banks historian and serves on the board of the Outer Banks History Center. He is president of the Croatoan Archaeological Society and author of The Lost Colony and Hatteras Island. He is a ninth-generation Native of Hatteras Island and lives with his wife and two daughters in Kill Devil Hills.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.